Tuesday 15th
Lazuli was going back in the water at 7:30am. This meant an early start from Graceville!
We loaded up dads ute, and he drove the four of us down to Coomera. We got there with Lazuli hanging in the water with the team onboard checking for leaks and tightening the rudder quadrant.
Once out of the slings we motored around to the fuel dock to top up. With a few more tasks for the team to do we shifted just up the dock a little and arranged to stay there the night!
(We’d missed the high tide, so we’d wait until 9am tomorrow morning to head off).
Unpacking and then stowing everything took sometime.
Our wrap didn’t survive the lift out process :(
We’d arranged to use the marina’s courtesy car to help get some shopping done. Kristie took off while I got the boat ready.
I’d also obtained two full service kits for the engine. The impeller was the first to get changed. A quick test and all was good.
After Kristie was back we had lunch and then replaced all the anchor markings we had. We’d done it last year with cable ties, however many of these were now missing.
We’d opted to use 1.5mm cord.. hopefully that lasts longer! Didn’t take too long to spool out 100m of chain, cut the old ties, and tie the new ones.
We spent the night on the fuel dock along with two other boats.
At about 10:30pm I heard quite a lot of noise coming from the shipyard. I got up on deck to see Wild Thing heading out.
They’d loaded up their water ballast and hanging one off the boom and winching that out to counteract the canting keel they had to raise somewhat to get out the river.
(Our 2.3m draft makes things difficult… they have 5.5m!)
Wednesday 16th
I’d arranged for the guys at Yacht Support (who did our rudder) to also give me a run through of our watermaker.
We’d not needed to use it yet, but going north we plan to do more swimming and hence more rinsing off, all of which will require more water.
The only trouble we had was finding the circuit breaker for the watermaker system. It ran well and produced water as required.
I’ll replace the filters once we’re out of the bay.
We left GCCM around 9am to motor up the Coomera River.
An uneventful journey. Got out on to the Broadwater and then up through Jacobs Well.
We got to the shallow sections on high tide (as planned!) and kept motoring.
We got under the power lines without issue.
Next was past Russell Island and the shallow sections there and onwards up past Macleay Island, Redland Bay, and to Coochiemudlo.
With a light SE wind, we ended up moored off the northern beach at Coochie.
We noticed another ketch pull in not long after us.
Changed the engine oil and filter.
Didn’t get off the boat.
Thursday 17th
Breakfast and then into the beach for a swim. Took our new boat/beach accessories (swim mat and mermaid tail).
The girls quickly made friends with two young boys that were there on holiday with their mum (Kelly). Kristie and I had a good chat with her (turns out she’s a diver/sailor as well!).
We also met the family that were on the ketch. Dion, Darna (sp?) and their 5yr old daughter.
We eventually made it back to the boat for lunch, and just in time for a work meeting.
Friday 18th
Good Friday.
Into the beach again to meet up with Suz and Abby who were over at Coochie for the long weekend.
Kelly and the boys were also there again.
My parents turned up for a quick hello.
We went back up the Coochie house for lunch and a shower.
Kristie walked over the other side to get a ferry across to go get a mango smoothie from Brown Sugar cafe (and do some shopping :).
Sadly for her the cafe closed just before she got there, and the shops had no sourdough :(
I took my dad and Suz down the beach to go for a sail in Lazuli. There was very little wind.
Didn’t take us long to get the boat ready and sails up. However, there was still next to no wind.
I think we hit 3knts at one point!!
We sailed around to the south side of Coochie and eventually dropped anchor inline with the jetty.
Back to the beach so mum and dad could get a ferry home, and for us to pick up Abby who was going to have a sleepover on Lazuli.
The girls wasted no time settling in for a Minecraft session.
We had some lovely sunsets over Easter.
As per the last sleepover, it wasn’t going to work with two in one room and the other by themselves… they all snuggled into one cabin.
Saturday 19th
Suz snapped a picture of Lazuli on her way to Parkrun.
The Easter markets were on at Coochie. We got into the beach at 9am. I walked across the island to make use of the hot shower.
Suz and Trent joined us. Bacon and Egg sandwich from the Mens Shed, coffee from the van. The girls did some rock painting.
The Easter Bunny turned up for photos, and the girls were reluctant to have their photos taken with it.. can’t blame them!
Eventually there was an egg hunt.
We said our goodbyes to Suz and Trent as they were done with the markets.
Eventually we were also done and ready to go before we discovered Abby had left her rock behind. We walked back across the island to deliver said rock and had another round of goodbyes.
Back to Lazuli for lunch and to get ready to head over to Dunwich as there was also an Easter event on there this afternoon.
A quick motor over and we dropped anchor at Deanbilla Bay. The family on the ketch were also there, and we anchored just down from them.
A quick drop of the tender and I ran Kristie in to get some bread from the bakery before it shut.
I went back to Lazuli to get our tender night light sorted as we’d need it tonight. With the girls ready we went back into the beach.
Pulled the boat up and walked to the footy field where the fair/rides were.
I walked back to move the tender back around to the beach in front of the footy field. Where it was would be quite remote/dark at night and I wasn’t keen to leave it there.
After an initial “this looks boring” from Kristina, the girls enjoyed the rides. The locals did lots of pushing in/queue jumping, so some rides took a lot longer than others :(
We saw our friends from the ketch again and had more chats with them.
Dagwood dog, hamburgers, chips, ice cream.
Fireworks at 7:30 were ok for a free event.
Night light on and a ride back to the Lazuli. We could see across the Peel and it looked like a city scape there were so many boats there.
Sunday 20th
Easter Sunday.
Pancakes for breakfast… no cream :(
We were originally thinking of heading to the Sandhills, however with the N/NNW forecast it wouldn’t be too nice there.
We moved over to Peel and dropped anchor a fair way out (not surprising given how many other boats were there).
Lunch and then into the beach for a long swim and stay on the beach. We all had a lot of fun on the mat.
At about 4pm we left to head back to Lazuli for sips ‘n dips.
Quiet night once all the day boat traffic stopped.
Monday 21st
Up anchor around 8:30 and motored all the way towards Bribie.
The winds picked up a bit so had a bit of chop to head into.
We motored past Scarborough, the starting point of our voyage. We’d rounded that mark and turned south 129 days ago!
It felt good to pass it heading north.
Dropped anchor off Bongaree, and Kristie went into the IGA to get more supplies (sausages & corn chips) for our sail tomorrow.
Kristie had invited their family friends Noel and Helen (who live on Bribie) to come on for sips ‘n dips. They arrived at the beach at about 4pm.
A quick tour of the boat then cheese and drinks.
We dropped them back before it got dark, and as it turns out just before a storm was to hit.
It got dark, and a quick check on BOM revealed a small storm heading right for us. We got the sidewalls up just in time!
The storm was over pretty quickly, but it went from nothing to 30kts quite quickly.
Once the rain had stopped I could get on with dinner :)
The girls got into some more of their Easter loot:
Tomorrow we leave Moreton Bay and head north into new (to us) waters.
