Before the first book was written, came a small writing life on MySpace (see below this red text). It was called “Captain’s Log” and was intended to chronicle my new life at sea. The marriage was nearing its end, and so I moved from the land to the water. It was a big step. I had never sailed before. Captain’s Log was to be a safety net—in case the worst happened and someone needed to know where I was.
I didn’t write to it as often as I liked because, as it turned out, I spent much of my time writing something else (and I became comfortable with sailing). When I did finally write a post, I did it on MySpace. I included scenic and chart photos from my journeys (about 50 posts were made).
Unfortunately, the supporting images (and comments) have been lost to time. The MySpace-to-Blogger migration lost some data. A subsequent migration to WordPress lost more. I always intended to restore the posts with their images, but never did. I couldn’t be bothered ferreting around with my archived images (of which there are millions).
In 2026, I consolidated those ‘text-only’ posts into a single one. It’s a long scroll from here down (from the last post to the earliest one), but it’s easier to manage from my end.
I was surprised to read about the near-tragedy involving Mark and Sharon again (a story that found its way into the text of SEETHINGS II). They were sailing south when a violent storm developed in the late afternoon. They capsized several times between sunset and midnight and then clung to the boat’s upturned hull until they reached Stradbroke Island. It’s all there to read, written in real time shortly after it happened!
Some of the posts don’t make sense. It was an unsettling time in my life. One day I was up, the next I was down. It was exciting and tragic, and it comes with the unsettled rawness I was experiencing.
Please enjoy the pre-SEETHINGS journey.
Dragon Boat Racing
February 4, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
How many new things can I try in a year?????
In the last twelve months, it’s been drawing, book writing, sailing, Islamic High School teaching, and now DRAGON BOAT racing! There are one or two other things, but I can’t write them here.
Is there a common line? Shit no!
Maybe there is….the common line to try something I haven’t done before.
So tomorrow, I head to Newport and try my hand at rowing these weird looking things, and train for a race three weeks from now. It’s not serious stuff, just a group of nutty and boystrous nobodys ploughing their way around a short course chanting, throwing buckets of water and generally laughing sweat out of every pore of their body.
Can’t wait!
-M
EEK I am HIGH SCHOOL TEACHING!!!
February 1, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Excited, but double crapping myself.
I have never taught ‘kids’ in my usual photography classes, but I was recently asked to do a day time class of muslim high school kids… of year ten age!
Am I nuts?
And they said YES, let’s do it!
Fuckola!
Adults are one thing, and I have taught them for almost 9 years. They come because they want to learn, and they pay to, kids on the other hand HAVE TO go because that’s what kids have to do. Now I am uncertain that if this idea was a wise one.
This is about as close to doing what my wife does in her classes as I can get with mine. After razzing her about her work and the age group she deals with, I am now faced with the same.
What hope do I have?
My plan is to teach them the same way I have always taught, except without some of the ‘innuendos’ I normally use, and to arrange a routine within the class that helps establish order for the youngsters. Finally, I hope not to offend boundaries between the work I do or have done with the Muslim beliefs of themselves and their parents.
My liberal beliefs may need to be curbed somewhat to fall within ‘acceptable limits’ to do this…..crapola.
-M
Facing the music
February 1, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 2 Comments
Why is that a phrase anyhow? If I was a blind person, who the hell cares where I face? Come to think of it, ears are used to enjoy music and are as equally capable of picking up the detail of sound in any direction, so why ‘face it?’. It’s a CROCK! There’s no reason to FACE MUSIC at all.
Preparing court doccos, and looking for details of things that happened so many years ago is a DRAG. She said she never wanted lawyers involved, but did an about face. Now I have to dig up stuff to make a case for myself, otherwise I will lose things I should never lose. I have less than two days to file my response and affidavit.
I also retain the belief that pigs can fly.
-M
Outboard Resurrection
January 31, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
I got pissed one night shortly after New Year, and drove my little dinghy from the boat I was visiting back to mine and stuffed up majorly. Instead of just hitching the dingy to my big boat and leaving it there for the night, I did a stupid thing and tried to pack it away. I lifted the little motor off and nearly fell overboard whilst doing it, and then nearly fell into the water once again lifting the dinghy onto the back of the boat!
I didn’t think much about the moment at the time (except just not to fall in) and locked the boat and motor into their respective places on the boat. Well I didn’t use the dinghy for a few weeks, nor the motor, and when I came to use it the other day, the motor had seized. Can I use the word FUCK?.
The motor cost me $770 TWO MONTHS AGO, and was brand new. Now the guy at the workshop said it wasn’t worth repairing, and was my fault so warranty wouldn’t cover it. He showed me the dissasembled motor and there was rust throughout. (Did I already say this motor was BRAND NEW???)
Apparently, I had introduced salt water into the cylinder head by tipping the motor upside down and allowing salt water to run backwards into the exhaust pipe. Corrosion happens quickly with salty water and within two weeks the piston, bore, main-end and small end bearings, as well both sets of crankcase bearings were seized from corrosion. Shall I say it one more time? FUCK!
I took the rusty pieces of my new motor home and rusted the rest by crying over them for the next day or so.
“Bring it over here”, Craig said, “I’ll get it going!”
Bring it I did, work on it we did, get it going WE DID!
At the same time I brought the old motor that I almost threw out….and again, get it going WE DID!
Now I had two working outboards, one old one due for the scrapheap, and another one that was brand new and just pulled off one.
Up yours Mr Mechanic, it runs as good as new. Buy me a new motor he said; old one is dead he said; like bloody hell I say.
-M
New yearing woes and wonders
January 27, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
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
Luck of my Irish
January 25, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Today I had a caller, Irish accent, and I was excited because I have been to Ireland, north and south.
For those unfamiliar of the differences between what is know as the ‘Irish’, and those from come from Northern Island they are chalk and cheese. Hundreds of years of hostility between what is/was the indigenous Catholic south, and the re-formed English Protestants in the north saw battles take place daily. People died, lines were drawn, and more people died. In the beginning the battles were ‘close quarters’, and in the last few decades newer weapons allowed some distance between enemies to take place. Regardless of the weapon, the intimant was always the same.
I don’t really know who is to blame, or who is/was in the right or wrong, or the entire reasons and results of battles over time. I live in a place that is so far away from this, that I only understand enough that our own entire history is only fit to print in the classifieds section of an Irish newspaper, north or south.
And then there is Derry.
Border towns live on the edges of reasons. It’s where bits of one group’s land share space with the other’s. Derry is known as ‘Derry’ to the Irish, but it is actually LondonDerry by the NorthernIrish. So much is the differentiation between the two names that two weather forecasts take place for the SAME AREA, one right after the other!
My caller sounded Irish and most people would say the accent sounded ‘Irish’, but the typical Irish sound was not as it seemed, and was tainted with something else. I thought another oversees sound may have come into play, but a youngster from Ireland doesn’t usually spend time long enough anywhere else.
“Where are you from?”, I asked.
“Derry”
I knew exactly where he was from, and where he was coming from. He was Irish, living in a bordered Catholic community where Northern Irish watched his community with closed circuit TV cameras perched on high towers surrounding his borders. (Imagine Northlakes community tripling in density (not area), and having towers equal to high tension powertowers, fully loaded with cameras to get every angle))
I said, “The Coors come from just south of you, don’t they?”
“Yep that’s right…Donegal”
“Donegal’s a pretty place”
“I like Donegal”, he said.
I came so close to going the other way, and talking about Northern Ireland. We briefly chatted about his country and places where I had been. Fortunately I steered clear of matters that led down this other path. They probably don’t think about it, but I know I do; because I remember the stories broadcast on the news when I was a kid.
