We arrived back on board Tai Mo Shan late on the 13th April. All looked good, if the boat did smell a touch musty (the result of being closed up for almost all of the 5 months we were away). However, there was one unpleasant surprise; lots of little droppings almost everywhere. Initially we thought we had mice aboard, but the droppings were too small. Then we caught sight of one of the culprits; a cockroach, ugh!

Fortunately our friend. Lyle, owns a pest control business. He was able to supply a syringe of cockroach poison. Following his instruction of ‘a matchstick head drop in 5 places’, we duly laid the traps. Over the following few days we saw a couple of cockroaches, each time they seemed to be slower (and so easier to catch and throw overboard – the fitting end to those who try to stow away!). Then we only saw dead ones and then after about a week, none. Still, we cleaned every cupboard and space with bleach, and wiped the contents with a bleach soaked cloth; nothing survives bleach. So, the result was a really good Autumn clean inside.

Of course there were other jobs to do. Tai Mo Shan had been sitting in the marina for 5 months and had accumulated the inevitable coating of slime and sediment. This had duly hardened to a black coating complete with a budding forest of marine life. This created significant drag, and so had to go. The only way open for us was to get in the water and scrape it off. We were not going to do that in the marina; the water was too dirty and there were too many obstructions such as piles, lines and piers. So, a good excuse for a sail to a nice anchorage!

We had promised our friends Lyle and Jan a trip out in Tai Mo Shan or a meet up with them in their trimaran in a nice anchorage; so it was to be the overnight trip. We therefore headed off to Lucinda Bay some 17 miles away on the other side of Morton Bay. We had a brisk wind on the beam going over there and Tai Mo Shan loved it, happily bounding along at 7 knots (what draggy hull?). Once anchored Paul and Lyle donned face-masks and snorkels and slipped in to the water. Lyle can swim like a fish, so he headed to the bottom of the keel whilst Paul kept at snorkel depth. Armed with a plastic brush and an old spatula as scrapers the water was soon cloudy as the accumulated much flew off. Fortunately there was a slight tide in the bay so the debris cloud quickly drifted clear. An hour or so of scraping was enough for one day, and then it was time for a social sundowner or two, along with games of ‘Yahtzee’. The next day saw Paul and Lyle down for another hour or so. 43 foot of yacht is a lot of hull underwater, but by the end the hull was some 80% clean. We could see that the anti-foul paint was indeed red! The wind was a bit lighter on the way back, but still abeam, and still Tai Mo Shan was happy sailing at 7 knots.

A few days later and we decided to finish cleaning the hull, this time we headed to one of our favourite anchorages at Little Sand Hills, also on the far side of Moreton Bay. The wind was light and progress much slower; typically only 3 or 4 knots. We even flew the big, colourful genneker sail, although in only 5 knots of breeze we struggled to make 3 knots through the water. Still the 15 miles to the anchorage was covered in a morning and early afternoon Paul slipped into the water, this time armed with a long handled broom. Another couple of hours saw the hull and prop shaft mostly cleaned (at least 90% done), so time for a breather ashore. The next day saw stronger winds, again beam on, with Tai Mo Shan speeding along at 7 to 8 knots; the cleaning worked!

In between there were plenty of other tasks to do. Our anchor chain was looking very rusty, and in need of replacing. An internet search revealed good quality chain was available through a marine trade supplier, and they could deliver. Now our chain is 10mm diameter, and weighs a tad under 2.5 kg per metre. This does not sound a lot, until one considers that we have 80m of chain; a total weight of nearly 200 Kg! Fortunately the dry stack staff at the marina came to the rescue. The chain could be delivered to them and they would fork lift it into a store, and then to the dockside where we could take it on board. So one calm morning we motored Tai Mo Shan down to the drystack, carefully nosed her into the dock, pulled on the new chain, and dropped off the old chain. Easy!

Other tasks included changing our start battery as it suddenly decided to only hold 11 volts rather than 12; not good at starting the engine. Fortunately it happened in Australia where we could rapidly get a good quality replacement at a reasonable price. We also serviced all the winches, the anchor capstan and the engine (oil, oil filter and diesel filters change). In addition we carried out radio checks on our HF radio (during our hull scrub trip), updated the chart plotter software, checked our electronic instruments (there had been a significant GPS time signal change over), loaded our cruising guide to New Caledonia, and picked up Fijian Dollars and Pacific Francs from the bank.

Our ‘Kiwisizzler’ barbeque provided to be too big, and got too hot to use easily so, after 12 years service, it had to go. Ebay proved the answer and the advert resulted in a sale, for $25. Incredibly we had a call from Chris, who worked in the Dry Stack yard. His cousin, who lived some 160 km away in Twowomba had bought the barbeque, and Chris could pick it up for him saving a long trip. Another friend of ours, Rob, provided the taxi service to pick up our new Webber ‘BabyQ’ barbeque.

On the domestic side we had to reprovision the boat. The Manly IGA and off licence did a good trade out of us. Our friends Jan and Lyle also came to assist, happily providing a taxi service to the Wynnum supermarket in their new Land Cruiser (called ‘the beast’).

Socially we were very active. We met up with friends Lyle and Jan, and Rob and Mary for a range of drinks and meals. Our nephew, Matt, and his family live at Burpengary some 40 km north of Brisbane. They had just had their 4th son, and some more family were coming over from NZ. We joined in for the really good long weekend celebration. We initially planned to take the train to and from Burpengary. However, by an amazing coincidence friends Lyle and Jan were attending a wedding that weekend only half an hour away from Burpengary. Of course, we could hitch a ride.

The guitar playing continued. As we walked down the pier on one of the first days back we saw our friend Mike, the bass player. Smiling as usual, he said there was a small jam group happening Friday and Saturday. Of course, we pitched up. In addition to Mike on Bass (who had played in bands and, as he finally admitted, recorded!), there was Neil on acoustic guitar and singing (who used to play professionally on cruise ships), Neil’s partner, Pat, who strummed acoustic guitar, and occasionally Richard (with a rather strange electric guitar with the tuning keys in the body making a shorter guitar to fit on a boat, and Richard could play really well!) and Paul (who has not played in a band or on cruise ships but could thrash about enthusiastically). Fueled by beers, the resulting sessions lasting a few hours and explored classics by artists such as Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and Lynard Skynard. The audience of half a dozen or so seemed to appreciate it.

And so, all prepped, we looked for a weather window. Whichever way we looked at it we would be going against the prevailing wind and current. However, there appeared to be a patch of lighter winds at a reasonable angle to our path, which would allow for easier sailing into wind. So on Friday 10 May we contacted customs and arranged for them to come on board early on Monday 13 May to clear us out of Australia.

The photo – mask and snorkel on, broom in hand, cleaning the hull.