21
Dec 2016
After last year’s busy and exciting
year, 2016 proved to be equally dramatic, but not for cruising reasons!
The Christmas of 2015 was our first at home for 7 years,
and our planned 4 month home visit got stretched by a month, to accommodate
Mary’s 2nd Cataract op, which incidentally proved to have been
better in all respects than the other eye (done in NZ the previous
year)…..better procedure, recovery period, result, and at half the price!
One of our missions in RSA, had been
to look at houses/and/or Retirement village options for our return in 2017, at
the end of our sailing adventures. Quite frankly, the retirement village
option, although sensible, did not excite us. One concept we had considered, was that of a
“family compound” in a secure estate. During our stay, Kate introduced us to
Sunset Links, an estate, where she had always wanted to live. She arranged for
an agent to show us 5 houses which were on the market, so that we could assess
the place.
There was NO intention of buying …
only of looking! One of the houses we were shown however, struck us all as
“perfect”! Now Kate is not one to sit around dreaming! Within the very next
week, she put in an offer on the “perfect” place, which was accepted, AND, sold
her house in Tamboerskloof. All of a sudden, we had an exciting solution for
our return to RSA when we swallowed the anchor, and were able to help Kate make
the move just before we left.
We flew back to Bundaberg, a whole
heap more relaxed, and could turn our attention back to the last chapter of our
cruising adventures. After 5 months on the hard, Sheer’s antifoul looked like
crazy paving. We had no option but to have the hull sandblasted back to the
gelcoat, to remove the residue of 7 years accumulated antifoul. We then had to
spray on 2 new layers of epoxy, a primer, and 2 layers of Altex 5 antifoul. It
was a very expensive exercise, but they did a superb job, and Sheer would be
good for the next 2 years, which would take us to Indonesia, Malaysia, and back
through the Indian Ocean to Richards Bay, and Cape Town.
We had joined the Sail2Indonesia
rally, and were en route to Cairns (Rally muster point), when Lord Perkins
water pump seized, forcing us to make an unplanned stop in Mackay.
Ghosting in
under spinnaker in 5knots of breeze, and fighting 2 knot tidal cross currents,
we finally dropped anchor outside the harbour at3.00h!
We spent 2 days having the pump
replaced, but a further 13 weeks addressing Mary’s sudden erratic heartbeat.
The first visits to doctors achieved nothing, but we managed to get Mary into
the Private 24/7 all hours emergency facility at 6.00am during one such episode, and they were able
to record it all on the ECG.
At last we had a definitive diagnosis,
Atrial Fibrillation, and the Cardiologist on duty could begin the appropriate
treatment process… Blood thinners to reduce the risks of clots, and a beta
blocker ( various brands and dosages) to regulate the sinus rhythm.
By this time we had missed the
Indonesian Rally, and had also made the call NOT to take chances with any
further long passages, taking us out of medical reach.
Our first step involved getting an
extended Medical visa, as we should have departed by 15th July, and
our visa expired 17 August. We applied for 6 months until Jan 2017, to get Mary
stabilized, and take the boat 1000nm south, (out of cyclone areas), find a
marina/or broker, and return home. We were very grateful to Chris and Steve
(Scott Free) , who came up to Mackay to spend a week with us, to cheer us up!
I will say it only once. The
Australian Immigration and Border Control Authorities are on the whole, an
unhelpful, bureaucratic, insensitive, illogical, money grabbing bunch of
extortionists. They are the very reason why so few global cruisers include
Australia in their routing plans!
We left Mackay in mid September, with
our medical visa’s expiring on 1st December, and our cruising permit
expiring 3rd November, nowhere near enough to cover our needs.
Being so close to the Whitsundays, we
decided to do a quick trip to explore them, before using any Northerlies on
offer to head down south, very aware that this period could very well be our
last hurrah on Sheer. We had a good few days of gentle cruising in the
Whitsundays, before starting our trek back south.
We stopped at Port Clinton,
and spent a few days at Great Keppel Island, before making for Bundabeg, where
we hoped to appeal to Customs again, to renew our cruising permit. Fortunately,
he agreed!
We then waited for the next bit of
northerly, and had a bouncy sail down past Hervey Bay, into the Great Sandy Straights,
which separate Fraser Island from the mainland, where we anchored for the
night.
We then picked our times and tides as we day hopped down to Pelican Bay,
just in front of Wide Bay Bar.
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| White dolphins visited regularly |
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| Mud crabs given to us by a fellow cruisers |
We spent a couple of days there, plus
a few in Tin Can Bay, 7 miles up the creek, avoiding some foul weather. We took the next good window and, leaving Pelican Bay at 6.00am, crossed the bar in ideal conditions
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| Crossing the Wide Bay bar |
We made good time, and crossed the Mooloolaba bar 2 hour before low tide, in easy conditions. The shallowest we recorded was 40cm below the keel, inside the canals. We had to ferry glide sideways, using the outgoing tide, for about 400mt to reach the public mooring jetty, where we spent the night. 
