01 Dec 10 Wed - Did some more water runs while the tides are agreeable and I can motor over the fringing reef to shore. Met Ian off the cat 'Thia' and gave him a lift to shore for water and then met back up later in the arvo for a quick beer and a chat as the weather was closing in and lightning abounded. Otherwise it was a quiet day reading and resting.
02 Dec 10 Thurs - Not good news on the heat exchanger. The leaks are many and the guys are chasing their tail as they plug one leak only to open another. So I am up for a new one at $1800; but the bad news is there are none in country for at least 7-10 days!! Even Diecon could not help with one of their aftermarket heat exchangers. I will have all the other engine parts shipped to me when finished, and then it's only a small job to connect the heat exchanger. What really gets under my goat is that if all this was happening back home or in a major centre I would have slipped, pulled the engine and replaced it with another brand. Volvo spares are ridiculously priced and there nickname as The Green Anchor fits perfectly! The biggest single annoyance to me is the money spent on the engine was destined to pay for my new mainsail!!
For lunch Ian and I ventured up to the Café for a very nice Thai Beef Salad (with real steak). I paid for the milk Sheree gave me and scored a bonus bag of lettuce (thanks guys) which went down well with my Mackerel dinner.
I dragged out the old boat cover and cut it up into usable pieces. It is Sunbrella material and was UV degraded, leaking and torn. I salvaged reasonable areas to make into rope bags or winch covers. I setup my Sailrite LS1 walking foot Zigzag sewing machine I bought 2nd hand in Rebak Island Marina and began to teach myself to sew! It is a 110 volt unit but it has the Monster Wheel and hand crank option so I can use manually. I will get a 24o volt motor when I get home. Last time I machine sewed anything, Relle said I could use her overlocker to make fishing rod bags....mind you, Relle set it all up and rode shotgun while I made those wonderful pieces of craft! All my other sewing has been by hand using my fantastic wooden sewing awl that I have owned for 35 years......in fact I used it to repair the mainsail on 'Rogue Wave'. Did some trial runs to get used to the stitch types and will be ready to have a crack at a winch cover tomorrow. The design certainly follows the KISS principle and the mechanisms are all steel and man-proof.
03 Dec 10 Fri - Craft centre open for business. More sewing with the Sailrite machine followed by a few hours watching my North Sails Tuning Guides. These tuning guides are great DVDs as they have voice over narration, diagrams and photos plus extensive on water video showing different rigs and sail combinations on various craft and what is good and what is not so good. The guide reinforces what I already know and provides me with heaps of additional visual info that I can readily apply whilst sailing 'Rogue Wave'.
Started another book last night titled 66 Days Adrift the story of a couple setting sail on a 4 year circumnavigation in 1989 on their 39ft cutter 'Siboney' (built 1937) only to be sunk by a pod of Killer Whales mid Pacific. They have just sunk and are in the liferaft. He is copping an earful from the missus about his stupid idea of his to sail around the world!
04 Dec 10 Sat - Happy birthday brother Dave. I baked you a loaf of bread to celebrate.....half normal bread and half sultana bread. Once again, tasted bloody fantastic.
Spent the morning drafting the first cut of my 2011 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race Sponsorship Proposal. Still a lot of work required to ensure I can offer the right opportunities to the right companies. I compiled a list of Port Stephens companies in the hope gaining community support.
I had a nice relaxing day today reading 66 Days Adrift and watching my North Sails Tuning DVDs. Can't say the 66 Days Adrift is riveting by any stretch of the imagination.......the story tends to be repetitive as one would expect of 2 people alone in a 4 man liferaft. Also goes on about religion far too much for my taste so I am starting to fast track my reading of this one. Shore trip tomorrow to top up the water and go for a walk.