After a stopover at Mooloolaba, we continued north to Double Island Point for the night, and crossed the Wide Bay bar into the Great Sandy Straits the next day.
My father has a little shack at Tin Can Bay, and here we had to stop to repair both motors on SeeBeeZee. The starboard motor became stuck in reverse gear while leaving from Mooloolaba, and then, once over the bar and into the Great Sandy Strait, the port motor began to overheat. With both motors out, we needed a tow in, but we’re able to do that with the aid of dad’s runabout tied alongside SeeBeeZee.
It took some time to figure that the starboard motor gear linkages had been jammed by a stray bolt that had been dropped into he lower cowling months ago. It had gradually vibrated down until it was wedged into the hole that the gear linkage feeds through. , A quick overhaul found that the port motor had a thermostat housing full of sand.
Once under way, we continued north to Round Hill and the town of 1770, before moving north again to Yellowpatch, and then into the tropics at Great Keppel Island.
-
With a breakdown of our motors on SeeBeeZee, we rafted up alongside dad’s runabout, and entered Snapper Creek at Tin Can Bay under tow, using the runabout outboard for propulsion but steering with SeeBeeZee’s rudders -
One of the performing dolphins in Bustard Bay -
The performing dolphins in Bustard Bay excited Bess too -
A pod of acrobatic dolphins frolicked in the pressure wave off SeeBeeZee bow for almost an hour -
It appeared that one of the dolphins in Bustard Bay may have escaped from the performers at Seaworld, as it repeated somersaulted above the waves -
Bess and Birgit keep warm, cuddled up under a rug, despite being in the tropics -
The view from the crest of the sandhill at Yellowpatch on Curtis Island -
SeeBeeZee anchored at Yellowpatch -
A dazzling reflection of the sandhill at Yellowpatch at sunset -
The sandhill at Yellow patch appears to be orange in the light at sunset -
Bess enjoys the tail of a mackerel -
Bess struggles to swallow this mackerel tail, but managed -
Yachts at anchor appear over the channel markers in Round Hill Creek
Leave a Reply