Blog 9 - The Tale of going from port to port making repairs

Wednesday 21 December - Towlers Bay
We spent a relatively quiet early morning editing the blog and doing stuff around the boat. Then off to give Rick (a single hander on a Lagoon 380) on “Arkaydes” a hand to remove the fibreglass munching bow roller from his new 3mt RIB, which he bought for an amazing $900 – old stock and Chinese too – and am not sure just how long it will last. We drilled out the screw heads and I never seen “stainless steel” drill so easily. Rick offered to shout us a beer at the Royal Prince Alfred YC, 2.1 nm away as the crow flies. It was a bit bumpy for Susie with the wind driven chop and wakes of the Wednesday afternoon yacht racers from RPAYC who we motored through. That’s the penalty for taking the front seat! The ride back was easier with the wind behind us. Tomorrow Susie is shopping - Chris from “L’Evasion” rang to offer a shopping expedition by car at 07 30.
Thursday 22 December - Towlers Bay
After the obligatory visit to the beach with Max on a one of the highest tides of the year we set off for Newport Marina to meet Chris, the water was flatter so the high speed blat across Pittwater approx. 2.5 nm was smoother than yesterday. Our new Soda Stream had arrived, couriered to Chris’s daughters’ house (thank you Chris and Tennielle). The company offered to replace our old unit for free because they are phasing out the 40lt CO2 cartridges in favour of the 60lt ones and our old machine is too small. Susie and Chris went shopping and I went back to the boat until it was time to pick Susie up. In the meantime, Jim and Ann on “Insatiable II” invited us to join them for Christmas lunch.
The new Soda Stream was slightly wider and deeper than our old unit so we decided to do what Susie had suggested in the first place which was to modify the old unit to take the bigger gas cartridge, the job took 10 minutes and worked fine. As the decision had been made to keep the old unit permanently it was time to modify the shelf where it sits to make it fit better, an hour of measuring, cutting and drilling and it was all done.
Friday 23 December - Towlers Bay
Susie tried to do some washing but the washing machine decided to be unco-operative, the troubleshooting guide requires us to contact the manufacturer and quote the serial number. Simple task the number is on the back of the machine, the machine is bolted down so after an hour or so of undoing things and trying to move the machine which, by the way, was still full of water; I decided to re-start the thing and empty the water before pulling it right out. To my surprise this action somehow reset it’s electronic brain and I could make spin and wash, great! Put it all back together including fabricating a new male/female coupling for the air exhaust hose from Susie favourite spray bottle – she’ll get over it!
Saturday 24 December - Towlers Bay – Newport Beach
Susie was invited to join the crew on “Insatiable II” for yet another shopping expedition while I stayed on board and did a couple of loads of washing.
After lunch we dropped the mooring and motored to Newport and picked up the mooring which we had used before, the owner does not appear to be using it and it seemed unlikely that he would show up on Christmas Eve. Max went to his favourite doggy beach and then Susie gave Max a bath and brush, I decided to do a rubbish run to the beach and as I got into the dinghy so did Max, then I got out and so did Max, unfortunately the dinghy was further away and Max went for his very first deep water swim! I reached out grabbed leg and unceremoniously heaved him back into the dinghy where he looked very sorry for himself. We took a towel and went back to the doggy park next to the beach and used a tap to give him his second bath of the day. Twice washed Max!
When we returned to the boat, Susie noticed water on the floor and looked in the big storage locker under the galley floor where she keeps most of her bake ware, all wet with salt water! We washed and dried the lot without finding the cause. I suspected it may have been the water maker which I had run earlier.
Having showered and dressed for the occasion, we dinghied to Newport Marina for a fantastic Christmas Eve dinner with Chris and David aboard “L’Evasion”, and a good time was had by all.
Sunday 25 December – Newport Beach - Towlers Bay
After a quiet night on the mooring and an early visit to the doggy beach with many other Christmas dressed dogs we motored back to Towlers Bay to prepare ourselves for the mighty feast.
