I finished all my projects today even though it was an overcast, blustery and eventually, rainy day. I have wanted to drill in and set five new bolts into a section of our sail track to give it more strength. Coming from New Caledonia, that second section of track had stretched some of the pop rivets. The pop rivets secure the sail track to the mast. As a result of their stretching that section of sail track was a bit loose. With the additional bolts that I have added, it should hold fine now.

I also did a series of radio checks on our two hand held VHF radios and our built-in VFH radios. I have not been happy with how people had been receiving us. I discovered that our helm built-in has stopped working but everything else was fine. We will order a new second station unit to replace the one at the helm and will get it in Darwin. My “love” for Raymarine keeps growing and growing.

Tomorrow we will be making the 50 nm sail to Pearl Bay. It is just north of Port Clinton, along the mainland. It will be one of the few mainland anchorages we will have. It is a stopping point on our way to Middle Percy Island. That place is a favorite for cruisers since the few locals that live there put on a lamp stew for the cruisers. You just need to bring the vegetables and some beer and they do the cooking. We are looking forward to meeting and socializing with them.

The winds today have been in the 20 to 25 knot range and from the SE. They should hold for tomorrow. We hope so because that would make for a great sail to Pearl Bay

While staying here, we have been eating well. Mary Margaret, loaded up with fresh vegetables made a great phyllo stuffed with spinach and feta. OMG! Today, she made her famous Babaganoush. Yumm!!