Passion for Cruising
| Vessel Name: | Truest Passion |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Seawind 1160 Catamaran |
| Hailing Port: | Southport |
| Crew: | Stuart Simpson & Nanette Black |
18 May 2012 | Mooloolaba
Good News-Bad News
Hello to all our yachtie friends, it is so long again since I have posted a blog, but the moment has at last arrived that I can talk to you all.
02 November 2011 | Mooloolaba Marina
Home!!
The last lap, so we left Garry’s Anchorage at 5.50am to catch the incoming tide to cross the bar. No wind at all. We started down the “mad mile” towards the bar crossing – not for the faint hearted today, it was like a washing machine, however the largest wave we saw was about 3 metres. Finally [...]
30 October 2011 | Sandy Straits
Yankee Jack Creek
Off yet again at 5.45 am, I was almost sleepwalking as the skipper did his usual, go, go, now.........
29 October 2011 | Bundaberg
Nearly Home
We had a lovely quiet day in the creek, we even played cards and Scrabble, beaten again!!!
27 October 2011 | Pancake Creek
Dawn Start
Up at 4.30am [we must be mad]! To get to Pancake Creek before tomorrow, when a S Easter is forecast, means a very long haul today. We will pass Cape Capricorn at about 10am before sailing down the outside of Curtis Island and Gladstone etc.
26 October 2011 | Great Keppel Island
Another Ripper!!
Another day, this time up at 5am and underway at 5.40am. The water is like oil, not a breath of wind. The clouds are quite heavy at present, but it is very early yet.
Bad Luck Month Over???
Our flooding was perhaps the worst. Devon Gypsy never made the Andamans, she had an overheating engine. Tiaki also had engine problems too, and they never made the Andamans. Amoenitas heard our Pan Pan and alerted others, but on her return to Phuket had to be towed the last 60 odd miles by Jemimah as her oil cooler had ruptured filling the bilge with oil!
Now this day, Stuart and I had just finished a nice Sunday breakfast at the Bakery here at Boat Lagoon, when we saw Rosie and Mike emerge from B finger. OK, but they had left yesterday for Langkawi. This is Jemimah. Poor things looked shell shocked, and were accompanied by 3 Thai fishermen. We fortuitously were there at that moment, Rosie drew us aside to say that at 5am they were just underway in the pitch black before dawn, and they were proceeding slowly and carefully in those conditions. However, too late, an unlit longtail loomed ahead. They hit a glancing blow, but it capsized instantly with the 3 sleeping fishermen. Luckily they were still near an Island and Mike and Garry from another nearby yacht, used their dinghies to tow the upside down boat ashore. No damage was done to either boat!! Except the fishermen lost their engine, gear, mobile phones etc and naturally saw a chance and asked for a huge sum of money, so Mike and Rosie took them aboard to return here.
We then met them as they had arrived and said we would help if needed, but we all worked out that the figure asked was absurd. Mike drew out money, but we persuaded him to leave some with Stuart as a fall back. Armed with what we thought was a fair sum for all 7of us trooped to the Marina office for an interpreter. After a while the fair sum was agreed and after handshakes etc the 3 men went off smiling, they had in fact done well. Rosie and Mike felt huge relief that it was all sorted and they were able to leave before they missed the tide.
Surely, no more can go wrong for us all, maybe a new month tomorrow will see the end of it?????
