Passage from Chestarfield Reef to Brisbane, Australia
15 November 2014 | Australia (Land Of Oz)
Kim
First off thank you Phil for the info on turtles. Five kids were very happy to know that "their" turtle was most likely resting and not dying. We left Chesterfield Reef in 25 to 30 knots of wind in front of the beam, which was misery, but we needed to get in to Australia by Friday to avoid overtime charges. We knew it was not a great weather window but we are all out of fresh food and it is now officially cyclone season, so, time to move on. If we had known how great Huon and Chesterfield were we would have planned a lot more time there. Maybe next time. Our first day was rough but it lightened up and we had a great second day out with fresh wind on the beam. Then it died. We had to motor for 2 days. It is never fun to motor but we couldn't sit and wait it out because there was a front coming behind us and if we waited we would just end up paying overtime charges in Australia. So, buy diesel or pay overtime. Diesel was the cheaper alternative. We were traveling with Arcturus and Allure and we all stayed within radio contact for the entire trip. Good thing because Allure's motor really wasn't up for 2 days of motoring. They came to Australia to re power the boat and make their current engine into a mooring block. We had to do a mid ocean oil transfer and Arcturus also gave them oil as well. While we were waiting for Allure to catch up to us we decided to go for a swim. We were in the water for about 20 minutes having a great time and cooling off. It is a strange experience swimming in the middle of the ocean with thousands of feet of water under you, and no land in sight. We got out, because you just don't know what is under you. About 5 minutes after we came out of the water 4 big mahi-mahi came swimming by. We tried to catch them but no luck. Allure came up and we did the transfer and were on our way. They made it in and we were all able to sail the last bit so that helped. Coming into Brisbane felt like coming into Panama, huge container ships everywhere. Back to the real world. We were greeted with a couple of dolphins and hundreds of big jellyfish.
We came into the harbor mid afternoon. It is about 40 miles across the harbor to get to the mouth of the Brisbane River. We were trying to time it to get to the river mouth at first light. It didn't really work out and David had to stay up all night to navigate through the channel. It was just too crazy with all the lights and we were under sail so a bit over my comfort level. I think he was having fun. Some of the ships coming at you are the size of small cities. For the most part it was straight forward and we didn't have any issues. When we got up the river the quarantine dock was full and we weren't too sure as to what we should do. We were talking to Arcturus on the radio and one of the rescue people came on to tell us it would be fine if we tied up at the marina to wait for customs in the morning. OK. It was 3 am and we were happy to finally be in. It was Friday morning so all should be good, but NO! It is a local holiday. Why? Because the G20 is being held in Brisbane. Local holiday anywhere else? NO. Any way we could have had this info? NO. Do we have to pay overtime charges? YES. $680, sucks. Welcome to the first world. Customs showed up at 7 am. They were very nice and it was all really easy. Except that Zack was doing a bit of school work and as they were leaving one of the officers told him not to work too hard because it was a holiday. That pretty well shut down school on 3 boats for the day, thank you. Next came quarantine. Customs is free but this is the guy that is charging the overtime fees, he is not popular. He was a nice enough guy but he got a lot of grief from the three boats. He was really thorough in different ways on each of the boats, which was a bit weird. He opened most of our cabinets and was checking all the wood for termites. He found one little hole in a cabinet door and I thought we were done for. If they even suspect termites here they bring in the dog (your expense) and if they find termites you have to be fumigated. (big expense) He asked about it and I was like, looks like a drill hole. He said it looked like a termite hole and asked lots of questions, but he let it go, maybe because it was all he found. He took our 3 onions which was all the fresh we had left. Our bottle of mayonnaise and he was going to take our sausage stick. He asked if we wanted to eat some so David started to eat it. I told him it was from New Zealand and he decided we could keep it. That was about it. He saw some of Zack's shells but didn't look at them and he didn't ask about carvings which we thought they would. Save for the overtime charges it really wasn't that bad. He took stuff off of the other boats that he left on ours, so it was a bit random.
We are at Rivergate Marina and I need to give them a bit of a plug for any cruisers following us. They are expensive, but super nice and they have taken good care of us. The dock master, Jason, is very accommodating. We had seen an ad in Vanuatu that said first night free at Rivergate. The special was over but the owner said to make us happy, so they honored the special. Not for the night we had spent when we pulled in at 3 am because that really wasn't a "night" but for the next night. sweet. I was looking at the rate sheet and the cut off was 40 feet for the lowest rate. I said we were 44 ft. Jason figured that it was a rough trip so maybe we shrunk a bit. He gave us the under 40 rate. We were totally out of fresh food being as we had left Vanuatu 20 days ago. With the G20 in town he wasn't sure that any stores would be open. He called around to find us a grocery store that was open. We were going to need a taxi at $15 each way. He volunteered to drive us over and pick us up when we were done, no charge. This is some top rate service so we decided to stay a few days, and let the weather pass.
We spent a pile of cash at the grocery. It was easy to do, but we have lots of fresh fruits and veggies. We all got together for a bbq and salad night which was great. The kids have been having a good time riding bikes, skate boarding, and rollerblading on the pavement. The laundry is getting done and did I mention free, very clean showers. Paul from MacPelican came down to see us and give us a bit of a low down on the G20. A large part of Brisbane is shut down and boats are not allowed up the river. This means we can't go up to anchor off the city. MacPelican is up the river already and Paul can only go to his boat by dinghy with a permit he has, no paddleboards or kayaks allowed. The kids think they saw Barack Obama come in on a plane that turns into a helicopter? Aaron on Rogla also came up and we had another bbq which was nice. We are not going to hang around to wait for the river to open back up. We will most likely head out tomorrow and go down to visit Bernadette on Strattie (North Stradbroke Island.
I forgot to give the Fishing Report, although there is not a lot to report. The first day was too fast and too rough to catch anything. We did hook a big skipjack tuna but released it. We hooked a 4 foot mahi and had it to the back of the boat when it shook the hook. We caught a mackerel on the way into Brisbane but released it, which was most likely a mistake because it was rated as very good in our edible fish book. All in all a very disappointing fishing trip. We had planned to stock up the freezer on our way to Australia. It looks like the boys will be eating chicken for a while.