New Year

Safety rope snap shackle , straightened out. Indentation at end of shackle was all that held onto chain.

Storm cells passing by, later became an intense storm with hail and lightning that hit Airlie and caused minor flooding and blackouts.

Hi everyone

New Year hopefully not the same as the last year. The decision to stay in Airlie almost took a bad turn recently when I was caught out by a Northerly storm, with strong winds and big seas. The anchorage at Airlie becomes untenable during strong Northerlies, especially where I am, in shallow water close to the beach at Airlie. As the weather deteriorated I moved "Zen" to deeper water and reanchored. During the night the main anchor bridle broke and the full force of the waves came onto the anchor winch and safety rope. By morning the safety rope was hanging on to the chain by a millimetre of steel, the snap lock being straightened out by the wind and wave action. Had it given way the anchor chain and rope would have fed out and possibly snapped off and then "Zen" would have ended up on a beach or worse a breakwater. Also the hatch into my cabin was breached and my bed was soaked with salt water. But we live to fight another day.

I had the pleasure of taking the owners of "Alia" for a day sail. "Alia" is the only other Hitchhiker 15 metre Cat that has been built. It is more conventional than Zen, being narrower in the beam and having crossbeams rather than the Aluminium "A" frame of "Zen". John and Lee, the owners, have built a full cabin on "Alia" and it is much nicer and visually acceptable than the "dog box" on Zen and they have more clearance under the bridgedeck. John was very complimentary about the sailing abilities of "Zen", impressed with the speed, acceleration and pointing ability. In 15 to 20 knots we consistently sat on 8 knots with bursts up to 11 whilst pointing quite high. We came back on a reverse course at averages of 10 knots. Not bad for a grossly overweight cat with a dirty bum.

The last two days have been reminders of why Airlie can be so good with gentle S.E. winds and sunny skies. While most of Queensland has been inundated in the past few weeks the rain here has not cut too many roads. The weather is warm enough for cold showers out on deck each day and the living is good.

I still have "Zen "on the market but having seen what can be done with a revised deck layout and perhaps a reduction in beam another option has been presented to me if I wish to rebuild "Zen". This is not something that I want to do so would seriously consider a reasonable "offer" for "Zen".