Stories in this section... Australia Voyage 4
Back to Bundy and Bliss
Barnacle Bliss
The Town that Wasn't
Messing with Boats, Part V
“I’m a happy man,” said
Gunter, as he arrived back at our hotel for lunch in his dirty, greasy
work clothes. No, it had nothing to do with the fact that our wedding
anniversary is coming up this month. . Our home this week is the Burnett Riverside Quality
Motel, where we have booked a kitchenette room. Pacific Bliss is ‘on
the hard’ on the Midway Marina Slipway across the Burnett River.
During the cyclone season, when her owners were safely in San Diego,
an army of barnacles and other sea creatures had attached themselves
to her bottom. Even the fenders that had been hanging in the water were
sprouting. The port head no longer flushed because a huge oyster had
chosen to make the water intake his home! Miss Bliss had suffered without
her master long enough.
Even so, Monday morning at 0700 sharp, we maneuvered Pacific Bliss
across the river to the slipway, where the workers hauled her out with
a pulley-and-rail system. They immediately began to give her a super
shower: a hose-down with their 3000-psi system. The shower worked wonders
on her hull and rudders (see photo). But it’s not surprising that
our top motoring speed to get her was only three knots. The props were
so clogged with barnacles that they had to be removed and cleaned at
a machine shop This week, we have fallen into a nice and easy urban routine: We b No complaints—or “no worries,” as they say in Aussieland.
We’re content here. |
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