Hi from Skipper Steve,
We have now been stormed out for a couple of days in Mackay Harbour, with winds of up to 50knts ,horizontal rain and temperatures down to single figures! All this and we are still in the tropics. It has given us time though, to catch up on our maintenance duties and Kasuje has never looked so good. Dawn, now fully immersed in boat life, has completely stripped cleaned and repackaged the whole of the galley area, Northy has sorted and re-cataloged our manuals. Robert has rubbed down and varnished any slightly defective woodwork and I've kept myself busy renewing faulty electronics ,engine pipes and the other 100's of small defects which inevitably occur whilst live aboard cruising. However the result is we now have a fully functioning yacht with copious amounts of hot and cold water from both showers, a DVD that works, a new IPod compatible radio,replacement VHF handset in the cockpit, and an in line six that is purring again!!
The forecast predicts that this blow will disburse today so we are planning to leave here around 10am to make our way to the Whitsunday Islands for the weekend.
However it has not all been boat work whilst in Mackay, we hired a car for a ''Northy tour'' to the outback.The beautiful Queensland countryside was just a short drive away and a very pleasant afternoon was spent yesterday driving around the local beauty spots. Although I managed to sleep for most of the trip I was aroused to take lunch at a 5 house outback town where we devoured the best ''pie and chips'' we have tasted since leaving Scotland.
Hope you are all well, and as I understand the summer weather has now kicked in, if you have any spare send some down here!!
All well with us.
Kind Regards
Skipper Steve