Deanbilla, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland
Our first Tangalooma Tale
Yesterday, we took Easy Tiger on her second
voyage form Brisbane to Tangalooma. I am pleased to say it went off without a
hitch, unlike our first trip.
Not many know the story, but when we first became owners of Easy
Tiger, our first trip was from the RQYS to Tangalooma on Moreton Island, about
15 nautical miles from Brisbane.
Tangalooma is where the Queensland government dumped some wrecks of
barges and dredges that had been littering the river. They took them over to
Tangalooma and put them parallel with the beach, hoping to make a breakwater
from the wind and the currents. The breakwater idea failed, but it is now a
good snorkeling , diving and boating spot.
We arrived in Brisbane, with our daughter Bree and her boyfriend at
the time, Clinton. We were very excited to be spending our first week on “our”
boat, Easy Tiger.
Our guy, Ken, that was helping us look after Easy Tiger had parked
it in the VIP pens right in front of the restaurant and bars at the Royal
Queensland Yacht Squadron.
I must point out at this time that my sailing experience up until
this point consisted of 4 days on a yacht while doing my competent crew
certificate.
The four of us sprang out of the taxi and ran down the jetty,
leaping aboard our boat. Our luggage was stowed quick time and we went over the
boat with a fine tooth comb, trying to remember everything from our inspection,
lift out and test sail a couple of months earlier.
The day went by in a flash with the girls going shopping and the
guys, checking everything out, then deciding that we would go for a look see in
the dinghy.
In my haste, I grabbed the dinghy rope in both hands, and let the
clutch go before I had the rope around the winch. The weight of the dinghy sent
it crashing in the water, pulling the rope through my hands very quickly. This
caused a serious burn that blistered within seconds in the both of my palms.
For the rest of the week I was doing everything by using fingertips
only.
The girls arrived back from the shops and by the time all the
provisions were stowed, it was time for dinner. Leanne had bought some meat for
the barbecue and set about plugging the barbecue gas line in. The bayonet was
quite stiff, so she took a step back to give the gas bayonet a good push, but
she stepped back too far.
Into the water she tumbled, much to the mirth of the considerable
crowd now gathered in the RQYS bar.
The next morning we set off for our trip to Tangalooma. We had been
going for a few hours and were feeling quite pleased that we had left the mooring
pen, got out of the busy marina and around St Helena Island without any
mishaps. Even with me steering by fingertips and heavily bandaged hands.
As we approached Moreton Island the need to tack or something like
that became more obvious to me. As in my training , I announced to everyone
that we would prepare to tack.
Leanne was fishing and carried on with that. Bree was sitting on a
chair reading a book and carried on with that. Clinton was inside getting
something to eat. So I prepared to tack, by myself.
Preparation to tack on Easy Tiger involves bringing the traveller to
the centre of the boat. Unfortunately, the previous owners must have got a
special price on blue rope, because our dinghy lift rope, traveller rope and
the main sheet, were all blue.
In my preparation to tack I managed to undo the dinghy haul up rope,
causing it to once again allow the dinghy to free fall into the water. In a
state of shock I called to the crew, “oh shit, the dinghies in the water”. To
which they responded by carrying on doing what they were doing.
I needed to get a response and some help quickly to tack, as we were
now travelling straight towards a beach at about 8 knots with the dinghy, which
was now upside down, bobbing along behind us. All I could do then was yell
“F…..g man overboard, crew”.
Leanne, alerted to the urgency of the situation took the helm and
fired up the motors, Clinton helped me winch the traveller over and around went
Easy Tiger. We managed to furl the head sail to slow the boat. Once we were
slowed, Clinton and I hauled the dinghy in and managed to get it back into
position.
We motored gingerly the last couple of miles to Tangalooma.
Bree and Clinton were keen divers. As we arrived, they had their
scuba gear on and jumped in. They hadn’t been gone long, when Bree surfaced and
was yelling for help. Without further ado, Leanne and I dropped the dinghy and
jumped in. Amazingly the dinghy motor started and we raced off to help our
daughter who was finding the current too strong.
In our haste to get to her aid, Leanne and I had jumped into the
opposite side for operating the dinghy. I was wondering why the throttle controller
seemed quite awkward, even though I could only use my fingertips.
Bree grabbed the front of the dinghy as we got to her, but thinking I
was reducing the revs, I gave it full power and we lurched forward, going
straight over the top of our beloved daughter.
Leanne was screaming, I was shouting and fortunately, behind us Bree
bobbed up all ok and was soon shouting as well. Then, Clinton surfaced and began shouting at
Bree for not letting him know she was going to the surface, and Bree was
shouting at him for shouting at her.
We got the two shouting divers back to Easy Tiger and again set off
in the dinghy, this time the right way around. We needed to practice. We went
to have a look at the wrecks, but got too close. A wave picked up the dinghy
and as it went through, the dinghy crashed down onto part of the wreck,
temporarily stranding us on the barnacle infested rusty steel hulk. Now we were
shouting at each other again.
Another wave came through and picked us up, so while there was water
underneath us I gunned the engine and we reversed away from the obstacle.
Leanne demanded to be taken to shore, She had to get on some dry
land to sit and think. I put the dinghy into gear.
As the dinghy started to go forward the whole thing started shaking
violently. We shook and shuddered our way to shore with Leanne shouting at me
that we had managed to wreck our new dinghy in one day. She had me convinced.
At shore while Leanne went for some personal time in the shade, I
inspected the dinghy. I found the painter, or the rope that we tie the dinghy
to Easy Tiger with, which of course was blue, was too long. It had gone right
under the dinghy and wrapped itself around the propeller, causing the awful
vibration.
Luckily for my sail in aspirations, the rest of the week was a delight. We really took to boat ownership
from then on.
We do look back at our first Tangalooma trip with fond memories
of the “learning experiences” we had those first 2 days.That being, rope burns really hurt, you can't stand on water, you
shouldn't have all your ropes the same colour and it is actually really hard to
kill a dinghy.
We have had a few hiccups and “happenings” since then, one in
particular that we are going the gold coast next week to have repaired.
When Leanne insisted that we go back to Tangalooma again this week, I was
understandably a little cautious. Fortunately our trip was event free.
