Photo: Fast flowing currents...

As soon as we cast off from the marine jetty I knew this wasn't going to be my day. The current flowed much faster than I anticipated and the wash from the passing speed ferries only made it worse. Marie was doing her stuff as always but she turned to scream at me from the bows when she too realised this was going horribly wrong. Don't you just love it when you know you've made a balls up and you're in the shit? Instead of drifting to stern out of the berth with the current and then turning to starboard on high power engine and out into the Brisbane River, Sänna's bows veered ominously to port and no amount of bow thruster power and engine revs would bring her around. I was at the mercy of the river...

I stared at the catamaran and steel sloop I knew we were going to hit, our port beam on to their pointed bows, the worse possible scenario. Like a stupid idiot I just watched and waited like a frozen moron. Marie raced around to grab fenders anticipating the collision but I knew we were in serious trouble.... the sickening crunch as three sets of bows smashed into our topsides and stanchions. Ouch, ouch, ouch....

The crews of the two boats we'd hit came rushing out of their cabins and reacted with amazing speed. We thrust fenders between every point of contact and held ourselves as steady as we could knowing that the first speeding ferry to pass would send a wash through the marina that would tear us up against their anchors now thrusting through our rails. My wrist caught between our stainless steel rail and the sloop's topsides as I tried to force another fender in to protect the two boats, another utterly stupid thing to do and blood pored out as it burst open. The ferry wash came and all three boats bobbled up and down like a toys in a bathtub. The other crews began to laugh and joke and I stared at them in disbelief. "You're the third yacht this week" said the woman holding the fender in place with me from her position on her bows. "Always catches you foreigners out" her companion offered with a knowing smile.... I saw a guy paddle across to our berth opposite with a mooring rope given to him by Marie; she was in her full crisis mode, operating coolly and professionally as always and saving my bacon. She was magnificent, thinking fast and issuing instructions to the guy in the canoe who tied off the rope to the pontoon we had just left. The other end she made fast around the mast winch and she then calmly and quickly winched in the rope, pulling our bows around and off the two boats we'd hit. I hit the engine throttle and we headed back into the berth. We now had a gathering number of helpers and we tied up to survey the damage and take stock of our situation.

Our stanchions and rails were severely damaged, mainly on the port bows where the sloop's anchor had torn everything loose when the ferry wash had powered through. But Sänna's hull had crucially escaped damage. Clearly the rails needed to be repaired and fixed before we left the marina to go to the Customs berth where we were due to check through Customs and immigration ready to depart Australia for New Zealand in the morning. We needed the waiting weather window to make the twelve day passage...

We spent the rest of the afternoon making emergency repairs and patching up. We'd got off light considering the force of the impact and there was no damage at all to the sloop and catamaran. I went over to thank and apologise to the two crews for my poor seamanship and they made me much feel better by jokingly informing me that this happened all the time. Locals always waited for slack tide because they knew the river and the ongoing battle with the many river ferries speeding by. But everyone was impressed with Marie and the way she had acted. "I'm considering taking over as skipper", she smuggly told me, "I can then teach you a few things and you can make the tea..." I diplomatically kept quiet and mumbled something incomprehensive and meek in reply....

We again departed a few hours later, at slack tide, and made our way downriver to anchor in the dark off the Customs berth. The next morning we departed Brisbane and Australia without further mishap, leaving behind a parting and crunching memory of our fabulous year long visit...
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