After dropping the anchor Susie went below and once again found water on the floor, it tasted salty. I removed the companion way steps and opened the main engine room hatch and had Susie start the engine as I feared the stern gland where the propeller shafts exists the hull must be leaking badly. I was wrong! With the engine running a small jet of water was squirting out of the joinery cabinet that houses the cutlery draws, weird! On close inspection it was coming out of one of the old screw holes where the bottom shelf used to be. After removing the drawer unit it was clear that whoever had installed the shelves initially had put a screw in to the side of the 1 inch diameter pipe for the saltwater engine cooling water which passes through the joinery to form a loop with an anti-syphon valve at the top of the loop. This then explained the occasional salt water ingress which we had not been able the trace (refer to previous comment 18 Nov 11) The pipe was repaired with a small screw as a plug and self amalgamating tape, then the entire contents of the locker were washed and dried and put away – again!
Meanwhile, Susie had been boiling the Christmas pudding in preparation for going to “Insatiable 2” for lunch, where we joined by Sue and Mike from “Yaraandoo 2” and Peter and Vanessa from “Akimbo”. Four ham operators all in one spot, there was never a quiet moment! Great food and great company, we all ate and drank more than enough! A lovely, lovely Christmas celebrated with amazingly interesting people.
Monday 26 December – Towlers Bay – Morning Bay
We moved to the other side of the bay in anticipation of a big southerly change which is expected tonight, no doubt we shall hear more about how this affects the people going to Hobart today. Yet another load of washing, making water (trying to catch-up), charging batteries and writing the blog! We spent a couple of hrs aboard “Yarandoo 2” to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart race. There is a great place here to walk Max ashore following which we were invited on board a local boat “Sweet Love” for a glass of wine, really nice people, Annette & Bjorn are originally from Denmark.
Tuesday 27 December - Morning Bay
I woke at 04 30, something was wrong; one of the warning lights on the switchboard was on. For some reason the bilge pump was running but no water was coming out. Turned it off and went back to bed. After listening to the Comedy net at 07 40 and Tony’s net at 08 00, I began to investigate, no apparent reason for the fault, but I changed a couple of connectors and all was well. As I had the floor up it was a good time to clean the bilge, I cleaned all the salt water intakes, engine, generator, forward A/C, aft A/C and the shower sump pump. A good job done! Having just been rewarded with a mug of freshly brewed coffee, the crews from the boats we had spent Christmas with, showed up and offered to take for a walk which unfortunately was going in to National Park so we had to leave Max on board. I have posted some of the photos in the gallery. There is fantastic assortment of gums and wild flowers and unfortunately we cannot identify them, we shall have to find a book of native flora. We had returned in time for lunch but the Danes arrived for a sticky beak, they really liked the boat. They are such interesting people and it would be nice to catch up with them again.
Wednesday 28 December - Morning Bay - Refuge Bay
After taking Max for a walk along the fire trail in the bush surrounding the bay we up anchored and sailed north along Pittwater rounding West Head where the wind died then headed us so we set the iron foresail to the anchorage at Refuge Bay. We had been told that the Bay would be chock a block and full of rafted boats but to our surprise there were empty moorings and even empty visitor moorings one of which we availed ourselves of. After lunch we went introduce ourselves to Graham and Roslyn on “Altair” who are friends of John and Sue from “Cavallino” and jointly own the mooring in Refuge Bay which we had used 10 days previously. Later they joined us for Sundowners.
Thursday 29 December - Refuge Bay
Graham and Roslyn came for morning coffee and Graham brought his multi-meter and between us we adjusted the output voltage of the generator which according to his meter had been producing 140 volts which explains why the water heater had started to trip out.
The visitor moorings are only supposed to for 24hrs so we moved to another visitor mooring which had become vacant, and we had a different perspective of the bay.
Once again we did a wash, made water etc. The generator stopped again, this time it was because I had not tightened up some screws on the front of the control panel and it shook loose. As usual it takes more time to move the stuff out of the way to get to the generator to do the job than the job itself.
Friday 30 December - Refuge Bay – America Bay
Moved the few hundred metres to America Bay, caught up with the crew on “Claudia Lee” and “Point of Sail” and “Indispensable”, we had a quiet day until a bloody big Riv picked up the mooring next to us and was too close for comfort (the owner knew he was too close - but he was not going to move or pull this line up). I suspect that this mooring has been dragged from its proper place with one of the large raft-ups that are famous in this region. We moved off the visitor mooring to a vacant club mooring, it was after sunset and unlikely to be taken.
Saturday 31 December –America Bay - Refuge Bay
Back to Refuge Bay and to another visitor mooring, where we have patchy internet and telephone coverage. Light showers and overcast making it looked like it was going to be a wet day but after lunch it cleared to a beautiful day.
