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Starblazer - 2/08/2015 Mackay and Sydney



Usual excuse, life got in the way of the promised log! We tied up on the quarantine berth in Mackay at about 0730 local time on Thursday 23rd and were surprised to find officials already at work. Customs were first, the labrador found no evidence of drugs or money (no surprise there) but I did admit to a pepper spray which had to be bagged and sealed and concealed in the safe, together with the controlled medicines which John had left off our pre-arrival notification form. As soon as they left we ate our last sausages which the dog had ignored. We were warned that it liked sausages, no surprise there either given that a labrador is often described as a stomach on legs.

Bio-security arrived and I gave them a bag containing 2 onions, some garlic, the lime from the fridge, a small quantity of coleslaw (which had used up the last of the mayo), a couple of slices of ham, all the popping corn including an unopened bag clearly marked N Z and one tiger bean from Vanuatu. I was pleasantly surprised when I was allowed to keep all the dried beans (confiscated in N Z) and the last 250gr pack of mincemeat in the freezer because it had a NZ label. They did take the dried mushrooms and onions but they were rather old so no great loss. I showed them all our souvenirs and seashells, we were allowed to keep everything so long as they didn't leave the boat. All in all, we were treated very fairly and the officer used his discretion sensibly.

The next few days were a bit of a blur. Friday we took a taxi into town to restock with meat, veg and fruit, then in the evening we all met up in the Yacht Club for drinks and we stayed for dinner. Saturday was spent doing boat jobs, we declined to get up before dawn to see wallabies on the beach at Hillsborough because we still hadn't caught up on sleep! The jobs included removing the Sailtainer (sailbag fixed on the boom) so that I could sew it up, John changed the water pump. Sunday morning we had a briefing from a local sailor on the best places to visit in the Whitsundays, then we attended the rally dinner and prize giving at the local hotel. Monday we went on a trip to the Finch Hatton Gorge and the Eungella National Park, stopping on the way by a river to search for Platypus and Turtles. Rather surprisingly we saw a number of both and I even managed to get a photo of a platypus! Usually, by the time I'd zoomed in on the creature it dived and I just got a snap of its tail, but a few of the photos were better. Back at the boat, after a very speedy shopping trip, we celebrated John's birthday a couple of days early with a pontoon party for all the rally boats.

While several boats left on Tuesday morning to explore the Whitsunday Islands we packed for a trip to Sydney. John had booked the tickets on Monday afternoon and only booked the hotel on Tuesday morning, our friends feared we would have to sleep on the beach! The hotel, The Vulcan, was about a 15 minute walk from the Central Station and 20 minutes from Darling Harbour. We made use of the free shuttle bus from Station Square to Circular Quay, close to the bridge and the opera house. Sydney is a pleasant city with a good selection of museums, plenty of restaurants and lots of ferries to different parts of greater Sydney. Suffice to say, we visited the Maritime Museum, the Boat Show, the Wild Life Sydney Zoo (city centre with native animals extremely well presented), a boat trip to Manly and its surfing beach and took a walking tour to learn the history of Sydney. Neither of us has walked so far for a very long time. It was a relief to get back to Starblazer on Sunday!

One of the breakages on passage from Vanuatu was the gas spring in the boom strut, disappointing because we only replaced it in Opua at the end of November. John had ordered one from a company in Airlie Beach, a charter mecca north of Mackay, so on Monday we hired a car to drive there to collect it. The car hire worked out rather more expensive than the quoted rate: to start with they couldn't collect us from the marina because there was only one young lady in the office so that was an $18 taxi ride; when John returned the car he discovered the small print which stated he had to pay a mileage charge for more than 200 km, another $30; then he was told there was nobody there to deliver him back to the marina but they'd call a cab for him, he said no thank you, so the woman said he could drive himself back to the marina and leave the key in the boot and they would retrieve it tomorrow!

The other failure, at some point between arriving in Tonga and arriving in Fiji, was the lift pump for the water maker. We tried without success to get a replacement sent to Vuda Point Marina, having ordered it through Yacht Help Fiji who said it was coming with the gearbox parts until a few days before the shipment was due to arrive. We should have ordered it direct from Open Ocean in Opua! We finally sourced one last week from a company near Sydney and that was waiting for us on our return to the marina. Both the boom strut and the lift pump have been fitted, both work but we may have damaged our new membranes because we couldn't pickle them. Pumps don't give you an early warning that they are going to fail.

We finally cast off from our berth at 1145 on Tuesday to head towards the Whitsundays but I'll describe them in my next post. This is the first time I've had any 3G coverage to post this.

Joyce


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