New yearing woes and wonders

It was Australia Day, and while I was headed to LL to plod about and do some maintenance work, a friend called me up and asked what I was doing. Before I knew it, he and his wife and I were headed out of Scarborough and into the yonder with raised sails.

 

It was not meant to a long journey (like almost all the others I have done.), just a few hours enjoying the spaces out there. So they brought food, so we could make/have lunch on the water.

 

Mark and Sharon have become friends. We share the common interest in sailing, but really, it was that night in the Abyss that has kept them in touch. It’s funny how emergencies like that bring people together. 

 

Sharon is still a little unnerved, and as such was concerned each time my boat tipped with the wind, even just a little. Her ‘natural’ response was like many who never sailed, and even though she has, she is reminded of THAT night.

 

In spite of her worry, we had a great time and I tried to keep the boat as straight and level as practical to make the ride ‘nice’.

 

These ‘new’ waters I have in which to sail within now are different to the area ahead of Manly; did have me almost touching the bottom. The chart showed deeper water to the west, and that was my action to recover.

 

Mark said, “Just go back the way you came you know the deeper water is there.”

 

It’s funny how each skipper of a boat has a different approach to solving the same problem. I can even hear my friend Craig say, “…just start the motor and motor out of it.”. His solution is always to motor.

 

But these guys have come from a different history of sailing, and their small and shallow draughted boats can go over the top of so much shallow waters, that neither of them needs to know what a chart looks like, much less understand and use them. Craig’s boat has a keel he can raise thereby reducing his draft immediately, he and can drop sail easily and single handed. Mark has an even shallower boat and rarely uses a motor as his boat can turn in it’s own length and go directly back to where he came from.

 

Both of them navigate by what they see in the water by looking over the side, and look down to see how shallow it’s getting. If it’s getting too shallow, Craig motors around it and then raises the sails when he feels he is clear of the troublespot. Mark sails back along his route, until he sees darker water and turns again to venture across what feels is deeper .

 

In my case I can’t let it get to a point where I can see the bottom. If I do, I was in danger long before that point ever occured. I must always keep more than 1.5mtrs under me, and in the western part of Moreton Bay, and the muddy silty water, I should never be seeing anything but water. That’s why the depth sounder ‘sees’ into the murkiness. AS long as you have plotted a good route using the charts, you may never need to see what the depth sounder is doing, so I don’t…but I set a ‘minimum depth’ alarm on it for 1.6mtrs just in case. Call it my backup to complaceny.

 

I was enjoying lunch, and we had the deck table out to serve hommus, tomato, cucumber, cheese, salami, and greek bread rolls. So what if I took a moment or two to join the human race and enjoy the lunch pleasure. So what if I knew that the course I chose would take me over some shallows eventually, I knew it, and I knew that a course correction was needed and when to make …..but I let some extra water slip by us and the bell rang.

 

It seems that LL moves through the water faster these days since the new paint job on her hull.

 

Anyhoo, Mark and Sharon are still a little gun-shy about the open water thing, and I could see Sharon wanting assurances. Mark’s method could work, but not neccessary. I turned LL to port by 30degrees with my left hand, and continued to chomp on my bread roll using the right. The bell kept sounding. There was no doubt in my mind that the tip of the fin was tapping the bottom here and there.

 

“I think we should head back to where we came from”, he said again. Just in the middle of his words,the bell stopped, and the sounder showed 5mtrs. Sharon looked in at the sounder and smiled. “Well that was easy”, she said.

 

I set the auto-pilot and finished my roll, so I could jump down into the boat and check the GPS and plot out location on the chart. Yep, that was where I thought we were, only we got there sooner.

 

With that out of the way, and lunch cleared and drinks served, the remainder of the ‘sail’ was uneventful. The water’swere smooth and the wind a constant 12 knots. Very pleasant conditons and nothing like the last time they found themselves aboard.

 

– M