Boat-
"Dragon Lady" - 1973 Midshipman 40' KetchOWNER - Barry & Jackie Moore
AREA OF SAILING - Australia - Brisbane and S.E. Coast of Queensland
E-Mail Barry & Jackie
Boat-
"Dragon Lady" - 1973 Midshipman 40' Ketch
OWNER - Barry & Jackie Moore
AREA OF SAILING - Australia -
Brisbane and S.E. Coast of Queensland
E-Mail
Barry & Jackie
The big adventure.
Chapter 1 April
2005 Log
- A new woman
-Honeymoon blues
-Plain sailing
-Whale of a time
After settling into a new home and having our fair share of health issues, we
resolved that we needed another cruise up to the Whitsundays, but this was put
on hold when I accepted nomination for the Board of Directors at the Moreton Bay
Boat Club- Scarborough (MBBC). A year stint on the Board turned into two, when I
was elected Commodore. The cruise was again put on hold.
Our yacht "El Shaddai" the 40' Spray ketch we cruised on in 1999/2000 would
again serve us well and then we planned to sell her after the 4-5 month cruise.
However, to cut a long story short, we found ourselves with a buyer sooner than
expected and still wanting to go cruising we looked around for a replacement
yacht before agreeing to sell.
Through our very diligent broker we found a 40' Yacht, called "Dragon Lady" from
San Francisco. The American owners had sailed her here some 18 months ago and
she sat on the hard since then awaiting their further adventures. Through a
change of their plans she became on the market and we saw and liked her, so the
usual negotiations commenced. In summary, don't buy a yacht this way, because
with the overseas owners, time differences, distance, import considerations,
Customs, Quarantine and all the hoopla, you'll rip your hair out- well not that
I had that much to rip out.........
We had planned to leave Scarborough on 26 June 2004 with a few other yachts,
Odyssey (Bob and Jill), "Dancer" (Tony and Von), and "Black Magic" (Brad and
Sue). However after signing the purchase contract on 16 April but not getting
final delivery of the yacht until about early June we had a lot of things to do
in a short time. I lost about 4 kgs through that time and to say the least it
was hectic. We were aware of the things that had been identified by the Surveyor
needed fixing or to be attended to and I had many people on standby to start
work on it all but couldn't, until we got the nod.
We had contemplated changing the name from Dragon Lady to maybe China Doll or
similar, having regard for her Oriental origins in the Cheoy Lee ship yard in
Hong Kong. We tossed it around with variants etc but after a shakedown cruise on
the June long weekend when we broke out the asymetrical Spinnaker, which
revealed this huge fire breathing Green dragon on a backing of yellow, Dragon
Lady it would stay! Among the many things we did we added a Humminbird 97
charter plotter colour sounder and since the old Benmar auto pilot had
Alzheimers and in any case would not link to the modern GPS systems, we replaced
it with a TMQ AP55 auto pilot. That installed (not without its own special
installation problems- from a poorly worded instruction manual and a $60 an hour
'expert') we looked for the day of departure.
The others left on 26th and finally ready and fuelled up we slipped away from
Scarborough without ceremony at 0930hrs on 29th June. Ivor Thomas my ex WCBQ
boss came along as crew since Jackie was still recovering from an operation. Of
course we had the Bosun, (our little maltese terrier Benson- on his second
cruise), this time with two little jumpers to fight off the winter ills whilst
on watch). Dragon Lady sails very well and we were excited about her
performance, but not too fussed about a diesel leak noted to be present. This
was not picked up on the sea trials which only consisted of a short motoring
time. We did the 39 or so nautical Miles and radioed for a berth after dark at
Mooloolaba Y.C.
Up for a 3 a.m. departure we felt cheated at the cost of berthing there for only
a few hours really, and the hopeless key system meant a future deposit refund
through the mail or hand it back in before 9.30pm closing time. Clearing
Mudjimba Island or Old woman Island as it is more widely known we shivered as we
sailed the 'new woman' North on our voyage of discovery. This leg is always the
longest and necessitates either an overnight run or a very early start to
coincide tides at the notorious Wide Bay Bar, southern end of Fraser Island.
Ivor took first watch and we went back to bed. Poor Ivor ended up with a bad
head cold but got full marks for later spotting a whale. There were actually
two, but they did not oblige with anything special of a display.
The Charter plotter proved fabulous and took away the nerves I had the first
time we cruising this way. With all the charts from Tasmania, to Milne Bay New
Guinea, including New Zealand on a 64 meg chip the size of a stamp, the new
system is a toy worth having. It also includes barometric "weather-sense" giving
a continuous readout of the Barometer and a 12- hour graph with settable alarms
for variances to detect approaching highs or low-pressure systems. It also is a
very fancy colour depth sounder, with readings to each side as well as
underneath, which is just as well since the digital readout sounder on D Lady
also seems to have Alzheimer’s (and Parkinsons, as well). The troubled waters of
the bar were crossed about 1500 hrs. The books all say to avoid afternoon
crossings due to the sun and difficulty of seeing the directional light in the
distant hills. With the charter plotter it was all easy peasy.
We found problems with a dual back-lead beacon system near Elbow point and had
to double back a few times to try it again- the Charter Plotter showed I was on
dry land which was not far from the truth since I was over a very shallow sand
bank, but then they don't promise anything in these types of waters, which can
shift between each tide. This caused us to run out of daylight but with Ivor's
help on the spotlight picking up the sparsely located unlit beacons we motored
into the tricky Gary's Anchorage creek and picked out a spot. Problems. The
anchor chain fouled coming from the locker- having been piled back in by the
Surveyor we suspect. Jackie kept a watch on the neighbouring vessels whilst we
drifted and I manned the winch whilst Ivor upended himself in the anchor locker
to free the chain, bit by bit.
Next day we ran out all the chain (miles of it so it seemed) and untangled it.
We spent the day doing things which didn't get done previously, rigging up and
trying out the dinghy for the first time as well as my newly serviced 4hp
Yamaha. DL came with a smaller motor but with no time to try it out, it's a
lucky dip as to whether it will be ok, after 18 months of no action. Applying
the new Qld. registration number to the stern of the Lady from my wobbly
position in the dinghy, I fumbled and dropped a ‘1’- which didn't float- shucks.
Jackie baked bread and Ivor and I explored the shoreline. We spent another night
at Gary's, having heard that Bob and Jill on Odyssey had problems and were at
Kingfisher, not too far away. However with a broken steering cable following
running aground they were heading for Bundaberg for repairs.
Some things on this yacht like the Icom HF radio and the Spectra water maker
still weren't mastered due to the time, but there'll be plenty of reading ahead
to get familiar- no doubt. The radar is a real gem and approaching Double Island
Point I was able to check out the coast line and tell the crew of five
approaching power boats, their range, and bearing- all from sitting at the
navigation station below- the wonders of modern electronics!
Our journey was off to a fairly good start- but for the bad diesel leak, which I
had to mop up every few hours, lest it spill over the engine bilge into the main
bilge. Still so far we are in good spirits and the yacht is a delight to sail.
Next port- Kingfisher then Bundaberg. The adventure continues.........
Barry and Jackie Moore, and Bos'n Benson.