The name of his town is one of two. One means HOME, the other is THREAT, and I am sure many others.
-M
I wanted to ask where he worked etc, but knew that
LL’s new home!
January 22, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Hunting and finding an long term berth at a marina is so hard to do. Either someone has to die and will it to you, or you buy a boat that’s already on a berth as part of the deal. If you’re extremely lucky, one comes up just as you front up.
I guess I should buy a lotto ticket now, because luck has come my way twice. One, buying a good boat on an already marina berth (that’s lease runs out in four weeks’ time) and two, finding a better one in Scarborough (closer to home and easier to get to).
I have visited the marina office several times (and others) to get a better berth place with no luck at all. And now just at the end of this one’s lease whammo! The only sad thing about that is leaving the people I have come to know over these past five months. Then again, Marina life is full of people on the move, and you never know when someone ups and leaves for any number of reasons. My good friends Mickey and Steve left, and they were a great couple to know. (He showed me how to berth properly using ‘rudder blowpast’ and ‘prop walk’ to assist). I may see them again. Who knows. It’s what happens. Boats go places, and so too do the people who own them! No doubt in another five months, I will have met new people. (I already met the guy beside me; Ken, in from Canada and not sure how long he might be in the Marina. Another month, two perhaps….). One day his boat will be gone, and that’s will be that. No goodbye, no farewells….just gone.
Today, I took the boat out of its Manly berth and plotted a course to Scarborough. It should have been yesterday but the weather was not great. It wasn’t great today either, but at least the frequency of rain was down. The wind was still up, though, and so too was the sea. Bloody hell, it was almost like that ‘fateful night’ to Stradbroke; only the seas were down about a fraction of a metre and the wind was 5 knots less. Still…it wasn’t a picnic by any means, but this one lasted a few hours longer than that one. I tracked my course but became worried about crossing the commercial shipping channel. A rain squall appeared ahead, reducing visibility to about 2 N/miles and the channel ahead of me. (I couldn’t see if ‘ships’ were making their way up or down it!).
I have radar, but it’s not much use to me if I cannot predict ‘time over water’ for them or for me. These guys plough through the water at 15 knots or so and take the best part of 2 N/miles to come to a dead stop. I move through the water at about 5knots, and might guess who passes who when…….I bet their radar swoops over the top of me, making ME invisible as well; and in a rain squall, it’s as good as going into a lottery except in reverse. (Most likely you will win, but if the odds are wrong, you won’t!)
Luckily the rain moved on, and unveiled two container ships fore of me, the far left and right. (If you were wondering if I would have crossed the shipping channel in the rain, the answer is no. I may be inexperienced, but I am experienced enough to know my limits. I would have turned on my radar, hovered about where I was south of the channel, and watched for any ‘new blips’ appearing on my screen heading my way, just waiting it out.. for the rain to finsish. If I didn’t have radar, then it would be the same thing except my eyes would take more care for watching out). What it does say to me is that I need to find a way to calculate moving targets on the water, because I know it’s possible to calculate speed and distance by taking measurements over several moments, and using them to project into the next ones. Then again….I am but one person without crew, lookouts, deck hands, helmsman…and in firey times when the sea and weather is bad, I don’t have the luxury to take down details and calculate things, my greatest luxury is that of dropping sail and forming a holding pattern of where I am and/or dropping anchor and hoping that those around me can either see me, or have done the same; or time passes allowing for those conditions in the area to change.
I sailed on, and with the speed of the wind and current I crossed that channel in about 2-3 minutes, and from then on I was safe!
I TXT’d a friend of mine (Craig) periodically along my journey (Craig was arranged to collect me from Scarborough Marina to drive me back to my car in the Marina at Wynnum). I had timed it well enough that he never needed to wait for me when arriving at Scarborough. Halfway into the trip, I knew my arrival would be about 2.50pm, and I was entering the harbour at 2.53. I tied off in my new berth by 3.00pm, and Craig walked in to enjoy a cup of tea in the cabin, whilst the rain begin to fall outside.
After the drizzle and tea, I tied down the last bits of LL’s rigging, and we enjoyed a very late lunch at Morgan’s Seafoods before making the journey to Wynnum one last time so I could collect my car.
She is now safely in Scarborough Marina, and I guarantee that this is the home she will be sold from when it comes to that point in both our lives. It’s a lovely Marina, and the people who run the place are nice, and one or two of the people I have met.
– M
p.s The trip taken is attached (the photo dumbass)
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The morning Des and I sailed was like this, and his
Last Laugh on ‘Sail”
January 18, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 2 Comments
From the day I bought her, LL always needed a new main-sail. It was old, crunchy, and faded. I have already repaired it twice; one tear happened after I let someone else take the helm momentarily, and the other happened a few weeks ago when I was pulling her down. My finger went right through the headsail and I knew she needed replacing, but waited until the last minute to do it.
A friend of a friend of mine has a boat that dons black sails, and it is SO visible from so far away that I had to get in on the game and incorporate black in my own sail. It’s not practical for my boat to have an entire black set of sails, but it is to have the head of the mainsail in black as it is so far up the mast.
Mark’s sail can be seen and identified as soon as he enters the water, once above the horizon. I have always known his craft by the sail, and it is visible 0-9 nautical visible miles away. His solid black triangle is distinctive, and never mistaken for someone else. On this strength, I wanted mine to have similarly distinctive characteristics.
LL will have her mainsail as white as usual, but then have a black top (head). The second sail ahead of her in the ‘Jib’ will still be white like normal….(apart from blue UV stips fore and at at the base). So what we should see sailing is a typical sloop with white sails, except this one will have a mainsail with black top. See the diagram for details.
-M
P.S I know it doesn’t look much on the screen of a computer…but trust me….on the water, it can be seen and idenified for miles around. I live on VHF 73 when under sail, and that represents the frequency of the ‘local’ authorities from the area where my boat berths. In due course, I will change that according to where I am, and what fequencies are ‘popular’ to the area I find myself.
Boat stuff
January 18, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Yesterday I went to the boat. Not to see it especially, but to collect the repaired sail from the sailmaker I sent to him a week ago and collect the sucker, pay it’s repairs and give the go-ahead to make a new one. (A special sail indicative of me and my boat).
I pulled the stairs away from the engine only to find salt and corrosion crystals forming on the various components that weren’t there a week ago. It’s pissing me off, as the little outboard had seized also from corrosion. Neither have been in the salt water, but both show signs that they were.
That horrid Wednesday trip in rough seas over the Christmas break had spray moving about the boat in all directions. I was drenched, and the cabin did see some water on the stairs. I just never expected to see what I saw.
I washed the motor down with fresh water and then sprayed CRC all around it after seeing it, but couldn’t stay long enough to air the engine out, but I think my next visit will see me doing much of the same, only with a brush next time. I truly hope that I haven’t paid for these ‘Christmas Events’ and the ‘rescue’ out of my own pocket by sacrificing my boat and it’s mechanics to rough seas unnessecarily.
-M
First day back…
January 16, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
…well I must say it’s crap.
Ordinarily a guy would look forward to taking shots of a beautiful naked girl, 1/2 an hour after starting work from being three weeks on holidays…but I didn’t feel like that. Certainly the shoot went well enough, and she was pleased with the result (as I was too)….but starting in and pretending that this year would and should start like any other kind of faded into a hollow feeling.
That’s how I know that I am not happy.
The dumping of unneccessary stuff continues, all so I can move forward and make my way out of this tangled nightmare of broken dreams. With each load I move, sort, and sign off, another little piece of me cuts and floats away from me. And I am forced to have to watch it float from me.