We had showers and just when I asked Susie to put on a load of washing the generator stopped again. My knee jerk reaction was fuel but the tank is nearly full. Then I considered the filter. I thought a bit more about the symptoms and decided to check the water. The impellor was stuffed! This requires full access to do the replacement, which includes removal of the gas bottles, the gas bottle carrier and all the connections and then in I go – success! Success was celebrated aboard “Altair” with drinks and smoked salmon canapés on “Altair” before returning for a quiet night aboard. We were woken briefly at midnight with some klaxons blaring, not too bad.
Sunday 1 January – Refuge Bay to Smiths Creek via Patonga
Took Max to the small beach for his early morning pit stop, had breakfast aboard and then took Max to the big beach alongside the stream, beautiful scenery (we have since heard of someone being fined $300 for having his pooch ashore even below the high water mark).
For ages I had been promising Susie that we would get some fish and chips (since Coffs). Everywhere we went we seemed to have something else crop up or its been closed, so we set out for Patonga Beach near the entrance to the Hawkesbury River. There’s not much at Patonga, the fish & chip shop sells a few staple groceries and the pub next door sells everything else. The bakery is now an art shop and the servo is closed. The anchorage was a bit lively but the fish and chips were great and not too dear.
After lunch we sailed up Cowan Water dousing the genoa before entering Jerusalem Bay where we saw the mini cruise liner “True North” complete with helicopter, they are obviously avoiding the cyclone season as they normally cruise around Broome and the Kimberley Coast (big, big $’s). Jerusalem Bay did not appeal and there were no moorings available or decent places to get Max ashore (illegally), so we headed up past Cottage Point and made the left hand turn into Smith Creek. We were both gobsmacked at the beauty of the narrow gorge and very deep water. We anchored in 11 metres. Words cannot adequately describe how utterly beautiful this area is.
Monday 2 January – Smiths Creek to RMBC via Barrenjoey Head
Amazing place, in the morning we arose early, the water was dead flat and totally glassy with wonderful reflections. I have tried to take photos but I could never do it justice. We had a quick stop at little beach east of Jerusalem Bay where there was a beach for Max to have a run, then we motored to Barranjoey Head and anchored to await the start of the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour yacht race at 1 pm. It was good to see all the boats preparing for their race, although we could not see the start line from where we were, we were in calmer water and had a first rate view of all the preparations.
We had a nice sail down Pittwater to the RMBC where we picked up one of their moorings again.
Rather than pay to use RMYC laundry and knowing we would be filling up with water I started the generator, again it ran for 10 minutes before it shut itself down. I checked the impellor again, all ok. By now I’m beginning to pull my hair out and Susie is none too pleased. This time I decided to explore further than I have ever been before and took the end off the heat exchanger where we found enough bits of old impellors to make a new one! I was so proud of myself. I put it all back together and refilled it with coolant and guess what it! The darn thing would not start! Yet again I stripped it all down again but this time I went even further and took the whole heat exchanger core out. With Susie’s help, using safety pins, tweezers and bamboo skewers (from the galley) – her idea! We managed to clear the remaining bits of neoprene impellor from the core. Then reassembled and refilled with coolant, Susie started it first time and loaded it up – yippee! I could now re-assemble the gas locker and put the boat back together and tidy.
Tuesday 3 January – RMBC
Early in the morning we went to the dock for water, petrol and gas bottle refill then back to the mooring. David and Chris from “L’Evasion” picked us up and took us for a quick tour of the peninsula. Fantastic, then quick visit to Woolies, Whitworths and Mitre 10 then back to the boat to put the groceries away, then off again to have fish and chips at Palm Beach, at $19.00 for just the fish for one, they were far too expensive and the queue was too long. We found some superb fish more reasonably priced at Avalon. We sat in the car watching a 20kn cool breeze whipping up a few white caps, looking out over the ocean while we ate dinner. Chris and David took us to see some of the homes of the rich and famous such as the Packers etc who live in some fantastic locations along this coast. Chris and David have been wonderful showing us around their old stamping ground - A big Thank You!
Wednesday 4 January – RMBC
We lent a hand getting “L’Evasion” back to their marina berth and then visited the doggy beach before heading back to RMBC for a quiet day watching the comings and goings at the fuel dock (licence to print money!).
We had planned to sail south to Sydney today but with a 30 knot southerly due tonight we will stay put. No point in rushing things, besides Max enjoys the Doggy do, do beach!