– Ana, our mooring buoy broke.
– Nooo, nooo! I was shouting dashing from the bathroom to the bedroom to get decent.
By the time I was back in a matter of seconds, Sorin was already in the dinghy paddling towards our drifting boat. I reckon he must have put on his cape as he flew down many steps in a blink of an eye.
I then knew it was too late for me to join in Mehalah’s rescue. I stood stunned on the terrace watching how our beloved boat is drifting calmly towards a catamaran, giving it a gentle kiss on the bow and then turning slowly alongside, calmly awaiting its rescue. Rescue that came with no delay.
This is when we realised that we have to be out of there the earliest we could. It was like a slap in the face. We pressed on the throttle to wrap up all the maintenance projects that we had undergoing on our Oyster Yacht.
Mehalah was now tied to a neighbour’s recently serviced buoy that happened to be free for a while…what we thought was an unfortunate event, that undoubtedly caused much distress turned out to be pure luck!
Pure luck because the long unserviced buoy failed in calm weather in front of Sorin’s eyes, whilst he was having his morning coffee on the terrace. He could come to its rescue in the blink of an eye…And pure luck mainly because a week or so later we had terrible weather that would have definitely broke our frail mooring apart with much more serious consequences, as there would have been no way for Sorin to save Mehalah in bad weather, with or without the cape on!
Once all the jobs on Mehalah were wrapped up, we cleaned the house that was temporary abode for us, done the shopping and by the time our host was back from Fiji we sailed off in the sunset. Being back at sea was regained freedom! An extraordinary feeling that we only experience at sea after being land bound for a while. Mehalah was happy too, empowered by a full electrical refit, a rebuilt saloon hatch and a renewed fuel gauge and alternator. Despite its challenges we declare our stay in Moreton Bay a great success.
The end of the cyclone season was just around the corner, so the timing was great and a good opportunity for us to finally trial our new steering cable and ensure that all is in tip toe condition before some serious sailing towards Darwin (almost 2,000 NM), our chosen check out point from Australia.
It will, then, be the time to say goodbye to our home for the last 5 years. Azure waters hugging sunny shores, sandy beaches with thirst quenching coconuts, inviting colourful corals and sea creatures, amazing sunsets, but most importantly beautiful people.
Without its people, with their custom reach cultures, vocals reach idioms, graceful yet daunting songs and dances – people who opened their hearts and homes to us – the Pacific would be just an ocean and not the Ocean!