{"id":6017,"date":"2019-05-15T05:56:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T05:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6017"},"modified":"2019-05-15T06:27:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T06:27:16","slug":"things-that-go-bump-in-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6017","title":{"rendered":"Things That Go Bump In The Night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBump\u201d is actually far too genteel a word. It\u2019s more like Ka-Boom, Ka-Thump, Ka-Rash. But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We leave Bundaberg township on the early tide. It takes a couple of hours of motoring to get to the seaway and once there the wind is fickle. At this point we should have turned back and waited another day for better wind, but we\u2019re keen to get north and still struggling to re-learn the old adage that plans have no place in cruising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a slow trip and difficult with the wind right behind us – our best angles of sail are between 80-120 degrees, so we either have to sail the angles and gybe frequently (for non-sailors that means moving the mainsail and boom from one side of the boat to the other, a potentially dangerous manoeuvre if it\u2019s not carefully controlled) or sail dead downwind with the mainsail on one side of the boat and the genoa on the other (known as goose-winging). We do a bit of both but it\u2019s not comfortable and by the time we get to Pancake Creek we\u2019re ready to stop.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now it\u2019s dark and being unfamiliar with the creek we opt to stay in the outer anchorage where there\u2019s a couple of public moorings. One is already occupied, but the other is dead ahead of us so for convenience sake we pick it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, it should be said, these are not your average NSW moorings. Oh no – apparently Queensland expects the QE II to pull in at any time. The pick-up line is the size of a giant boa constrictor, and the mooring ball is huge and heavy. We run our bridle lines through the pick-up line and pull it up as snug as we can, but there\u2019s still a lot of slack line between us and the mooring ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Not your average mooring buoy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
That’s a BIG pick-up line!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All is well and we settle in for the night.\u00a0 At 2.15am we\u2019re rudely jolted out of our deep slumber by an almighty bang on the side of our hull. Did I mention this is a creek with a strong tidal flow?\u00a0The tide has turned and with wind against tide the mooring ball is now lying mid-way down the boat inside our two hulls, and with every swing of the boat it crashes first against one hull and then the other.\u00a0 We rush up on deck with head torches and discover it\u2019s even worse – the pull of the tide is submerging the ball and it\u2019s going underneath one hull to re-emerge on the outside and then the process repeats itself, first one hull and the other.\u00a0 It\u2019s like being inside a giant pinball machine.\u00a0 All we can think about is our nice new bottom paint being systemically rubbed off with each pass of the monstrous mooring ball.\u00a0 We think about letting it go and anchoring instead, but the chance is our anchor chain would then be dragging under the hulls too, causing even more damage. We finally come up with a solution that involves getting another line onto the mooring line and winching it up to the mast and securing it there. The recalcitrant mooring ball is now tamed.\u00a0 We on the other hand, are exhausted and sleep-deprived with jangling nerves. Ain\u2019t cruising grand?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Our makeshift solution<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
How to tame your mooring ball…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pancake Creek is a pretty place. It’s a pity we’re too tired to appreciate it…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBump\u201d is actually far too genteel a word. It\u2019s more like Ka-Boom, Ka-Thump, Ka-Rash. But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-1z3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6017"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6022,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6017\/revisions\/6022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}