We had the most wonderful day yesterday (Wednesday 9th Feb). Fr Greg March arranged a prayer service with Holy Communion to watch over our cruising adventures. Janice and I were humbled and thankful for the service and the many people who joined us for our time of prayer. Janice had a sense that we needed to do something to mark our departure and give our friends in the church a way of casting us off onto the waves. This service did it perfectly. The service was conducted by Bishop Geoff, and included a brief letter from Archbishop Phillip, Fr David Cox preached and one of my ex-wardens, Dell Kewley, led the prayers of intercession. It was very special for us! It never fails to impress me that the church with all its struggles and failings can be a place of so much love and care, a place of real blessing from Our Lord!
Our old and new friends and acquaintances have been so kind, loving and encouraging to us about our plans, I said to Janice, “It makes you want to stay, doesn’t it!”. She gave me one of those looks! If we succeed with a circumnavigation of the world, it will make coming back to Brisbane so much the sweeter.
However, we will not be leaving Moreton Bay just yet because the cyclone season is still in full swing in North Queensland, demonstrated by Cyclone Yasi. But we will be moving in a few days time from our berth at the Wynnum Manly Yacht Club to Scarborough Marina at the northern end of Moreton Bay. At Scarborough we can hopefully meet up with others waiting for the opportunity of cruising north in late March early April when the trade winds and weather are kinder.
While there will always be more things to do on any boat or yacht we think that most of what we needed to have completed before we leave has been achieved. The only thing remaining is to pick up a life raft, which we have been leaving to the last minute to get the maximum amount of serviceable time on it while we are actually sailing. The wind steering (Fleming) and the pullies that connect to the helm seem to be sorted out. The next test will be to see if we can make it work while sailing. We’ve never sailed with automatic wind vane before but if we are able to use the wind to steer we will save a lot of work for the long haul trips.
We are also now the proud owners of a pole on which to put our new wind generator. Next week and prior to our move to Scarborough we are aiming to get it all connected so that we ought to have our electrical generation sorted out. With solar panels, a powerful alternator on the engine and the Rutland 913 Windcharger our electrical requirements are hopefully satisfied.