A Clean Bottom
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1500 position: 18 29.6 S 146
27.4 We arrived at Hazard Bay, Orpheus Island at 1640. The two moorings were taken and there were several other boats at anchor, including two fishing trawlers. I surmised that the moorings in Pioneer Bay would almost certainly be occupied as well so, seeing as the anchorage in Hazard Bay was closer and easier we decided not to investigate Pioneer Bay but rather go to anchor a little earlier. Once Sylph had her cable the crew had a quick dip over the side then the skipper/cook made dinner, which was followed by a movie and an early night. This morning's mission was to complete Sylph's long overdue bottom scrub. I broke out the hooker gear and once it was all rigged went over the side to start scraping. The visibility was about ten meters which was much better than my previous attempts so, with Ada keeping an eye out above, I felt much more comfortable in the water believing, if not necessarily knowing, that I was likely to get some warning of any scary thing that might be approaching. I spent forty minutes scraping the hull by which time I had done about half the hull. Knowing that Ada was keen to don the hooker gear and do her share, I decided to have a break and hand over to her. Ada valiantly scrubbed away for another twenty minutes when she found that she was having some breathing difficulties. We got her out of the water and inspected the gear but could find no problem so once more I put on the dive gear and returned to the job. It took another forty minutes before I was satisfied that the hull was pretty smooth, certainly a lot better than it was, though, as previously noted, I am very disappointed to have experienced this much fouling after only thirteen months since Sylph's last haul out. Once the scrubbing and scraping was completed, Ada went for a snorkel over the nearby fringing reef (for my part I was feeling pretty waterlogged by this time), after which we had lunch then stowed gear and prepared Sylph for getting under way. At 1320 we got the anchor home, though not without a moment of concern when it became obvious that the chain had fouled on something. Fortunately a bit of forward motoring managed to break us free. Now we are running wing-on-wing before an ESE breeze, and Sylph is making an easy six knots. She certainly feels like she is sailing faster now that we have removed the aquatic garden from her hull. Clearly some fresh anti-fouling is needed very soon. After much discussion between skipper, first mate and the ship's cat, we have decided to sail overnight for Franklin Island with the objective of having a good night's sleep before setting off for Cairns on Friday morning with the aim of arriving around midday. All is well. |