Back to Australia after going home for Christmas

 Mid November 2023 I tied up True North in a slip at the Rivergate Marina and flew home for a visit and to have Christmas with family.  It was great to be home and reconnect in person with family.  The time flew by much to fast and I boarded my flight back to Brisbane mid January.  I had booked True North to be lifted out of the water to have new antifouling applied to her bottom and also to do some other jobs which required her to be “on the hard”.  Two days after I arrived back in a very steamy and hot Brisbane True North was backed into the travel lift slings and raised out of the water.

Up she goes

She has a slimy but reasonably clean bottom after two years since last being anti fouled 

The yard workers quickly got to work pressure washing the slime off.

The time on the hard went from an estimated three days to a full week as weather (torrential rain) prevented painting some days and I added a little more work by having the waterline raised to prevent it from quickly being covered with algae and requiring constant cleaning.  I worked on a number of jobs on the boat including removing an old thru-hull fitting for the speed / depth / temperature sensor and installing a new one, overhauling several other thru-hull fittings, installing new drain hoses from the cockpit drains to the corresponding thru-hull fittings and many other jobs.  The weather during the week was in the mid 30 degrees Celsius with close tom100 percent humidity.  I spent most of the week dripping with sweat and wearing soaking clothes.  I would often get into the shower fully clothed to wash the sweat from both me and my clothes.

Andrew, my nephew arrived in Brisbane two days before True North went back in the water.  My hotel booking had been made for 5 days so Andrew and I stayed aboard True North in the work yard.  It was very hot and noisy but we survived.  Finally a week after she was hauled onto dry land, True North was lifted again in the travel lift slings and put back into her proper aquatic environment.

New antifouling applied and ready for relaunch

Heading back to the water

We stayed at the marina in a slip for another two days to get supplies aboard and ready ourselves for our next adventures.  Unfortunately the freezer did not work when turned back on after launch.  We rely on frozen food for the long passages between stops where we can visit grocery stores so we had to get it fixed quickly before we could depart.  One of my yachtie friends Mark called while I was trying to find a good refrigeration contractor and he was able to give me the needed information.  I called Mark’s contact who was unfortunately busy but gave me the information to diagnose the problem and suggested another marine refrigeration company.  When I called the second company they told me they were booked out for weeks but could send parts if needed.  A few minutes after I hung up from that call, they called back and said “you are already booked for our technicians to come today, they will be there in about an hour”.  It turned out that the marina yard manager had used his leverage to arrange the service call and had not yet called to,update me.  The technicians replaced a failed compressor controller module and the freezer came back to life - YEA!  Andrew and I immediately borrowed the marina courtesy car and headed to the grocery store to stock up.  After shopping we attended the marina’s Australia Day Eve barbecue and had a nice evening chatting with other boat owners and enjoying the excellent food and copious drinks provided.

The next day Andrew and I took the dinghy about 7 miles upriver to the central district of Brisbane to take in the sights.  It was Australia Day but Brisbane does not seem to have the big public celebrations like those we experienced in Sydney.  Nevertheless we enjoyed visiting South Band, the botanical garden and the north shore riverwalk areas.  We had an excellent lunch at the riverwalk area and headed back downstream to the marina around 19:00.

The view of the Story Bridge and the river rom our lunch stop at riverwalk

Today we left the marina and sailed south to the Horseshoe Bay anchorage at Peel Island.  It was a lovely sail down Moreton Bay to the anchorage.  There were a lot of boats in the anchorage due to the Australia Day long weekend but the anchorage is large so anchoring was not a problem.

Horseshoe Bay anchorage - it was overcast when we arrived

Immediately after anchoring we had a swim off the back of True North to beat the heat.  The water was beautiful!  After a snack, we headed to the beach to explore.  We saw a stingray, millions of soldier crabs which Andrew really enjoyed and various other small sea creatures.

The view of the anchorage from the beach - the sun came out!

Tomorrow we head down “Main Passage” towards the Gold Coast.