It’s funny how the ‘sorting of things’ process takes place. My gut feeling is to keep everything, but as I am not moving into a house, most of it is worth nothing to me. Keeping it is a burden, a burden not worthy of owning or paying storage for until I later decide it’s not worth owning. So it’s either HER’s, or Mine, or OURs. If it’s her’s, then it’s piled with all the HER stuff. If it’s mine and I cannot use it on-board I either dump it, or sell it. If it doesn’t sell, then it’s dumped. If it’s OUR’s I try to sell it first, and if it doesn’t sell for what I ask for, then I sell it for what it can be paid for. If it doesn’t sell, then I give it away, or dump it.
It’s difficult to be the custodian of all the things we had, because I am aware that SHE may have something to say about what’s what when it comes to court. No doubt she will come to say something about how it all was mis-handled and how I sold things I shouldn’t have, or undervalued things, or simply lost something that was hers that didn’t turn up in the pile of her stuff. No doubt the stuff that went missing lay somewhere in between what was her’s / our’s / mine / dumped or what was sold. I am going to keep a ledger of the things that went for sale and sold, to at least show the magistrate that I tried to do my best.
Tommorrow is another day, and yet another day will follow this one; like it was yesterday and all the other days that came before it, to that day she left. Every next day was and has been hard as it could be, as it has been, most likely as it will be.
I have to either die, or be re-birthed into a new life. This one is pretty unnacceptable..
-M
New Site went to Air 10 mins ago
January 15, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
The last week has seen me stay in (no sailing!) working on the new site. I needed it ready for tomorrow as I officially start my new year then, and I already have a plateful of stuff to do. It’s been hard work, and time consuming but it’s up and running and went live at 9.00pm Sunday night.
Have a look, and tell me what you think.
-M
What is left here to do?
January 3, 2006 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
I have sailed all over the ‘bay’ and although there many places still left to visit, much of it is still more of the same. Now I have the itches to get out of this space and see more of the outside. See more places, take more challenges. My house is about to go up for sale which means my time with the boat will increase. If I mix my time I have with the boat, and my desire to explore the ‘outside’ of the bay, then I think my journey would take me north through the open ocean to north Queensland. But I hope to make one or two short trips ‘outside’ before then.
The bay has been an excellent training ground, and I have learnt much, about the bay, water, wind and weather, the boat, and myself in the period I have owned ‘Last Laugh’. God knows the work I have done to her to get her up to scratch…and I still have more to do.
I believe I will make mistakes, but I hope that I will have the wisdom to know how to handle them when they arise, and turn a bad thing into something good.
“Last Laugh’s” new fresh water tanks have been fitted, and the back-ups have been flushed / filled and made ready. The auto-helm that was making trouble over the past two months has been repaired, and the hinges on the main hatch have also been repaired. A new outboard for the dingy has taken place of the old, and a complete anti-fouling job was done during this Christmas. Whilst the boat was in dry-dock, patches of flaking paint and gel-coat were patched and re-painted on it’s hull. The upper deck that had started to be painted by the previous owner, was also finished.
A new VHF radio takes place of the old, and a split/fractured stauncheon on the port gunnell was replaced with a new one. The mainsail that had a tear or two over a few journeys had been repaired, although a brand new sail has also been ordered due to it’s age. (The age of the sail means the fabric becomes weak).
I have two (perhaps three) major elements to serve before making a long trip. One is the engine; the other is the refrigeration unit. (the third is the rigging; of enitirely new ropes up the mast). The engine needs a service like all engines do. I have no idea when the last service was, but I know the injectors need a clean. The fridge hasn’t been used in years and a gas re-charge and compressor check might see it through. The new halyards (ropes) that pass up through the mast are a little aged, though it’s unsure how unreliable they might be. Replacing them means removing the mast from the boat, which is a huge task and carries expense with it. There are some alternatives, but nothing you would like to trial for the first time at sea.
I will assess the halyards and make the choice to change them now or change them later.
Learning navigation in Moreton Bay has been great, due to the immense amount of shallows one forces themselves to know and learn…, but I also have to learn ‘long distance’ journeys which is something I cannot learn here.
In essence, only the maintenance stuff (and work) now holds me back.
-M
Exciting, but very dangerous stuff
December 30, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
‘Twas the day after Christmas and the boat had been scraped and painted, when all of a sudden two friends came by with their little boats, for 3 days of adventure. While my boat was drying, I helped them launch their tralier sailers, and they asked if I would come too…when mine was ready.
They had a six-hour head start while I re-launched my boat, headed home for a shower and supplies. Then Craig calls…. asks me I had heard from Mark (the other guy with him; and this guy’s wife) as they got separated heading to Amity Point. “AMITY POINT?”, I asked,”I thought you guys said you were headed to Russell Island!!!” (The opposite direction!)
“Nah, we thought we might stop at Amity on the way.”
“Amity’s not on the way there”.
“We ran aground and it took us a while to get through the shallows, he got through first”.
“If Amity was were you headed and you cut a straight line, of course you would, it’s barely half a foot deep across most of that”.
“…and didn’t we find it all”
He laughed with that and asked if I was on the water yet, and I told him I would be within about half and hour. It actually ended being much longer,as I had to re-fit some of the rigging that was removed for the lifting. They left at eight thirty AM, and I am out by 2.30PM. The sees were rough…very rough, and the wind relentless. My first thought was to head back home, or perhaps find the nearest safe anchorage and make the rest of the journey to Russell tomorrow. The next call cemented my choice.
At five I get another call from Craig….”Has Mark rung you at all?”.
“No”
“I still haven’t seen him”
“Where are you now?”
“Still at Amity”
“And you haven’t seen or spoken to him since earlier today?”
“No….where are you?”
“I’m just the other side of peel….this weather is atrocious”.
“Tell me about it”
“So it’s been a few hours since you heard of Mark.”
“Lunchtime…or just before I think.”
“Craig, I am looking at my charts and I will anchor at a place called Deanbilla Bay just south of the Dunwich headland, Horsehoe Bay is chocker full of boats, but I can see the other one. I think you should head south along Rainbow channel and meet me at the bay, and drop anchor for the night….do you have Navigation lights?”
“No…how much daylight do we have?”
“Enough from where you are coming from I think. The wind is going to get worse and you need to shelter. We will work out what to do with Mark when we get to the bay. You’ll have the wind behind you and it will bring you down fast”.
“Give me a call at six thirty and we see where were are both at”.
The wind continued to increase, and the constant pounding of two metre waves against the hull pushed up and out and drenched me and the cockpit full of water. I dropped anchor right on six thirty and everything on the boat was wet; difficult to stand on the bouncing wet surface.
Craig’s little boat rounded the bend about 10 mins later, and screamed past me…”I’ll have to turn around and anchor wherever I can…I’ve got barely any rudder”. His boat suffered some damage going through shallows at high speed. He managed to down the sails and drop anchor as quickly as he arrived.
He was too far away to call out to, so once he got settled I gave him another phone call, “I’ve been trying Mark’s phone off and on this afternoon and just now, and there’s nothing”
“We were supposed to meet at Amity”
“Either his battery is flat, or it’s been drowned or lost”
“I hope he’s okay”
We chatted about the weather and this and that, and I invited him over for dinner.
“I just want to sleep…I’m too tired to do anything…I’m going to bed”
We hung up our phones and I started to make dinner, and go through the various scenarios that might have happened to Mark. His boat is not designed to take the rising seas and winds, he would have had great trouble keeping control of it. I haven’t seen his boat sailing but I can imagine it tipping and capsizing when the situations go over a certain amount. So where could he be?
