Year 2 - Saturday 12th April 2025 – Gladstone Marina -Guest Blog
David wrote
Woke about 0500 as heard bangs outside. Had a look around all okay. Paul went off early for a park run. Marina staff agreed to drop him off at the park about 5KM away at 0630. Staff here at Gladstone marina are amazing and so helpful. I went over to Volvo engine shop to discuss engine alarm that bleeped a few times when Nick and I were motoring a few days ago, but they were closed until Monday. When Paul got back I ran through the dingy and davit procedures and launched the dingy. I asked the marina office if they knew where I might moor up as I wanted to use dingy to get to the maritime museum. Apparently they owned the main pontoon outside the yacht club area which is close to the museum and gave me permission to moor up on the inside of the pontoon for as long as I needed rather than the usual 15minutes normally permitted.
The museum was really good, but we also took a guided tour of HMAS Gladstone II (a Freemantle class patrol boat) which was certainly worthwhile. Looked to have lunch in the adjacent restaurant, but it was very busy so decided to dingy back to Stormbird and have lunch on board, following which an adjacent boats Genoa unfurled in the wind, the owner was not on board so I jumped on and refurled with the help of another yacht owner. Turned out he had just been in Pancake Creek so had a good chat him about what to expect. Then owner of the of the unfurled problem boat returned. He was very knowledgeable about the creek having often anchored there, I invited him on board as he offered to look at the chart to show me particular hazards, turns out he also the local tug boat skipper. Gave him a beer and he noticed we had carpenter ants on board, which previously gave me great amusement watching Nick seeking them out. He had the same problem and found the nest and queen ant, and offered his “Ant rid” packs as he had no more use for them. They were a couple weeks out of date but he thought they would still work. He recommended we find the nest which I will look for. In the meantime, I have set 2 packs he gave me and will see if I can buy some more in the local store.
The wind is not looking to subside until Thursday. We spent the remainder of the afternoon repairing a bunk lee cloth fixing. I also noticed the cock pit table seemed loose. On investigating, it appeared the leather tool pouch at the helm had been causing the table hinge to be under pressure. So, using the resin filler Nick brought from the chandlery I undertook the repair (fixings now good as new).
The chicken I got out earlier has not yet defrosted. Paul said he was not hungry so I am going to knock up a Caesar salad. Now he has returned and offered to produce the salad.. ended up with a ploughman’s and veggie pasta. Appears to be some music in the park so off to see what’s that’s about.