We arrived in Manly in November 2000 at settled into berth M18 at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Marina. The marina is slightly south of the Manly shopping district and just north of Lota, where the nearest train station and school was. All these places, and the larger shopping centre of Wynnum, were accessible by cycle ways. Bicycles and trains (and later on Don & Nancy's car) were the transport methods of choice.
The girls went to Lota State School til July 2001. This turned out to be a great school with both girls having teachers they enjoyed and made good friends. Col went back to Newcastle and worked back at TAFE for 2 months before getting a contract with Tarong Energy in Brisbane. The work involved being out at Tarong Power Station during the week for the first 4 months of the six month contract. This made getting work done on the boat hard but the money was good.
We were all together in Newcastle for Christmas and New Year, having the luxury of Col's sister Wendy's house, as they were on holiday in Europe. For Courtney's birthday she received a digital camera. This is a tiny thing that takes fairly low quality pictures but is still great for school projects and these web pages. (Dad would love a good quality digital camera for his birthday)Both girls had tennis and swimming lessons and also went to the local youth club for trampolining and gym lessons. Courtney had flute lessons at school which have continued on the boat and Anna does keyboard.
Anna played soccer which was a focus point for the weekend. The Dinosaurs is the name of her Under 7 team. They played each weekend at the local soccer ground at Lota which was a short ride on the bikes. Anna's friend at RQYS Marina, Sean, was on the team and his father John was the coach.
We were lucky to meet Helen, John and Sean who live on Spion Kop at RQYS. Sean was seven and the girls spent many hours playing with him, scooting around the marina, kicking a soccer ball and playing on each other's boat.
During our stay the major jobs that were done on the boat were:
Stainless steel frame over the stern to hold solar panels.
A sail bag and lazy jack system so the mainsail falls neatly into the bag when dropped.
Second hand HF radio that has the full frequency range. This means access to weather fax and longer range.Second hand Aries wind-vane that steers the boat on a consistent course relative to the wind. This device is purely mechanical and relies on no power to work.
A frame over the cockpit and covers that zip in to completely enclose the cockpit.
The cockpit frame and covers effectively give us another room. With the addition of mosquito nets we can sleep out here on hot nights. During passages life is much more comfortable as the elements are kept out and generally making life more comfortable. The best thing we ever did - designed and overseen by Liz.
Col finished work on June 30 and the intention was to leave Manly in July. We left on August 9th.
On a fine Wednesday we finely said our good-byes and motored out of Manly into Moreton Bay. As we cleared the harbour I took the steps away to check the engine and drive shaft were running well. Liz brought the motor up to full revs and things didn’t seem quite right. The was a knocking noise outside the hull and the prop shaft wasn’t spinning true.
The prudent thing to do was to wheel around and check it out. We had had the shaft and propeller checked when the boat was slipped and a new cutlass bearing installed. The propeller expert came down and deduced the shaft had not connected to the V-drive in proper alignment. He re-connected the shaft and after a test run the shaft seemed to be running true.
On the test run Col thought that only himself and the mechanic were aboard as the girls had gone for a walk. While motoring along Liz and Courtney put their heads up on deck and said 'Where's Anna?'. Meanwhile Anna was staring at the empty berth with Dad's shoes on the jetty. We called June and Stuart on Opthomist to go and check on her and when we returned, although distraught, she said she knew we were coming back as dad's shoes were still there.
We then went back out with only enough light to anchor in Moreton Bay for the night. The motor / shaft appeared to be OK but the knock noise did occur a couple of times.
Next morning the day started early at 5:30 am when a southerly change came through. We lifted anchor and motored out into Moreton Bay. The wind was strong at around 20-25 knots but behind us so we headed to Mooloolaba. The trip up was lumpy with seas short from the shallow water of the bay. We sailed with just our headsail up and cruised along at 6-7 knots.
The drive shaft still didn't seem right so at Mooloolaba we lifted the boat out of the water, checked the propeller shaft and then replaced the V-Drive mounts. After a week we were on our way to Bundaberg.
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