Craig never saw him again once Mark left the shallows – that was lunch time or such. Worst case is that his boat tipped over, and they are clinging to the boat in no man’s land. The relentless wind would see them come down into my area and that’s better than the alternative, being blown out to sea. Best case scenario is that they made it to shore somewhere, pitched a tent and are cowering out of the wind and water. Now I have to ask myself the question, Do we activate a search party. I have VHF radio and can contact the authorities in a moments time, but is it enough….I needed more answers so I called Craig again…
“…can he get the boat upright if it tipped over?”
“Yes”
“Did they have life-jackets on-board?”
“Yes…they had them on when they left the harbour”
“Did they have them on when you crossed the shallows…before Amity?”
“Yes, he always wears them”
“While I have you on the phone, I need a description of his boat, his name (I didn’t know his surname) phone numbers….do you have any other numbers for Mark?”
“I don’t have his mobile, but I have a home phone number here”
????
I thought how odd for people to carry mobiles and not be able to ring each other because they don’t know their numbers. Why would a home phone number be of any use out here???? I took it down anyhow.
There two primary points in favour of the Mark Scenarios. He can get his boat upright, and he can stay afloat without it. I thought best to hold back before calling a search….he may not even be in the water anymore and headed home. So I rang his home and his machine picked up; left a detailed message about where I was, who was with me and what I would do tomorrow if I had not heard from them (Call Coast Guard). I was already on the verge of calling Coast Guard, but logic told me that a night bouncing around the waters with life jackets etc may be unpleasant, but not life threatening. The waters though rough, were warm. So no hypothermia to worry about there.
I made some notes about the conversations I had with Craig over the afternoon, and what the guys said to me earlier that day. Tried to remember times, places, and anything else that might have been said in case the C/Guard asked. My dinner was ready, and I sat down to eat.
Dammit! Why were these guys so far away from where they said they were going? Why did they allow themselves to become separated? Why didn’t they exchange mobile numbers?
I washed up and turned out the lights, hoping Mark and his wife were okay.
Hard to sleep. The constant howling wind, the rocking and pounding of the boat…and Mark’s fate kept me up. At 11.45pm, my phone rang. Some guy asking if I was the one who left a message on Mark’s phone. I said I was, and he told me that the Dunwich police and Coast Guard had been activated to search for Craig since 9.30pm…apparently Mark and Sharon were concerned for his fate; something I had overlooked.
Then the Dunwich police called a few seconds later, wanting to speak to Craig…I passed his mobile to them…and ten minutes later the CoastGuard came by me with search lights blazing. Due to the wind, I couldn’t hear anything, but I guess they wanted confirmation his was alive too.
In the morning, Mark called me from a payphone asking if he could come across to my boat. I said I could get the dingy down and pick them up if they could walk to a small beach I could see through my binoculars. Ten minutes later, they were there. I needn’t have worried about the dingy, for they mooched a ride of someone who was already coming out, and before too long I had two visitors aboard, and stories of the treacherous ride they had the day before, and the night of panick after.
It turned out they capsized, several times, on the third they lost everything…camping gear food, oars…anything not tied down was quickly swept away from their boat. They saw Craig’s boat two or three times on various tacks, but Craig kept going by without seeing them. Then, whilst heading south their boat ran across an oyster bed and at first it tore gaping holes in the hull, and then in their feet as they hopped off. Their motor was drowned, and their mast kept coming off. They drifted to shore, lit flares but no one saw them, or stopped for them if they did.
Feet cut up, clothes drenched, bodies tired and boat battered, they walked to Dunwich police station to report Craig as being missing. Search and Rescue had started shortly after, and if it weren’t for a thoughtful policeman, the idea to get someone to check the home phone, they would be still out there now. As it was, there was a death overnight right in this area. It seems we weren’t the only one’s foolish enough to be out there.
Craig did not hang around, setting sail shortly after Mark and Sharon arrived.
Mark’s boat was salvaged at One Mile. I motored around the poiint. (Turns out they were just next door all the time!) After stripping it down empyting as much of the water as we could I strapped my little motor to it’s stern and motored it back to my boat. After an hour of messing about, we headed home. I made them tea, fed some food to them, and turned on classical music. Just as I did that, the weather turned and Moreton Bay was a millpond again!
The sail home was like any other of the best sailing days. The howling winds faded, and life returned to normal out there. My yacht rescued people and property overnight and this morning, and now it’s like that weather never happened. I brought them back to the place where their cars was parked, and lo-and-behold…it’s Craig! He had arrived a few moments earlier.
The stories that I got from both of them for the reason to going to Amity Point were different, vastly different. One said “That’s what we agreed to do”; the other, “…Amity’s on the way to Russell Island we have to go there first”.
Who knows….
“Alive and well” prevailed
-M
P.S The yellow line is my journey, the white is theirs.
Boat is now Moored on Bitumen!
December 24, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 1 Comment
Well, it’s up and out. A forty tonne lift crane pulled her up and parked her onto a hard stand. Over the Christmas break I will scrape and paint it’s hull….preparing for the jaunt to Fraser over the Christmas holidays. There was quite a bit of growth, and no wonder the boat had become sluggish over the past 5 months.
I just hope I won’t melt in the heat!
-M
Officially Depressed
December 22, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 1 Comment
It’s been one year since the love of my life left.
Married for eleven years, then she went…one year ago….and didn’t return. Today she sent papers to finalize stuff, and now on the eve of Christmas I have to once again deal with the tradegy of our ends yet again.
For months now I have tried to string together an alternate life of living. Learning new skills, preparing for new lives. But her attack is clinical and cold, slicing and dicing when the optimum time is needed, mine is to make my needs fit in with hers as best it can….as it always has been.
All I need to do is show up and tell my story, and win or lose, I will still lose outright.
Two days out from Christmas, I have had Last Laugh booked in to be lifted from the water. She has had fouling growing on her since the day I bought her. For the last few weeks she has died in speed out on the water. The rudder has ferns growing from it for two feet long. My wife cannot be fixed, but my boat can be mended.
While the things I cannot change remain unchangeable, those things that can be changed will be…with the best of my effort and help.
When Last Laugh greets the water, she will be sleek and smooth as she was when I met her. Moving from one life to the next may come sooner.
-M
Stormfront Charges
December 19, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Saturday sailing down to Horsehoe Bay with J and the sail went well until……thunderstorm!
After one storm cell moved by us in the south and the north, I figured it was safe to make the journey back home. Not more than a few minutes into leaving the bay, sparks started jumping across the rigging. At first I thought the cracking sound was a some plastic flapping about above the canopy. After a few more moments, I stepped up to track the source of the sound down. There it was, a snapping jump of electricity between the backstays!
It could only mean one thing, charges in my area are building up so much that small lightning bolts are forming within the breaks in the circuit…. ie my my boat and the water. 15 metres into the air and the mast rises high waiting to discharge the last amount into the clouds. Bloody hell! It would have been better to stay near all the other boats and their masts…. at least the contact point is shared with the rest, instead of my exclusive mast moving about in free space shortening the distance between clound and sea.
A fast moving cloud bank formed and drops of water turned to drizzle. Lightning sizzled to the south. Together this meant that a back up plan was needed. It’s too much for me to deal with, need to drop sail, drop anchor, close the cabin and wait it out. I found 5mtrs of water to anchor in, just behind the island….closed the hatches and it poured. Just in time.
Luckily the charges subsided before the rain hit and I felt we may have been through the worst of it. The rain dumped, and no lightning strikes came to us.
The rain left as quick as it came….and I raised the anchor and off we went. The sails were drenched, but dried soon after and the day opened up to blue skies once again.
Scary stuff….but real exciting.
