Mooloolaba QLD
24/7/2015 Musing in Mooloolaba
Our sailing around Australia adventures
have brought us to Mooloolaba for what we thought would be a few days, as our
plans were to sprint northwards so that we could catch up with Neville and
Amanda on Bossa Nova and to find some nice warm weather. Unfortunately the
weather has dictated that it would be a couple of weeks.
Bossa Nova and crew are now well north of
us, headed for the Percy Islands group. They are sending us cheeky reports of sunny days, turquoise water and lovely places to anchor.
Unable to tweak the weather to our
satisfaction, we have busied ourselves with some shore activity in Mooloolaba,
a means to remove the angst of not being able to stick to our plans.
Last weekend we spent an hour or so
watching the Surf Lifesaving clubs surf rescue boats competition. This was a
series of races in boats not unlike our dinghy.
The format of the races saw one person at
the start line a little way up the beach. The gun would go off, they would sprint
to the dinghy. Another person was at the dinghy a little way into the water,
both would leap in, start the motor and hurtle off shore towards some marker
buoys. Once they got to the marker buoys they would circle around one buoy then
around a second. As they circled around the second marker buoy they picked a
third person up out of the water into the boat, all in one motion. Such was the
precision, timing and speed of these boats, the third person appeared in the
boat like a magic act. Then they raced back
to the beach, finishing by jumping out of the boat and sprinting up the beach
to the finish line.
After marveling at how fast these boats
went and how skillful the teamwork was, I suggested to Leanne that we should
include emergency evacuation of Easy Tiger by dinghy as one of the drills.
Next morning, we prepared to leave Easy Tiger to go to shore. I fancied myself as a rescue boat racer form the day before. I looked at my trusty stead (our dinghy). I took a breath and leapt in, I pulled the starter, firing up the engine instantly. Then I waited
for Leanne. She came a minute or so later and threw the rubbish bag in. Then
she went back to get her shoes. I waited.
Finally she had her shoes and was about to get in. I revved the engine
expectantly. No. Leanne’s not getting in because she was NOT going to sit on a
wet seat. Off she went to get a rag to wipe the seat. I turned the engine off. The racing urge died.
Finally, the rubbish was in, the seat was
dry and we had our shoes. Off to the shore we went. We were puttering along looking at the the McMansions lining the waterway, when another dinghy ripped past us. Instantly my racer mode kicked in again.
I twisted the throttle, daring to ignore the 6 knot limit no wash signs.
I steered into the wash of the other dinghy, we were gaining on it. The single hooded figure in the other dinghy was crouched low. I twisted the throttle harder trying to get every inch of power out of our outboard. The
destination jetty we have to use (otherwise we get nasty sand on our feet) came in sight. The other dinghy had about thirty metres on us but confirmed by is path the same destination. As we had three people in our dinghy, the other had only one, we couldn't catch up. The
other dinghy gained line honors at the jetty.
We leapt on to the public jetty and
introduced ourselves to the woman who had had beaten us in the dinghy
challenge. (even though she didn’t realize it was a challenge).
Turns out that Sue and Mike are twenty year
veterans of cruising sailing on their yacht Yarandoo 2. They have been round
the world including places like Vanuatu and Alaska.
We thought that some of the challenges we
had faced since leaving our home port in 2013 were pretty big, but after
spending some time with Mike and Sue on their yacht and hearing their many
tales of these far off places, our adventure seemed a little less…well,
adventurous.
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| In dinghy racer mode getting psyched, visioning the win...and waiting for the crew |
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| and waiting... |
Your a funny buggy Steve
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