North to Adventure

Saturday 23 September
Ahoy me hearties!! Still grounded....down but not out! Terry went for a ride around to the other side of the marina and found a shipwright (David Ross) who came with “his” diver on Sunday to get the rudder off. Funny, that after all of their tugging, grunting and groaning they found out that the rudder (although 100kg minimum) is buoyant! So if it HAD snapped off while sailing, at least we wouldn’t have lost it. It was broken right on the weld where it had been (supposedly) fixed. The diver also found Terry’s wrench & glasses while down there too which was a bonus! Yes, Jo! He’d lost them again..... David took the rudder and dropped it off the next morning at the transport company. Unfortunately, it didn’t leave until the following morning – which meant that they wouldn’t receive it until Wednesday. Thursday we get a call from Steve (the shipwright from Fremantle we were sending rudder to) saying he hadn’t received it yet. We call the transport co. – they tracked it down saying it was sent to incorrect address!?! Instead of 181 it was sent to 151 – ANYWAY with the week nearly gone it arrived later that day (Thursday). That night Sue and Rob had us over for dinner. When they were travelling in Sri Lanka, Rob took a cooking class there – so we were treated with the most delicious fish curry we have ever tasted! He topped it off with fresh mango sorbet for dessert. We had a lot of laughs – to the bladder breaking point! which lifted our spirits immensely!
Since we have been stuck – we have been riding into town everyday for exercise (as well as to get supplies, people watch, explore different streets, etc...) The distance would be a 6km round trip – assisted or hindered by varying winds. It has been keeping us sane as well as getting us fit.
The next day (Friday) Terry gets a text and pictures of the rudder from the welder (Darren Goss) who repaired it originally, guaranteeing that it would be “as good as new” ..... assuring us that “we had nothing to worry about” after said we were sailing around Australia and crossing the Tasman sea to NZ..... The text stated that “Rudder has about 3 to 4mm bend in the shaft and appears to have hit something” .... Terry phoned him to discuss that it had snapped right along his weld to which he replied it was a “design fault with Catalina” and that he “didn’t have x-ray vision” to be able to see inside the shaft, blah blah blah. We don’t want it repaired by another weld....we want the whole shaft replaced by a new one. As Steve hired this Darren to do the original repairs, Terry needs to discuss it all with him – this is a long weekend (Queen’s birthday!?) so NOTHING will be happening until at least Tuesday. AAAaaaaagggghhhhhh!!!!!! HOW FRUSTRATING!
But wait! There is more!?! I was doing my addictive code cracking puzzles and Terry was watching the early edition of the news....when I heard a “ker-plunk” I yelled to Terry as I ran up the stairs only to see the bubbles of what was Terry’s bike heading down to the bottom.....we leave them on the jetty between us and a dive-come-whale watching charter boat. They had just taken off for an evening cruise. Along with the strong winds their bow thrust had shaken his bike into the water. Luckily I heard the splash....With our quick thinking and team work we managed to hook it out of the water with a makeshift gaff hook on a pole with a weight off of the dive belt to make it stop it floating. It took a few attempts but worked so we thought we might patent the device, become millionaires and buy a bigger boat! Ha! After a good rinse with fresh water, and another lanolin spray it seems to be as good as new – time will tell!
Each day ticks by with many things to make up our days: rides into town, people watching, reading, cooking, eating, scrabble, T.V. reading, cleaning, washing, reading, dvd’s, naps, etc... we have met a lot of nice people too. In fact there is a young couple with two children from Perth here on their boat that we are catching up with later this arvo. (afternoon for you yanks). We even heard the whales splashing down one still evening while outside. There were lots of them! Today, Tuesday 26th, is cooler and we even had a bit of rain. Hopefully we will hear something about the rudder today......OMG! Terry's phone rang as I typed that!!! and it is the shipwright dude ..... watch this space.