-M
Flying in Water
December 14, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 3 Comments
I cannot describe the exact moments between going from artificial propulsion (the prepellor and engine) to engaging sail. It’s like lifting off from the ground and flying, only different…and somehow better.
Turning into the wind under engine to raise the sail; it’s hoisted and flap from side to side with the wind equallly of either side of it. Disengage the engine and then turn the boat away from the heading wind, the book locks in and the sail yield to one side; the boat and mast glide off and tilt as the bird flies. That exact moment is exquite. There is no other way to describe it.
This is the point when man’s effort on controlling nature is excanged with the mercy to work with it.
The deck of a sailing boat can be dangerous, slippery decks, whipping ropes, swinging booms, and always an un-even levelled surface to walk upon. When the wind or conditions changes, the sails and the boat must be changed too, otherwise the boat can tip over or the people on board can suffer. Sailing is a thinking man’s game, and an understanding nature and it’s effect on the boat is important….defy or misundertand nature, and people can be injured, lose limbs, or lose life. Already I have been bruised and battered once or twice, and a few passengers have also taken home war injuries.
But I am in Moreton Bay’s womb, so far. The safety of the ‘bay’ protects foolish misundertanderers. I have had it easy in the bay, even choosing the best days to sail…., but I know I need to excerise myself and my boat openly….to practise on circumstances that may occur ‘out there’ in open water.
‘Safe anchorages’ may not always be available and the only alternative is to sail in less-than-pleasant circumstances.
The worst situations I have sailed in so far has been sailing in 20 – 25 knots winds and a wave height of 1.2 mtrs, and one instance of a; rain squall with instant 15 knot winds that changed direction from one position, to almost 180 degrees the opposite….done with a panicky passenger. The rain squall made complete ‘white-out’ for twenty minutes and nothing outside the area of the boat could be seen!
I learned from both experiences. 1. Reef sail and spill main for high winds. 2. Rain squalls have shifting winds, drop sail and start motor, and motor by GPS and/or RADAR.
In instance one, it took me over an hour to get the boat right for the situation. In instance two, I was already prepared by the time the squall hit; although I came to the conclusion that that the RADAR is barely viewable from the cockpit in torrential rain, and was not set for ‘precipitation inclusion’ too. It took me a little time to re-calibrate it…and I never got it right, by that time my pannicky passenger had to be dealt with and the RADAR was ‘shelved’ in favour for kind words and assurances.
“Note to Self”: Pannicky passengers should either dealt with by crew (which I have none) or drugged… to stop the Skipper from being a sailor and becoming a councillor.
-M
Around Mud and Back
December 13, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Sunday was a good day of sailiing an average of 5knots all day. The wind did get up at around 1.30pm making life ‘interesting’. This time I sailed alone, around Mud Island…just enjoying the action of the boat and concentrating on trimming the sails to get a mix of good speed, and sailing comfort. I have figured out that the boat runs as fast sheeted in hard, as being sheeted back a bit, but instead has a softer and safer ride. That’s good, because I was getting worried about how the wind increases and steering option decreses proportionally. Not too mention the contant twisting and lurching of the craft in the process.
Today I was contacted by a friend who might have some time off for Christmas break, and might be available for a sail up the coast. I took a quick look at the distances, a the average sailing speeds I have been logging, to try and work out if I can get a seven day sail to Fraser Island and back. So far my average cruising speed is 4.15 knots, which means I cover 4.15 nautical miles per one hour, and in an eight hour sailing day that means 33.2 nautical miles can be made over that time.
My guess is that it can be done over two or three steps (2-3 days) and it will depend on whether I choose to go around the bottom end of Fraser or loop around the top. Around the top, and I need another day to cover it. Go around the bottom, and navigating the shallows up to Kingfisher Bay may be more work than it is worth. If the wind dies, then all these calculations fly out the window.
Anyhow, three days north, three days to come back south, with one one extra day back up on should be enough wherever it ends up being. The other alternative is just to drop into Moloolaba and stay there, it’s about a day trip away, and more than close enough to turn back should the weather be less than ideal.
This means some extra work needs to be done on the boat because at this point the fridge is not working, a tap needs a new washer, and the boat needs dry-dock for a day for the anti-fouling treament to be done. It’s overdue and needs to be done badly. I figure that the fouling itself has me slowed by a knot on it’s own. WHo knows how fast I can go with a smooth hull!
There is some small things here and there, but fridge / fouling is first off the rank. Oh yes, I also need a sail mended, a small seam opened up a few weeks ago.
– M
Bjorn Again (The Abba Revival Group)
December 12, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Well, what an interesting weekend. Sailing for Sunday once again, but it was Saturday night that made for something different.
I was to photograph a corporate event, you know table shots…awards things – a pretty typical assignment when all of a sudden I was asked by one of the backstage guys to come back and get some shots of the band.
I thought “Yeah sure, what makes this band so special that I have to leave my assigned work to come and take pics of them?”.
When I got there, two girls and two guys passed through the door of the green room, dressed in white satin gowns with pics on the front and whammo it’s Bjorn Again!.
Apparently the band’s name was kept secret from everyone, and when they hit the stage, not a single person stayed sitting!.
Great night, great music.
– M
p.s oh yes sailing was a hoot too, averaging 5 knots this time around Mud Island.
The boat etc….
December 7, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Some people have asked about this myterious sailing boat of mine, etc, and want to know more about it.
Firstly…she is twenty-seven feet long, and about nine feet wide. Her name is ‘Last Laugh’ and you will usually hear me on VHF radio as her registered name “Papa Kilo Four Three Two – Quebec”.
She is a Bruce Roberts design, however the original cabin top she was designed to have was altered and raised the headroom to over six feet. (This leads me to believe that the original owner was tall).
Secondly, Last Laugh was altereded again in about 1999 to do away with the tiller arm and be replaced with a stainless steering wheel. The fridge had alterations too, expanding it’s area by three fold, as well as the inclusion of a new radar system. She sailed over the ‘Cape’ from Cairns and around to Darwin shortly after. This completed it’s new outfit and her life as an ‘Over the top’ voyager.
WHilst radar is a handy item to have on a boat of this size… radar is a little overkill. She also is fitted with a depth sounder, autohelm, GPS, 27meg and VHF radio. She can sleep comfortably up to five people, but under sail she works best with two.
The plans show a fin under her hull,….and for those who are interested in it’s depth….it goes down about 1.35mtrs into the murky depths (5 feet) and contains over two tonnes of lead. This means that I have to watch carefully about the areas I can travel, the charts, and the depth sounder. In Moreton Bay, knowing where five feet below is.. can mean the difference of enjoying a day out, or waiting nine hours to escape it’s trap!
So far, my journeys have been event free and I plan to keep it that way.
Reading charts, tides, currents and winds, and how the boat responds to each of them is what it’s been about. Two tonnes of lead below the waterline means I have the assurance of being kept upright at even the worst times under sail.
The greastest angle I have lurched with her continually is thirty five degrees. She pulls and pushes at the rudder, and the sails shake with the pressures that change around the canvas, but she holds course and waits for what comes next. At forty degrees, water comes over her gunulls and run down the side, and at forty five degrees…water continually runs into the self draining cockpit.
The weather is what sailing is about. Understanding it, working with it, knowing when to go, when not to go, when to change plans, when to use bits of information from the Bureau of Meteorology, and then all of it… can make a difference.
Last Laugh has been a very seaworthy vessell in her time. She has proved herself over two decades, and now I am at her helm waiting to take her places too. I
-M
Linda Shoot
December 5, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
This was the last photo workshop for this year…and a new model, Linda, came to sit for my students and me. This was the first time for Linda (photographed in an artistic workshop; with a group)
The results speak for themselves.
