Be Careful What You Wish For...

I’ve been bitching and moaning that I’ve had nothing to blog about.  Woo hoo, my prayers have been answered… in the form of a flood.

Late Saturday afternoon we were warned by another boat yard occupant that by Sunday night or Monday morning we may need to leave our pontoon at the boat yard.  You may think a pontoon is a pretty good place to be but unfortunately our 17 tonnes pulling against a pontoon will tear it from its grounding and then our boat and the pontoon would make their way down river together. 

On Saturday evening, Michael went to the petrol station and got fuel for the generator and a couple of bits and pieces… milk, bread, etc with plans to get a few more things on Sunday.

Saturday night was absolutely pouring down and as our automatic bilge pump is not working, I stayed up all night emptying the bilge every 10 minutes.  At 5.30am, first light, I looked out the window to find all of the ground between the pontoon and the boatyard office was under water.  I then saw Andrew wading waste deep in water towards us.  I went out on deck where Andrew told me “it’s time to go”.

Boatyard Shed at 5.30am Sunday

The same shed earlier today

(Photo courtesy of Alan Hicks)

Michael started up the motor and Andrew untied (or more accurately… cut) us from the dock and gave us a shove.  Michael turned with the current and headed down river towards Devil’s Elbow… we may have been travelling with the current but we were travelling against the wind.  With the rain still pissing down, the wind in our faces and the current carrying us at about 10 knots, the rain became a real pain in everything.  It stung my legs like thousands of tiny needs and burned my eyes, making it impossible to see.  Michael did his best at steering with his eyes closed whilst I stood up at the bow with the boat hook trying to move large debris out of the way. 

About 10 mins into the trip, I went inside to empty the bilge and looked at the motor temperature.  We were overheating.  Michael eased off the throttle and basically let the tide just take us.  It took about 30 mins to make it to Devil’s Elbow and we anchored on the inside bend… the outside of the bend having the faster running current.

I was buggered.  I hadn’t slept in over 24 hours (whereas Michael had got in a massive 2 hours sleep the night before), so I had a nap.  Michael was watching our anchor to make sure we weren’t dragging and also trying to keep debris from hitting us.

A couple of hours later I awoke and to my relief, the sun was shining!  I went out on deck for my shift of debris fending.  What an array of objects you find floating down the river.  Grace was sitting on deck making a list.

·         Drum (musical)
·         Helmet (bicycle)
·         For sale sign
·         Road marker
·         Tyres
·         Watermelon, etc

During my debris fending shift, Michael was looking at the motor as it had finally cooled enough to touch and was trying to work out why we were overheating and losing coolant by the bucket load.

… then I saw it.  A pile driving rig, unattended, floating and spinning down the river. I called to Michael and a couple of minutes later a yachtie anchored on the other side of the river got in his tinny  and came over to us.  “That rig is unmanned, best you move”.  Unfortunately we had not yet sorted out our overheating problem and had half the motor on deck rending us immobile.  “Can’t mate.  No motor!  We’ll just have to try to fend it off”.

Runaway Rig

Knowing we didn’t have a hope in hell of fending off 50 tonnes with a boat hook and an oar, I ran inside and told the kids to get their life jackets on and to grab one for Dad and me.  I grabbed passports, wallets and the ipad and put them in a ziplock bag.  I then placed it in the “emergency grab bag” at the saloon doors.  It was at this point that the kids started to panic a little (okay… Jed didn’t give a shit and Grace panicked a lot).

I went back up on deck to see the progress of the rig and found the yachtie who had warned us and another tinny pushing at the rig and directing it away from us.  I looked a Michael and just about sobbed with relief.  I can generally hold things together in a crisis but when it’s over I’m as soft as pudding!

I don’t know who either of those men were… but I do know, without a shadow of a doubt, they saved our boat (our home) from certain destruction and possibly (probably) saved our lives.  I will be forever grateful that they put themselves in danger in order to save us.  

Runaway house boat complete with it's own block of land

I continued to fend the debris while Michael started putting the motor back together… without solving our overheating problem.  Nothing was stopping a gum tree that hit us, caught our anchor chain and started dragging us down river.  Michael started the motor (even though our overheating issue had not been solved).  Grace jumped in the anchor well and was raising the anchor and I was trying to remove the tree from our anchor chain.  The anchor got to a point and refused to budge so I told Grace to pull at it from the anchor well.  The awkward position meant she burnt her arm on the anchor winch motor... but the tough little cookie didn’t stop.  She whinged at me and kept pulling until I could take over from her.

The motor was overheating before we even got the anchor raised… very worrying indeed.  But we did manage to remove all the debris from our anchor chain and motor down river a little to another anchoring spot.  I took over the helm and Michael dropped the anchor.  As the anchor bit, the stern of the boat swung violently around so that the current was again hitting the bow.  I could only hope the anchor held because if it didn’t there was no way I was getting the boat back under control.  Thankfully, it held.

Michael and I spent the rest of the day fending off debris in shifts until it was too dark to see anymore.

At 4.30 on Sunday morning, after a much needed sleep for everyone, something hit us with a great deal of force and started dragging us down river again.  Michael and I raced outside to find we were travelling backwards down river at about 5 knots.  I started the still unfixed motor as Michael raised the anchor.  Again the anchor was not coming up and we were spinning down the river, hitting banks and low hanging trees.  This would probably have been a good time to start praying but I stood hard and fast to my atheistic ways and, as tempted as I was, I did not attempt to bargain with God.

Steering having absolutely no effect with the anchor dragging, I decided I would be more useful helping Michael raise the anchor.  Together we managed to get it out and headed for the other side of the river as the bend was snaking back the other way.  We anchored and shortly afterwards a tinny came up to us.  It was a couple from a house across the river, Tracey & John.  They gave us their number and told us if we needed to abandon ship, to call them, they would come and get us and we could stay at their place. 

All day we have watched Tracey & John and one of their neighbours, in two tinnies, chasing down large items floating down the river… boats, concrete blocks, pontoons… and nudging or towing them and securing them out of harm’s way.  It’s going to look odd when the water subsides and there are concrete blocks and pontoons tied to the tops of gum trees!

I’ve met some bloody fine people during my sailing travels, and during this flood I’m lucky to say I’ve added a few names to the list …. as well as a few nameless faces.