Buccaneer Bound: Not So Good Friday

Easter was our dress rehearsal trip – a chance to test out the gear and the config, the sleeping arrangements, boat weights and fuel consumption. Let’s just say we hope that luck is friendlier to us on the real trip….

Daz and I spent the weekend before loading Skull Drag’n to the brim with most of the things we plan to take. We decided to make the simulation as real to the real thing as possible, including doing the food shop and pack for the full 3 weeks at sea so we could get an accurate read on weight distribution and space. Daz kept veto-ing me from packing more weight in the cabin storage because he was worried that we’d sit low in the bow, whereas I was more worried about weight down the back with over 400L of fuel and 200L of water.

Anyway we got it all loaded, and wouldn’t you know it, 2 days before heading to Hervey Bay Daz was driving the Dmax around town when it started overheating. 4L of water added to the radiator wasn’t a good sign, neither was the boiling sound coming from the radiator when he pulled up in the garage. Hmmm. Off to the Isuzu dealer for the Dmax then. And once again the trusty old Patrol was there the pull us out of the shit and tow the boat to Hervey Bay to meet up at Bruce and Daph’s house.

The next morning was Good Friday. We were up early and finished all the last minute prep on both Skull Drag’n and Bundy Runner, and off to the boat ramp. We had planned to spend 2 nights on the water around the inside of Fraser Island. Night 1 was to be down in the southern part of the Great Sandy Strait, and night 2 was to be at Wathumba Creek on the inside of Fraser Island at the northern end.

Well we didn’t need a degree in meteorology to determine that there we’re going to be some challenges. As we approached the boat ramp a glance out the car window had us all groaning in disappointment. It was rough. As in, borderline should-we-bother-going-out rough. But we had a mission to complete and I wanted to know if the boat would even float off the trailer or if it would go straight to the bottom under the fully packed weight of it all.
So we decided to do it anyway.

We launched the boats. They floated. Bruce and Daz drove the trailers home while Daph and I and the kids hung around with the boats tied up to the wharf in the marina.

If you ever find yourself bored and without electricity, take my advice and head down to your local boat ramp. There’s always something to see there. In this case it was a boat load of six oldies (one in a wheelchair) loaded into 4.5m old fibreglass boat that had been in someone’s back yard since about 1973. Miraculously the motor started, just long enough for them to push off the wharf. Then it conked out.Then the wind got hold of them and started pushing them towards the rocks as old mate tried over and over again to restart the old 2 stroke.

I sighed and looked at Daph. “Fifty bucks says I end up over on those rocks tyring to save them”. It was like watching a slow speed train crash. Five minutes later, with old mate still trying to start the donk, it was a toss up between if they’d hit the rocks first or get crunched under a low walk bridge they were drifting towards. None of them were nible enough to do anything but calmly sit and wait to accept whatever cards they were dealt. So I decided to help. After hot footing it to the rocks and wading in I intercepted them as they drifted into the breakwall. Then proceeded 5 minutes thigh-deep break wall rock hopping and boat handling as I dragged their grateful arses back to the boat ramp and left them to (hopefully) pull out their boat, go home and have a cuppa. Good deed for the day – Done. Karma would be my friend today surely....

Daz and Bruce arrived back at the ramp and we got out of there as quick as we could before any more people needed rescuing.

Upon leaving the marina, we bashed out into the very sloppy Great Sandy Strait. We decided to forego the pleasure of crashing all the way down the strait in the southerly chop, and headed up for the protection of Wathumba Creek instead. On the way there were a few stops to test fuel bladder hoses and fuel consumption and different speeds and conditions etc.

Bundy Runner

Turns out Bruce’s new ETEC is a bit of a weapon – it’s chewing way less fuel than the 4 stroke on Skull Drag’n and, don’t tell anyone, but it’s faster! That said I’m calling the race results inconclusive as Bruce and Daph hadn’t loaded Bundy Runner with the full load of fuel, water, food etc like we did. So I guess time will tell.

Skull Drag'n

Anyway after fart-arsing around for a few hours we carefully poked our way into Wathumba Creek on a fairly low but still out going tide. It was touch and go if we’d make it in or end up high and dry. We polished the skeg a few times on the way in and eventually make it past the sandbars into a deep(ish) puddle upstream.

By this stage it was mid afternoon and we decided to anchor up and and stay for the night. We decided to anchor Skull Drag’n first with the bow out and a stern rope back to shore. So after setting the bow anchor I started backing into the shore while Daz fed out the rope on the front. The tide was really ripping out, so a little bit of power was necessary to manoeuvre and soon I had the motor tilted up as we came close in nudging the sand. We hit the sand with a shaper bump than I expected, but whatever. With the tide in danger of pushing us sideways I quickly turned the motor off. Grabbed the stern rope and jumped over the side and secured the stern to a tree. Daz pulled up on the anchor rope and soon we in position with Bundy Runner alongside and cracking a stubbie.

Drone photograpy - Anchored up at low tide in Wathumba

The afternoon passed with swimming, Daz doing a bit of Drone photography and generally chilling out and chatting. It wasn’t until the tide was half in again that I jumped over for a swim. Climbing back up the ladder afterwards was when I noticed that that there was something a bit odd about how the motor looked under the water. Thinking it was probably just refraction, I raised the motor to check. Well....

Chillin' at Wathumba

Tilds watching the moon rise

You know that gut dropping feeling you get when you realise you did something really really dumb and expensive? Well that was me when I realised that the skeg of the motor was snapped off. Well I lingered there for a second just swearing and swearing. Then swam to Daz and told him the good news. It had to have been either a bump on the sandbar on the way in, or my reversing up to the shore maneuver that did it. We swam to the place we came ashore and Daz groped under the sand. Sure enough under the sand was a log. And embedded in that log, our broken skeg. Now I really felt like a goose and I honestly spend the rest of the afternoon feeling sick at the thought of what I’d done. While the motor was still able to run and steer, the Skeg is needed to protect the propeller from damage – we’d have to fix it before the big trip.

First the car, now the boat. Well nothing else could go wrong, right?

Wrong.

Moon Rise at Wathumba

Gourmet Daz

That evening just after we went to bed the rain started. It pissed down on and off throughout the night. It’s surprising how much water gathers in a boat when it rains. Soon Bruce and Daph where laying in a puddle, and Daz and I were up and down all night pumping out the water and generally being wet and miserable. The Kids were ok in the cabin though and for a while Daz and I tried to join them, but it was just cramped and sweaty and horrible. We gave up on sleep. Next morning it was still raining and we decided to have breaky and go home.

Oh well – some life lessons were learned.

It’s been a month since then – We’re looking like insurance has agreed to replace the skeg for us, but Isuzu are giving us the royal dick around regarding the Dmax. At one stage they agreed to put a new motor in it (the cylinder compression is ranging from 20PSI to 200PSI – in other words, it's fucked), but then someone up the chain said ‘no’ – so we’re waiting while they run more and more tests, no doubt hoping to get out of the warranty.

We have the Patrol as the backup plan. But really….come on Isuzu. Dont be dickheads!