10th September, 2006
The boat is high and dry on the slips at Cairns. We had interesting weather crossing the Coral Sea, due to a trough exactly parallel to our route, that kept sweeping back and forth across the Coral Sea. And us. Kieran put in succinctly when he said “East of trough good, west bad”. The winds east were almost easterly, and to the west they were strong and southerly so that we were beating into them, with choppy seas. In the middle of the rough bit, when feeling seasick, I started wondering why we do these silly things – but during the easterly, it was beautiful, especially with the moon nearly full. There was more good than bad, and we made the crossing in 4 days.
The nights were moonlit and starry, but the days were overcast, which meant the solar panels were not putting much into the battery. This became quite a problem as our generator had packed up just as we were leaving Samarai. Peter started it to top up the batteries just before we left, and it ran a few moments before coming to a very expensive sounding crunching halt. It appears to be the bearing on the crankshaft, and of course the generator is 13 months old. The local Yamaha dealer is trying to put a case to get it on warranty, but if not we will buy a Honda next time! We were forced to run our engines occasionally – modern GPS and chartplotters demand much more power than in the old days.
Kieran was off like a shot when we arrived, to fly to Brisbane and see his beloved Kathleen, and also try to organize the rest of his life.
Since we are probably off to remote areas north, we decided to slip the boat and redo the antifouling even though it is in good condition. It is easier then beaching it among the crocs and stingers. Of course it has reminded me of the joke about getting old – it is when you bend down to tie your shoelaces and look around to see what else you can do while you are down there (or when you put your bra on backwards and it fits better ….. but I digress). While up on slips we decided to get new engines, as we will be a long way from a mechanic…that is two boat engines and one dinghy engine. Plus a new generator of course. The Yamaha dealer smiles broadly whenever he sees us. With all this there has to be new control cables and controls…..and then the mechanic found there was rust on a steering cable so they have to be replaced. Everything on a boat costs exorbitantly and we are now over 20,000 dollars…..
While we are doing it I went and bought a new breadmaker, as our old one is getting hard to clean because of corrosion. I also needed new flippers and goggles, and we had run out of most of our fishing gear – Kieran was reduced to making lures out of powdered milk tins, but they worked! Hope we get the job in Elcho now, as we will be 400 miles from the nearest chandler in Darwin, so spending should be difficult.
Speaking of Elcho, we are flying to Gove on Wednesday and on to Galiwinku on Thursday for a look at the place. They also want to look at us – I think they believe we are mad so they had better check us out to see how weird we really are. Twitch twitch!
Slips always go with excessive activity, and although we bought 2 weeks of wireless internet we have not been able to access it due to technical problems. We were reduced to making a mad dash to an internet café the other night just to book airfares to go to Brisbane and organize our removal. It was 10pm and we had not had dinner so we stopped at one of the few restaurants still serving and had coffee –and I had tiramisu, which I now know is very high in lactose!
Anyway, at least we are now booked to Brisbane although I could not book back until I talked to an actual person because I want to bring my dear doggy woggy back. Now I have not been able to get back to book a flight back again. Poor Loki is going to hate the flight – and then the boat, as he gets seasick! And then probably Elcho, as the camp dogs will eat him if he goes out. It is a dog’s life!
Last night we had a farewell dinner for Joy, Chris and Emma from Esprit, and John from Zero Gravity came down from Yorkey’s Knob, 7 miles north of Cairns. It was like old times except we missed Mariet, who had to fly to Holland as her mother is going into a nursing home, and Kieran, who is in Brisbane. It was very sad parting after 5 months sailing with Esprit, and now going in different directions. Esprit left today to head south, into an 18 knot southerly. I hope they get some fairer winds.
Around me is a shambles, as all sorts of work and repairs are going on. I am waging war on mould and water in the lockers. When seasick during the turbulent part of the passage, I opened the hatch over our bed, and then went up on deck and forgot it. Oops! Waves washed in for a couple of hours, and everything was sloshing around when I next went down. Horrors! We lashed our mattress to the cabin roof for 2 days, and bucketed out the floor, but in the cupboards had to wait until port. When we arrived at land we unlashed the mattress to bring it in, but it was still sopping on the bottom, so Peter threw it back on the roof. We were at Cape Grafton, which is notorious in the sailing directions for “bullets of strong wind”. One of them must have found our mattress during the night because in the morning it was nowhere to be seen! I have never heard of anyone losing a double bed mattress at sea! Unless the boat sank, anyway.
There is another project in Cairns – having a new mattress made, and while we are there new cushions for the saloon, all another 3, 500 dollars! It never ends!
Must go to bed so I can get up early while it is cool enough to do physical work , although it is a little chilly at present, with that southerly wind bringing a cool change.