Problems On The Broadwater 2nd - 3rd September

A Night At Jacobs Well

We motored down from Cuchiemudlo Island as far as Jacobs Well, which is in the Main Channel on the way to Southport. The channel around Jacobs Well is narrow and shallow so we proceeded in a watchful way, holding our breath as the echo sounder showed .5m under the keel on several occasions. The Jacobs Well Pub had been recommended to us as a place for an evening meal and it was good - good value and tasty food.

I remember being impressed by the place names around here last time we went through. At the moment we are anchored next to Woogoompah Island. (Not by choice, but that is a story for further on in this blog.) We passed Ooncooncoo Bay, Point Talburpin, Tabby Tabby, Cobby Cobby,and Karragarra Islands, even one for young Jess - Lamb Island.

Motor Troubles

Our Anchorage looking east and south to the Gold Coast

We are now anchored on the eastern side of Woogoompah Island, in an area that I think is known as the Broadwater. (Or that could be just around the corner!) The reason we are here, and for several days, is that a core plug dislodged itself from the underside of the heat exchanger and emptied all the coolant into the bilge. Consequently the motor overheated and luckily Peter noticed the temperature guage rising before any harm was done to the motor. We pulled over out of the Main Channel and anchored to find out what the problem was. Imagine the glum faces when Peter had me pouring water into the top of the heat exchanger and the water trickled out of the bottom into the bilge. He found the plug, in one piece and not corroded. Why! Why! Why!

Bugger!!!!

We sat and considered our position. We were safely anchored, although it is a bit like setting up your tent on the pavement beside Stirling Highway. This is a very protected waterway as far as weather goes and whatever direction the wind blows from will not be an issue. Luckily we had just manoeuvred through the shallowest, narrowest and windiest part of the whole channel when this occurred. So here we were, every man and his dog going past, and wondering what to do. Then along came the Jacobs Well VMR boat and Peter hailed them over and had a chat. They recommended phoning someone at Gold Coast City Marina for help. Peter got in touch with a man called John and he is going to come out on Monday to take the part and fix it.

Meanwhile Peter has removed the offending part and at the same time replaced all the hoses and a raw water impeller, as with the heat exchanger off these maintenance jobs became easily accessible and he had the parts. Of course this happened on a Saturday morning so we are stuck here until after Monday. John said, "Well you're in a great place, enjoy it. Go fishing!" And we are. It could be much worse.

The beach at Tipplers Resort

The Passing Parade

This is a very busy part of the waterway. We have huge motor cruisers, some fast and some slow, jet skis by the hundreds, houseboats like blocks of flats and little slow granny type ones. There are runabouts of all sizes and speeds and police and rescue boats. The constant bow waves keep us rocking and rolling. Everything settles down at night and we are left by ourselves to sleep in peace. There are no houses or buildings here only mangroves so when we put the anchor light on at night we are happy that it is not lost amongst background lighting of a town and we stand out like dogs whatsits. No-one has any excuse to run into us. We are just out of the channel and in the centre of a 'measured mile'. I guess in the old days before GPS these were used to check your speed. Now we think the jet skiers use it to check how fast they can go. They roar past in groups of half a dozen or more and we feel like we are at the motor races.



A sailing Lagoon - 'See yah!'

Interesting - Here comes Little Toot

 

Another plus for our position is that it is just around the corner from Tipplers Resort and camp ground. We have been able to take a rather long dinghy ride there to have our morning coffee and cake. There are also long walks on South Stradbroke Island so there is no reason for being bored. We have watched the antics of one speed boat owner who got stuck on a sandbank and tried for an hour or so to get off. Water was going everywhere as he put the motor halfway up and gunned it. Eventually he found the deep water. Dolphins have paid us a visit and all in all we are not too badly off. I hope John is as good as he sounds and gets us fixed and on our way soon.

Waiting for coffee at Tipplers Resort