So , our attempt to cross the Gulf of Carpenteria came to an end about 21nm on Saturday night. We were just about to eat dinner when we heard a loud bang. We checked things and Kelly looked in the engine room , but no luck. But 12 min later when grant did an engine checked , he discovered that the bang happened when the welded bracket for the tensioning belt for our water pump , alternator AND anchor winch had snapped clean off !!
Needless to say , we stopped the engine and made the decision to turn back. Turning around proved to be a challenge against the current and tide, but we slowly got turned around and managed to begin tacking while grant spent the next 3.5 hrs trying to jury rig something up because we needed the engine to get into the Seisia anchorage. After a couple of trial and errors , grant had success. Kelly & I went to bed after midnight and grant stayed on watch. At 2:30 am the tide changed again and we had to start the engine again. We made it into Seisia on Sunday morn with the hight tide at 6:45am. We did 36nm with the tacking on the return journey.
We contacted a couple of welders that day but getting a mobile welder put to the boat was proving to be difficult and pricey !
In the end , grant went back in the engine room to clean things up and after consulting a couple of friends and family with superior welding experience , it was decided that the job he did was probably going to be stronger than welding it in the end !
So after a weather check , we have decided to leave tomorrow morning in quite light winds , but the wind is supposed to slowly increase over the next 2 days. So fingers crossed that it all works out well.
We will likely not have reception until Darwin , about 10 days , give or take a day or 2... What are we going to do without our Internet fix!?!
Oh ! And we have finally paid our entry fee to the indonesian sailing rally, no backing out now !