– M
Tanga by Moonlight 2
November 27, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 1 Comment
Well, it was a nice idea, but getting to Tangalooma on a second time, in one night lit by the stars and moon was a big ask..
Once underway at 4.30pm, something told me that the journey was best done in two stages. The wind wasn’t right, the forecast wasn’t favourable, and with these together, I made the choice to anchor on the southern side of St Helena overnight, and make the rest of the journey the next day.
It reminded me of the exam I sat with the Coast Guard. They asked me to plot a journey from some place on Moreton, to some place on Bribie on a certain date with certain weather conditions in a certain boat. After our team of four plotted the most likely ‘safe’ course across the way, the ‘testor’ came to assess our efforts. Our team leader stepped up and explained the journey we created. At the end, ‘she’ the Coast Guard official said it was acceptable, were there any other thoughts. I piped up and said, “To be truthful, I wouldn’t make the journey…the tide is bad, the draft is marginal, the weather sucks due to poor visibility, and the journey passes inside of the shipping channel.”
She replied, “You wouldn’t make the journey? So it is….that sometimes the best jouney decision is also the one that cancels the journey. What would you do?”
My answer was,”Wait six hours until the tide is higher, and then re-assess the situation”
Hers was, “Good answer. No, it’s a great answer. Not every journey needs to be made at the time when it’s planned to.”
So it was, I gave an option of an answer that seemingly wasn’t apparent in the question. Obviously the Coast Guard desinged the Q to be fluid to the conditions beyond the eyes of those pre-thinking it. My group wasn’t wrong, and what we gave was more than acceptable for the test. But after the test, she came out to me and noted that I had some exceptional skippering potential. I replied, “Thanks, but I just thought that time wasn’t factored into the journey, that time itself may make things safer in the journey”
She said that it was right of me to make those choices and that too many people go out not think of these options. I seriously couldn’t believe it.
St Helena is a good friend of mine now; been there done that, and know she is a blob of land about one sailing hour from Wynnum. My guest cared not much about one place or another, and if if I chose to end the sail early, he was happy to see the sights, and enjoy the dinner served earlier than expected. By seven thirty, a great stew was served on-board and we watched a long-off storm form deep over the mainland and dump it’s load before reaching water.
Tea, chat, and weiriness saw us off to sleep.
5.20 I arose and looked about the cloud and tried to read the day. If we were to move on, we would have to do so soon as the people we had planned to meet at ten will wonder where we are. My guest rose at six, and I already had breakfast on the boil and chartered some courses for our daily journey, and I turned on the weather reports. My only challenge was to anticipate a 30 knot wind in the afternoon. Not my idea of a pleasure cruise, but as it would be from behind us, I knew 30 behind us, is lesser than in front or beside us. The course was plotted, and the journey had started.
Thirty five minutes into the track and the big black clouds that formed over the land started to coever it in misty water. We had left St Helena and forty five minutes it had also had been blanketed in water. Ten minutes later and I dropped the sails, started the motor and steered to 35degrees to face into the wind. A wall of white surrounded us and I sat at the helm drenched and called out to my guest inside to move items inside out of the way of rain water. I was drenched, anxious and blind to see anything anything further than three lengths of my boat. I called out for him to turn on the radar, but it took several minutes for it to warm up and show something, and before it did I could see one craft approaching. Luckily he saw…and passed behind me.
When the rain ended, and my passenger voiced his concern about the third time, and I was plagued by the forecast of 30 knots for later in the day, I decided that it was better to turn about and end it. I told him I would raise the sails and head home, and instead of being happy of the change, he just asked me, “Sail home? Don’t you think motoring-in would be better?”
So it was I turned off my motor and raised as much sail that allowed me to return as quickly as possible back to port.
By ten were were cosily nestled into the berth, tied up, having chats to others about the journey that never was…and our trip to Tangalooma had ended.
Only the wetness of the cabin interior over-indicated the idea of any journey we had. Raindrops dry, but storys only go so far.
-M
Moonlight to Tanga
November 21, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Sailing Moreton Bay at night…..challenging and beautiful.
Set sail by 6.30 passed by St Helena and Green Islands by 8pm and then we moved through darnkness by stealth until reaching Tangalooma by about 11.45 pm.
Anchored / Dinnered on-board and found sleep easy to arrive.
5.30 am, I took the dingy up to the wrecks to photograph them in the orange glow of sunrise. I managed several shots, and made my way around the last when a pod of dolphins headed towards me. I quickly shut off the engine and to my surprise one when right under the boat!
I could have almost reached down to touch it.
Here are some pics
(The full-sized ‘finished’ shots are able to be seen on www.mfp.com.au/gallery (now defunct))
NEW VHF SET
November 16, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Well…since the faliure of twenty five year old VHF set on-board, I figured it was time for it to be replaced – no point in trying to resurrect electronics that have been exposed to sea-life for many years. The new VHF sets are cheaper than CB’s were when I was a kid. I can’t believe how different things are – even how the units have shrunk, barely more than a face-plate and a microphone!
There is a 27meg set right beside my VHF, but I think it is q redundant tool. Having listened to both, I can tell that VHF is more widely used for sea activities, and 27meg is just some uncouth banter between vessels. 27 is short range, low power, suitable for idle chatter…. for those travelling together, obivious to radio protocol.
So my old VHF has been replaced with the new. I haven’t physically removed the old set yet, but I can guess it will take less than a mintute or two to do so, and another 5 mins to mount the new. Two minutes to test power; screw in to the old antenna, and another minute or two for a ‘radio check’.
WIth any luck, the new radio will be fired and ready to go!
Hopefully my ‘log-in’s’ will be equally matched by my ‘log-outs’.
I hate logging on, and then not being able to log off…. when I need to! I could imagine boats and helicopters organised in search and rescue………….. when it was not even needed.
-M
Sail To Tangalooma
November 14, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 1 Comment
Not a bad trip, but such a long one. I have to remind myself that it’s a two day kind of place to visit. Half a day to get there, half a day one day to enjoy it, half again the next, and finally half to come back home.
The wind wasn’t as favourable as I would have liked either, coming in from the direction we wanted to head. Whilst the boat can sail reasonbly close to the wind, it can’t sail into it. It meant a zigzagging trip up to Moreton Island taking about a third longer than it should have needed.
We arrived at about 12.55pm, anchored of the beach, and took the dingy ashore.
We brought our own lunch, but managed to knock back a few beers from the bar whilst checking out the local talent. Sadly the good female talent were in short supply, though not completely absent. Many Asian visitors, some Asian newly-weds, and day tripper familes coming in from the main-land.
Nevertheless, a beach always is a good viewing platform when the days are warm and the weather is fine, and the eyes feasted on one or two worthy contenders.
Packed up by three to make the jaunt across the water back to home. Two hundred degrees magnetic, and the wind coming in from the port side swirled and couldn’t make up it’s mind whether it wanted to be a north easterly, or a south easterly. Bit of a pain when you are trying to make land fall before dark and losing speed each time there was a wind shift.
Brisbane Coast Guard had us logged in for a 6pm arrival backinto harbour, and when I was certain it was not likely that we would make the timing (at 5.45), I got back onto the radio to make the amendmant and found the radio would not transmit. I could hear fine, but getting out to BCC was futile. At 6pm the calls were broadcast over the air for my boat to respond, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. The light was fading and I grabbed the marine books I had onboard looking for a phone number,,, and do you think they publish it? Not even in the Goverment’s safety section of their “Boating in Moreton Bay’ book did they print caost guard numbers.
I picked up my mobile, and tried for directory assistance. They couldn’t find it….until I said that that it was an emergency, and Coast Guards are supposed to be contactable in emergencies!!