The following day, we moved into the
marina, and made contact with Ian, the Mooloolaba Yacht Broker, who had been
recommended to us, by Heidi.
We spent the next week stripping the
boat of 7 years accumulated clutter, boxing, packing, and arranging its
shipment home. Yet again, our friends Chris and Steve, (who by this time had
returned to their boat after their son’s Italian wedding), drove up from
Brisbane, to spend a night of catching up, crab eating and another Prawn pig
out! The next morning we said our sad good byes, having extracted a promise that
they would visit us in Cape Town. This time they left fully laden with much of
what we had stocked up for Indonesia!
Mooloolaba is a very nice holiday
town, with lovely beaches, beach front restaurants, seafood bars, canals,
walking and cycling paths. It would have been one place we could have learned
to stay……, and was the ideal place for us as we prepared Sheer Tenacity for the
Brokers and the market.
We had hoped to extend our 1st
Dec visa deadline to the 15th Jan which we had originally applied
for, so that we could coach the Brokers about a boat they knew nothing about,
oversee the marketing of her, and then pick up post Christmas fare flights in
January.
When we got a reply from Immigration,
we were told that we would have to pay a further AUD1080 each (R11000.00 each),
for the 6 week extension. When asked why, we were told that it was a penalty
because we had already been granted a 3 month medical visa! (which had cost us
R4600 each, for visa and chest x-rays)
But that’s not all! When one sells a
foreign registered boat in Australia, one has to first import it, by paying a
5% Duty, plus 10% GST on an Australian valuation, BEFORE one can even put it up
for sale! Plus one has to pay the Valuation man, and a Customs agent to process
the importation! So, we had just paid Australian customs over R100 000.00 4
days earlier, and are now being told to shell out another R22000.00 for the
visa extension!
Screw that we said! We booked our
flights out on the 1st December (last day of visa), which left us
only 2 weeks to get Sheer and ourselves sorted out!
We prepared the pictures and inventory
list for the advert on the website, wrote up a Quick Start Guide for the
broker, so that they could take clients out on the boat, started writing out an
Owners Manual for all the systems and procedures, and then hoped like hell that
we could sell our beloved “Sheer “ in the 10 days before we left!
And the Incredible happened! We Did!
The first couple who viewed the boat
came back twice! The wanted the boat, but it was a year before they were ready,
as they had to sell their farm. The second person was Mark. He drove down 800km
to see the boat, and I ended up spending about 4 hours with him. The next
morning he put in his offer, and after a bit of renegotiation, we had a sale,
subject to survey and sea trials, scheduled for the following Wednesday….the
day before we were flying home!
The haul out was scheduled for
10.00am, and the Surveyor was a fellow with a hellish reputation. We were
confident in Sheer’s condition, but nevertheless nervous! He spent about an
hour asking questions and poking around inside every locker, under floor boards
etc, before we headed down for the haul out. He waved his water meter all over
the deck, looking for wet spots, and then tap tapped his way all over the hull
once out the water. He could find nothing wrong! By 12.00 we were back in the
water, and heading out over the bar for the sea trials. By now the wind had
picked up to 17-19knots, and the sea was quite lumpy…. Perfect conditions to
let Sheer show off! With a single reef, we were soon bombing along at 7.5 knots,
slicing through the waves, in dry comfortable ease, with Ian (Broker), and Mark
(buyer) wearing huge grins!
Then it was back over the bar, in
quite boisterous conditions, and back into the marina. The surveyor spent
another painful hour going through everything, and asking questions Ian had
never heard asked before in his life! Eventually, he announced that he “could
find no reason why Mark should not buy this boat”, eventually leaving the boat
around 4.00pm. By 5.00, Mark was back for a beer, and to ask questions about
how we should leave the boat etc, as he would be away for the next month.
We had a last supper with Heidi and
Wolfgang (Kanaloa) with whom we had shared so much time, and retired to bed
happy and sad, and shattered!
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| Heidi, Wolfgang and Himba |
The next morning we completed all the
paperwork, which because its Australian, is longer and more ridiculous than one
can imagine. We barely had time to shower, get changed and catch the airport
shuttle! No time for last goodbyes, or photos! We even forgot our toothbrushes
on board!
And so, our Journey on Sheer Tenacity
has ended. We will stay in touch with Mark, the new owner, and hope that he
will continue her Jouney with the same dedication, passion, and faith in her
that we have enjoyed.
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| THE END! |
