Year 2 – 9 March 2025 -Brisbane –Cyclone Alfred declines and leaves rain – lots of it!!
If anyone reading this and is free from now and all or some of April to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present.
The rain continued all night as far as I could tell. I woke a number of times and it was still raining and the wind was blowing and we were moving about. When I eventually woke it was still raining and the pattering noise on the cockpit tent and windows continued relentlessly. Trevor cheered us up with a bacon and egg toasted sandwich.
We checked the weather and the models vary but essentially we have rain until probably tomorrow night or Monday lunchtime. I went to get rid of the rubbish in my lightweight waterproofs and the rain was coming down hard but luckily I remained dry in the waterproofs. It was running down the pontoon ramps and everything was soaked. The visibility was low and it was very grey and wet. The river was flowing fast and there was debris and bubbles and froth.
We read and did jobs. Trevor oiled and greased all the tools which were a bit stiff and rusty. I mopped up a bit of water under the rear cabin floor which was not coming on from the rudder stock but from somewhere from behind it -like the lazarette. We cleaned out the engine inlet basket and generator, fuel pump and air conditioning pump inlets to get rid of any debris or muck. I took pictures of the main engine and generator which are needed for the Indonesian Rally and we repacked the generator case.
I did some emails and admin and crew potentials communications. We had a light lunch- just a bit of fruit.
We thought Brewdog would be open as Trevor booked a table and the website accepted his booking. We decided due to the rain to put on our full weather gear and boots to walk to Brewdog about half a mile away. It was pouring with rain and there was more debris on the paths and road and water pouring down the paths. We were dry in our gear and must have looked odd in our full wet weather gear but there were very few people around. However, when we got to Brewdog it was shut to our annoyance despite Trevor’s booking. He later received an email after we had arrived to say it was still closed.
We trapesed back in the rain and as the storm had sort of past so we had a dark and stormy!. I cooked pasta pesto with a salad and we had a good supper. It seems everything is still closed and hopefully will start to open again tomorrow.
It is my wedding anniversary today so I had sent some flowers to my wife and an early video message which she appreciated. We then had a good chat. It is also my eldest daughter’s birthday and she had had a party last night before and I had sent a video message to her too which hopefully went down well. I also rang her and had a chat and wished her a happy birthday. It is hard to do a circumnavigation as you miss out on family events but you cannot do both. I thank my wife and family for allowing me to do this.
The rain has not stopped now for at least 48 hours and shows no sign of stopping. We are dry and safe but it can get frustrating. The picture of the day shows the rain on one of the Predict Wind models so we will have to endure this heavy rain for some time yet. I saw one statistic that showed we are getting about 12.9cm of rain every 6 hours.
Hopefully we will be through this soon and I am grateful that we have come out safely. One of the ball fenders has deflated probably as a result of the pressure. Once this is over we will see whether we can inflate it again.
Need/Opportunity Year Two
I am in need of more crew from late April to Mid-July so if of interest do email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com
In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com