MRQ Mackay

On Thursday, 24th of April 25 a group of us gathered at the base with the intention of helping Patrick, the compass adjuster, swing the compasses on Valda Mason, MK11 (our new cat) and Mackay Rescue 5.
This is required every 5 years or when structural or electrical changes are made to the boat that may result in changes to the magnetic environment affecting the magnetic compass.

Patrick’s job is to adjust the position of magnets in the base of the compass to minimise the error between the bearing read from the compass and the actual magnetic bearing derived from the marine chart. That error is called the magnetic deviation.

Once the adjuster has minimized the error as far as possible, he supplies the owner of the boat with a deviation chart that lists the error for each point of sail.
If you’re interested in learning more about this, Google is your friend.

Anyhow.

Patrick boarded Valda Mason with Rod and me.

We were leaving the marina for the outer harbour when the radio room called us up.

They had a job for us to tow a disabled 60 foot cruiser in.

We were told it was outside the harbour.

Valda Mason is a good boat, with her pair of 124 horsepower Suzuki outboards, but 60 footers are not in her class range.

Rod and I took Valda Mason across to the fuel wharf and passed her and Pat over to Don to continue with the compass swinging.

We proceeded to get Mackay Rescue 5 fired up, added Lockie to the crew and headed out.

Outside the mouth of the harbour was, as is often the case, rough as guts.
And not a real lot of fun.

And there was no sign of our 60 footer.

I called her up on the radio and had the owner supply me with his Lat and Lon.

On plugging the numbers into the chart plotter, I found he was about 6.5 NM North of Slade Island.

I selected goto from the menu and told it not to engage the auto pilot so it’d draw a line from our position to the client boat but wouldn’t turn the boat towards it.

Rod checked the course for possible problems and pointed the boat in the general direction.

He engaged the autopilot in nav mode and we headed up to the waypoint.

It was hazy as on the water this morning and I’d be surprised if we had more than a mile and a half of vis.

In due course the clients boat loomed out of the murk.

My first thought was, “Struth. It’s big.”

We replaced the usual tow hook with a rope bridle, which Lockie handed up to the owner.

He hooked the ends up to a couple of cleats either side of the bow.

Lockie and I paid out the tow line and we headed for home.

The client boat had limited propulsion but, with his input and Rescue 5’s best effort, we made a stately 10 knots back to the harbour.

By the time we were back in the outer harbour I’d pulled all the lines out of the rope box, found all the spare tow hooks and put them in one corner and recoiled all the mooring lines, so that was good.

We had the client drop the bridle and Lockie and I stowed the tow lines, picked up Patrick.

Remember Patrick?

He’d just completed the swinging of Valda Masons compass.

We sent Lockie and Don in to bring the cat out for when Pat was done with us.

For the round trip we’d burnt 120 odd litres of diesel.

Saturday the 19/04/25 started out with a call from a boat returning from St Bees Island.
He’d been heading out when he lost propulsion.

He rang the base and was diverted to Don B on the duty skipper’s phone.

At an idle he had propulsion and was able to maintain 2 Knots, which would have led to a long ride home.

Don passed the job off to Ian S and had Andy call in Dave U and Gary M as crew.

We departed the Marina in Valda Mason at about 0730 with the updated Lat and Long received from the client punched into the chart plotter.

Once clear of Slade Island we followed the dotted line pretty much straight to him.

We hooked him up to the tow line and made our way back to the outer harbor.

Once there, we dropped the tow and shadowed him in as he made his way to the ramp under his own power.

We left Valda Mason tied to the South side of the Southern pontoon at the ramp in anticipation of more jobs.

Which is probably why the next job came in for a 6m boat overheating up at Thomas Island in the intriguingly named Naked Lady Bay.

Thomas Island is about 34 NM North of the harbor as the crow flies and another 3 or 4 miles if you want to dodge the islands and stuff in the way.

Valda Mason would have managed the job, but Mackay Rescue 5 was the better choice.

I was in the radio room checking in with Roy, the morning operator, when the call came in and I rang the other 2 and invited them back.

Don W had wandered in for the boat checks so made a fourth for the crew.

Gary M had recently passed his coxswain ticket and is in the shadow skipper program, so he got the keys for this job.

We departed the harbor at about 1030 and headed North at about 25 Knots.

We were in Naked Lady Bay by midday.

The client boat was anchored close in to the beach and came out to join us. With the use of our tools, temporary repairs were made. The engine was hot from the run out from the beach and refused to start.
We took the boat under tow and headed off.

While this was going on we’d received a call from another 6m boat that was in trouble in the same area, also overheating.

We made a plan to daisy chain the 2 boats but, as luck would have it, the first boat got their motor running shortly into the tow.

We unhooked her and headed off to boat number 2. He had the good manners to remain broken down for the duration of the run into St Hellens.

On the way in, boat one called us up to tell us they had engine troubles again.
We called them up as we left St Hellens and were informed they were under way again, so we plotted a course to converge with them and shadow them back to Mackay.

When we hadn’t seen them after about half an hour, I called them up on the radio and was pleased to hear they were going well and 20 minutes out from the harbor.

Imagine my surprise when, just off Slade Point, Pete in the radio room called us and told us the boat was broken down in the harbor mouth.

When we arived in the harbor we looked around and couldn’t see them.

I gave Pete a call and he located them lined up at the ramp and just about to call us. I imagine they were a bit flustered after their hectic afternoon.

We topped up MR5s tanks with about 250L a side, put her on her berth, washed her down, finalized the paperwork and went to the boatshed for a quiet debrief.

Oh, and Don had 2 jobs come in for Valda Mason, one of which were cancelled and the other a double up for Boat two.

Our crews are busy undertaking maintenance and making preparations for Tropical Cyclone Alfred to cross the Queensland coast sometime later this week and we encourage all our local boaties to do the same.



We know that jetties will be extremely busy as people prepare vessels for the oncoming weather, so please exercise patience when you’re out on the water.



Stay informed with Maritime Queensland’s preparing for severe weather webpage which has links to the MSQ dashboard, storm flood and cyclone warnings, and information about how to get your boat ready for severe weather.



The maritime rescue crews of MRQ, VMR and AVCGA stand ready to provide assistance to people in trouble on the water. If you require support, always call triple 0 in an emergency, or contact our crews via VHF Channel 16. Contact 131MRQ (131 677) for non-urgent assistance