07.00hrs Still blooming raining. But as we said before, its their winter down here. We got Michelle (Aileen's sister) on the Skype video this morning. We can only do this on the laptop when we are in Port.
07.30hrs Mark arrived on board and we started up the generator. It sounded good. He fine tuned the engine and by 10.00hrs the whole thing was running like a sewing machine. That's the first time it has worked properly since the "Panama Canal". We are making progress, another thing off the list.
Mark then examined the hydraulic connections to the headsail under the deck in the anchor locker up forward. These were totally rusted, they were replaced at some stage with just steel fittings. Its hard to believe that anyone could do this in an area that spends most of the time under water, and salt water at that, so these have to be replaced, another thing onto the list.
11.30hrs We took the semi rigid over to the dock to have that repaired. We tore the bottom out of it in "Tanna" when we ran up on a coral reef at full speed and 4 people on board. Of course it was dark at the time, so we could not see the reefs, and we had crossed this path lots of times in the previous few days, just one of those things.
The spinnakers are all repaired, another thing off the list, and to be sure, to be sure that this would not happen again, we got a rigger to go aloft and tape up any snags up there, and examine the rig while he is up there. Also asked him to replace the outhaul on the mainsail. He also suggested we put the jib sheets into a bucket of clothes softener, this he said, would make them nice and playable. That's a new one for us...
We also had to get a fridge man to look at our fridge, the blinking thing has gone beserk and is more like a cold store than a fridge. Just solid ice, even the milk is solid in the mornings, all this happened after we defrosted the thing when we arrived in Mackay. Another thing on the list... anyway, it seems it is the thermostat in the fridge itself and is easily repaired. He will have it done tomorrow.
14.00hrs Skipper took off to the airport and collected a rent a car and returned to the shopping mall, met Aileen and did our grocery shopping for the next month.... no more than that, as we will have to dump any food we have on board again when we get to Thursday Island......... T.I. is up close to the NE corner of Australia, about 1000 miles from here, but we will cruise the Whit Sunday Islands, Cairns, Port Douglas, and lots of other places on the way. We hope this blinking weather improves in the meanwhile.
19.00hrs We returned to the boat, still very damp, and stored all the provisions on board. By the way, we learnt a new thing to day in the cookery shop at the shopping mall, Olive oil is very bad for roasting meat. It will destroy any roasting tray and is not good for our health either.
Later we went to the Clarion Hotel on the marina and had a meal. Yeah, it was ok! Of course we met some of the others there and had a pleasant evening before returning to the boat and catching up with the blog and all the emails.
We got up a grib file, (that's for looking at the weather on the computer) and things look very poor all around this part of the SW pacific. We will have to send our family ambassador (Aileen) to say a few prayers, talk to your man above and sort this out. Amen.
We have had lots of chats with our old friends from Mallow, Johnny and Mary Horgan over the last few days. Do you remember Jim Ahern's fathers saying "remember well and bear in mind, a trusted friend is hard to find, and when you find one good and true, never part them for the new". ............. we think that is a great saying.
That's all for today.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )