Sailing Around Australia; Flat Spot

Boatworks, Coomera River, Gold Coast

6/2/2016 Flat Spot

It is fair to say that sailing around Australia aboard Easy Tiger is the adventure of a lifetime. We do feel a little bit embarrassed to say that every now and then we hit a flat spot.

All great adventures had their dull moments I am sure. These are the times that can’t be described as exciting, dangerous or even mildly stimulating. Theses are the times when the adventurers just have to grind it out, do the hard yards or sit and wait at the ready.

One such flat spot has been the past 12 days. For theses days we have had Easy Tiger pulled out of the water and sitting half in a shed at the Boatworks near the Gold Coast.

This was so that we could have Easy Tiger’s starboard keel repaired. As usual we also took the opportunity to do other repairs and of course have some new bits added.

To save money we try to do as much as we can ourselves, so for most of the 12 days we have been flat out sun up to after sun down, scrubbing, sanding, polishing, glueing, cleaning and other laboring tasks as well.

While we were doing this Easy Tiger had her bows pointed north with the stern inside the shed. This had a multiplier effect as the sun blazed down on the foredeck all day, the shed blocked what little breeze there was and we melted as we worked.

The heat didn’t abate much in the evenings so sleep was something we needed and didn’t get much of.

We got as much as we could done, but some days it was working in slow motion and more than a couple of times a trip to the shops was made on a very feeble excuse, just so that we could sit in the air-conditioning for a while. Unfortunately one of the coolest shops was Bunnings and that meant our budget was whacked again.

Some jobs were invented y mistakes, adding to our already short tempers. We used degreaser to remove some dirty black marks on our foredeck. The degreaser got all the dirt off really well. The deck looked a treat. Unfortunately the degreaser then ran over the sides of the hulls and took all our freshly applied polish with it. So we had to re-polish the hulls, which took a very long day.

Once our keel was repaired, they had to sand back and re-apply a coat of anti foul. That is black sticky paint stuff that, bless their cotton socks, they decided to apply by spraying rather than rolling. We were told that from the minute they finished spraying we would have an hour to completely scrub the boat, or the overspray would settle and be near on impossible to remove. That was also the hottest day.

One could only imagine our relief at being put back in the water at 4.00pm yesterday and last night we slept like babes even though the wind was howling through the rigging, the boat was buffeted from side to side and the rain was heavy on the roof. Plus it was still at least 28 degrees.

Today has been spent tidying up after the works. Leanne has spent half the day at the free Laundromat and I have done some inside jobs including relocating phone charger points. We have done one of five or six more wash downs to get the black foot prints and various other marks of our beloved Easy Tiger.

Tomorrow we will start a short trip form the gold coast to the Manly marina in Brisbane.  Being on the move should also be the end of our current “flat spot”.

Word of warning; don't fish in a green zone in Queensland. That hovering helicopter isn't taking holiday snaps, it's taking photo's to use as evidence that is then used to slap you with an $1800 fine. Ask us how we know! Nice of Leanne to give them a wave!!!

ET with wheels, lifted out at Boatworks.

Poor sore keel!

Our new weapon in the battle against sand flies and mozzies

Flycreens now cover our cockpit

The naughty dinghy even got some attention scrubbed, re-glued  and cleaned.

Sitting in the marina at the gold coast, ready to go.