Well, didn’t that make a difference! In two seconds, she gave me two numbers, and connected me direct to one of them!
(Imagine asking for an ambulance, and finding out they don’t list the number of ambulance stations, and you can’t ring and get one!)
Finally, I could get through to someone, and the guy told me that they had been trying and would make the ammendmant. What a relief! Imagine all these search and rescue craft heading out to find us, when we were perfectly fine, just running late.
Beautiful night, sparkly night and gentle seas welcomed us back.
I passed Bris Coast Guard, and tried the radio again. It seems the VHF radio set I have has given up the ghost.
After packing up and locking down, and seeing my firends off, decided to visit the coast gaurd building and thank them for putting up with the trouble I could have created. Do you think I could find a way in?
10 foot chain wire fencing around the perimeter, padlocked gates and razor wire, kept me from getting close to a door that I could knock on, and then thank them for.
– M
P.S I wonder if they ever feel unappreciated…..
St Helena Trip
November 7, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / 1 Comment
Well, yet another day of fine sailing. This time K came out – only a single day trip, and St Helena is close enough to sail to, explore, then return to port still in daylight.
We had lunch, drank wine, and I introduced her to Kalamati olives! She was amazed at the texture and taste of them, and couldn’t sit down to eat!
Afterwards, we walked about the island and I acted as tour operator – being that I had been there a few times before. We even managed to get permission to explore the ruins that are normally off limits to unauthorised personel. (I tell you what, a pretty girl in a bikini will always get a ticket into out-of-bounds places!)
The trip back was exciting too, and after chips and dips K thought it might be a good idea to get a few artisitc shots of her. (SHe had seen my work before and knew what to expect)
All round good day out!
– M
Thanks for an AMAZING day of adventure.The chats,the wine,the OLIVES – YUMMY!,the walk,the row back!!:), the photos & most importantly, the company. Thank you again, Michael – I really enjoyed every bit! Next time, a deck chair up front for naps…hehehe. Look forward to our adventure to Tangalooma soon.
Hi and I am glad you like it. Likewise, the company make all the difference.So…you think deck-chairs? I thought swinging string beds…!– M
Sail to Peel
October 30, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Last weekend was my first jaunt to Peel Island, and the infamous Horseshoe Bay. Met heaps of people, and by day’s end I had an invite to have dinner with a couple, and an offer from a young lady to crew my little ship next time I was out.
So it was she crewed my yacht this weekend. Great time, lots of sights, lots of wine and laughs.
Why am I here now writing about it?
– M
Horseshoe Bay Reward
October 24, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Went to horseshoe bay, spent two days there….great time. Journey posted!. See Diagram
It’s out!
October 20, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
The book is done!
What a huge relief. Now to find a publisher worthy to pick up on it.
Know any publishers prepared to take on erotica and violence?
– M
Motoring on.
October 18, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
102.5 K and still no end in sight. but the book has defined shape now.
Direction allows an ending, just got to write it
That book needs to get out now!
October 17, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
It should have been done now….still stuffing about….get out…or die!
Soldiering on.
October 13, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Last night was weird for several reasons
1. The flu has kept me from sleeping, so I decided to continue editing and re-working my last few chapters, so with head spinning I ploughed on..
2. At nine-ish, a head on collision outside my house me had me checking drivers, clearing debris from the road making sure there were no fires starting until the emergency services arrived. I had no idea how it happened, and how the cars ended up where they were..but there were tonnes of spectators and a mess of car parts everyhwere. The drivers were dazed, and I think the guy I sat with had a broken foot or ankle. I wasn’t going to move him unless the car burst into flames.
3. I returned to finish my work and began printing out Chapters 1-14 and stuffed it into a ringbinder and saw a NOVEL! Up ’til now I had only seen portions of printed material, and on-screen manuscripts…now it feels like what it is with 239 pages (A4) with another two or so chapters to go. I think in novel terms that would be 400-600 pages, not sure, size of page / font matters.
4. Coughing fits had me pull a muscle and keep me awake until 2am.
Today I plan to work on the ending so I can print it out and let a collegue go over it. ALways helps to have another set of eyes, and brain take in a story they know nothing of.
-M
Coming to a grinding halt
October 11, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
The book writing ceased, the photography worked ceased…nothing at all happened for four days. Laryngitis kept me from speaking, and the nights yielded little sleep, but much spasms from a diaphram that wanted to cough up nothing.
I had planned a sailing trip on the weekend, but the idea of that ended when I couldn’t walk, much less speak on Friday night.
Yesterday I sat in the open air to try and remember what humanity was like; within an hour I decided that I had enough energy to re-read chapters 11-14 and make some basic notes for editing them later. The fresh air was good, but I was exhausted four PM. You would think that could mean some sleep…alas no.
Today I semi-planned to convert yesterdays work into the script. Instead, I was reminded of the photos that needed doing for this week’s production. I did it begrudgingly, but I also know tommorrow I will feel better that it got done today.
I hope by that time, I will apprecriate the ‘free time’ to convert my notes into this novel, and then complete the final chapters. It’s important that I have a clear run for this last part, as it is dark and dangerous.
-M
Novel writing comes to a halt
October 9, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Got the flu, and just when I didn’t need it
Chest infection, and even laryngitis. Was not my week…..
-M
Chocolate coated beauty!
October 6, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
I was placed at a table of ‘fringe dwellers’ to a wedding. As the photographer, I was seated with the couple’s work colleagues.
‘O’ was her name. seated beside me. Charming young lady, and a treasure to the eye, and a warm personality. Younger than I, I think, although not sure how much.
As the night progressed and the music rose, and the lights came down; she wanted to dance.
I don’t dance, but something about this young lady made me break so many of my rules. Her gravity was incredible!
There was no way I could let her go, I had to watch her, be with her.
I cannot say too much more, but I had a night of shiny sparkle and sensuous dark chocolate.
-M
Book on the home stretch
October 6, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
It is quite possible that the novel will be complete today, after nine months, many late nights and much ups and downs it is drawing to a close. It was going to go another few chapters, but as I wrote so heavily in the last week or so, I could feel it didn’t need it.
As it stands, 89,000 words, and I would think by the close it may get to 100k if I am lucky. Just deciding which ending I go with; the unknown daughter arriving on his doorstep looking a th spitting image of his ex-and very dead lover; or return to where it all started, a drunken converstion at a dinner party where people scold others in the news for events they think they know better – and the secrets that remain hidden underneathe the table.
Perhaps I will go with both, and finalize with the daughter’s arrival. That way the ending ends with a can of worms being opened and leaving the reader wondering what happens next….
-M
Writing is so hard to get back to…
September 28, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Boats aside; photography aside….
Writing…it was easy at first!
It came so fluidly earlier this year, and even now I know the rest of the novel by heart. But do you think I can get myself back to write the damn thing?
It’s not easy leaving and coming back to it. No wonder some writers lock themselves away from society whilst they engage themselves in a book. No wonder some song writers do funny diets, weird habits when compiling their work. WHen I am in the zone I don’t see time…I see words and feel the emotion need to write them, and nothing wants me to leave it. Food is a burden, phone calls are a burden, toilet breaks are a burden; and sleep ends the current compilation and introduces you to a new day in the next day; a new day where the responsibility points at anything but the writing marathon given from the night before.
Oh well. Tonight is my writing dedicating night, and rather than just trying to add words to my last set, I find re-reading the last chapter helps me link the chains of memory back to where I was before. Hopefully, I will lock-in quickly and progess suitably
-M
What floats your boat?
September 26, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Water floats mine; how about you???
-M
Next newcomers to be exposed to sailing
September 26, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
Not a good day for introducing newcomers to sailing
L and K joined me for a sailing expedition, but the wind was high…about 20-25 knots, and so too was the ‘chop’. The marina motoring was easy enough, but as we exited through the markers, the waves rocked the boat to the point that the bow needed to split the waves and a wash came upand over the boat, covering us all with spray.
K was excited by the new experience, while L tried to take shelter behind the cabin. I was just feeling inconvenienced by the spray. Had it been in the open water, I might give it a charge, but this was still in the channel of the harbour, under motor no less. It’s not really an experience worthy of excitement.
I put K in charge of pointing the boat into the wind, and when the sails came up, the boat lurched to one side, and punched the waves with aggression. K felt the pressure on the wheel and found it hard to know what to do; L became scared with the tilt of the boat and the uncertainty of where the boat was going or doing. K was also unsure of the actions of what the boat doing. I had to tell both of them that this was normal and barely scratching the surfaces of the tolerances it was built to take.
I could see L was silently worried and after only thirty minutes sailing to winward, I decided to return the boat to home. Event though her face still showed concern, I could tell that at that moment, it showed less than a second of ‘relief’.
A boat heading to ‘windward’ is very different to a boat heading 180 degrees from it. The wind settles, and the once thrashing swell, cradles the boat and offers a gentle roll. Even the boat sits upright, the lurching left behind.
L smiled, but I couldn’t tell if it was because we turned for home, or because the boat and the ‘relevant’ water under us had settled.
The trip between the markers had to be slowed, to match the traffic coming in. If I had my way, or if I was the only person entering harbour, I would have taken it as fast as the swell moved across the surface. The guy ahead of me motored in, and chose the left hand side of the channel. Certainly it was a wise move…had it been a low tide; the deeper water was there and he was seeking a good passage.
According to regulations though, boats must pass port to port, and he was as far port in the channel as he could have been. I was deeper than him, but stayed starboard knowing that I we were just one hour from the highest tide. Imagine the confusion of those approaching us from the harbour seeing two yachts abreast and barely a space between them. My depth sounder reminded me that my side was fine enough to travel on, and ‘law’ was on my side.
End of the story: We all made it well enough back home. No colliisions or dramas.
Those who are ‘naturals’
September 23, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
I have had several people on my boat now, and there are some who get it, some who don’t, and some who never will.
‘L’ drove it, but didn’t get it. As a result, two sails tore and needed repair. ‘S’ drove it, and worked out drift, twist, and ‘sailed’ from halfway into the journey and successfully predicted movement within the boat and allowed safe passage home.
‘H’ drove and made a small meal of it; ‘R’ took to it well, though a little rough at first, but she tuned in over time. By the end, I was confidant to trust her effort. She brought us home, and within twenty metres of our final berthing.
Sailing is not easy. Your ‘engines’ are pieces of fabric, ropes and winches and rigging. It can be exhausting, awkward; challenging; dangerous; sometimes life threatening. During it’s worst, it can be beyond ‘bad’. But at it’s best, sailing is a dream and shows you the best of the worlds that most would never see. These are the places of where dreams are born, and the freedom of space is limited only by those pieces of fabric and the sturdiness of the hull, and the weather.
The twisting and turning nature of a sailing boat comes the differences of two places; what is above the waterline; what is below it. The water moves, but not at the same speed or direction that the wind does. Both the changes under the water, and the changing air above it will take a boat off course within seconds. You cannot expect a saling boat to stay ‘straight’ without working at keeping it to do so. Most think that if you turn the wheel and point it at the one place, it will stay that way and not need too much attention after setting course; like a car, or even a bike.
Dolphins off the Starboard-Bow
September 19, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Books, Personal / Leave a Comment
After the Fri/Sat ferocious winds we had, Sunday was completely different. ( A little cold with 15.5 degrees on the Marina!)
After breakfast, I decided it was the day to make a giant leap into the beyond (Tangalooma actually). I had wanted a companion to travel with, on the count of it’s still early days and just to make sure, but owing to the short notice, the windy days that proceded it, I lucked out. Go or stay, go or stay….mmm…go.
It’s a risk I have taken already, but when I have, it was not so far a trip for that one time. Confidence has been building, and I am getting to know the boat and the ‘ropes’ as it were.
With all the valves closed, the rig ‘at the ready’, the motor started, I headed out between the markers for a day’s sailing. With the sails now up, the wind was stiff at first but settled into a west-north wester; which, if it stayed that way, would be enough to get me there, and better to get me back.
Between the islands of St Helena and Green the run was a dream, though the wind was slwoing. I managed to pass another yacht headed for the same place. He called out to me as I passed within 20 metres; “How are you managing that speed?”. Our sails were having trouble staying inflated and St Helena was shadowing us from getting good wind. Nevertheless it picked up again between the gaps of St Helena and Mud Island.
I switched to auto pilot and decided to check and take measurements to find out if I was on course by using the charts and GPS. To my amazement I was spot on. Two large container ships moved across the waters about three nautical miles ahead of me; it was then when I found out that the auto-pilot was not holding me on bearing, and I had to make a course correction to get me back. Originally I was going to take the deeper water route into the shipping channell; but after looking at the size of those things, and the speed, I decided to chart a new course in a narrow-ish channel to the south.
No wind, motor running, flat water – I nearly had to motor the entire last leg into Tangalooma with 4nm to go!
Had the wind remained, I would have been there just after lunch, butl 2.pm is when I got there. It left me with just enough time to drop anchor, run ashore in the dinghy, have lunch, a brief look around, and way anchor back for home.
One third into the trip and I noticed a fin coming out of the water in front of me. I had to leave the wheel on auto-pilot and go up front for a better look; to lean over the bow. I couldn’t believe it, I had a dolphin escort! They rode my pressure wave and looked up at me through the water! I was only a metre and a half away, and I could almost touch them. I had my camera in the cabin, but I didn’t want to leave the spectacle. Just as well, because one minute they were there, the next they’re gone. I saw three in the space of 3nm and each time they surfed for a minute, then vanished.
Sunset fell over the land, and the silhouette of Brisbane could be seen. Golden colours; yellows at first, then oranges, then reds. Pretty spectacular though I knew I had the next challenge ahead of me – navigating at night. This was something I had never done; except in theory. I had hoped for a stronger wind to get me there sooner, but even that too was fading.
The slower wind slowed the boat, which in turn allowed me to take my time reading the chart, the GPS, and the land in front of me. I switched on nav lights, compass, and re-checked the tide chart. I was coming in on a rising tide; thank god for that (Just in case I stuffed up).
As the light emptied from the sky, and the distant land glistened in twinkling lights, I realized that the ‘theory’ part of nav does not go far enough to warn about the lights on the land, and the lights on the sea and how similar they can be, especially the all important cardinal markers which are white, like all the land lights!
To end this story much sooner and going into more trivial detail , let me say I got back without incident, navved my way successfully into harbour by 8.45pm, tied up the boat, packed all away, and went home.
Chart photo attached!
Legal For Sailing
September 17, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
So,
L/Laugh is now registered, and I am slowly getting things together on it. Just having trouble with the leaky water bladders I installed a few days ago. One of the joints is not sealing properly. Not sure which one, hard to tell – luckily the bilge pump dumps out the spill in a few minutes.
Today it is blowing a gale (literally), but I hope tomorrow is better. We will see.
Book Writing
September 2, 2005 / By angelwanderer / Personal / Leave a Comment
73,000 words into a novel….the first…and perhaps the only. On the home stretch and it’s like a steam train now. Hardly much to ‘think up’ now…it’s rolling on to the end easily.
Can’t wait to end it.
-M
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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