7th- 9th August

17 32.383 S
149 34.232 W

Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a

Just like that in the blink of an eye the (long ) weekend was gone! I had meant to write yesterday but I got a bit lazy and /or just couldn't be bothered so now I have 3 days' worth of not much going on to tell you about.
Let's start with how lovely the weather has been here, just to make some of you jealous; we have had glorious sun with a slight breeze, it hasn't been unbearably hot except when you are walking for miles from the supermarket with heavy bags. The harbour is calm and still until some idiot comes roaring through in a stink boat and sets up a wake that sends everyone rocking, luckily this has only happened on the very rare occasion. The water is the most gorgeous turquoise colour and is pretty clear - you can see the growth on the boats and the pontoon pillars very clearly, I really have to get a photo of it. Having said that there is no way that we would make water here or go swimming in the harbour as there is no holding tank pump out facility offered here at the marina and we all know that everyone is going to be emptying their holding tank into the harbour at some stage! Saturday was spent on board as Yan, the guy that was doing the fuel polishing turned up and spent from 9 am until 2pm running our fuel through the filtering system. It was unlike any other commercial fuel polishing that we have ever seen, the equipment he used is in the photo at the top of the page. This equipment had to be brought on board and into the salon, a feat in itself. It was then plugged into our power and the fuel from the starboard tank was run through it and emptied in to the port tank, the bottom of the tank was then "Vacuumed" out and then the port tank was put through the polisher and emptied back into the starboard tank, the bottom of that tank was then Vacuumed out. This process was repeated several times and the filter on the polishing equipment had to be changed out three times as they blocked pretty badly and when the vacuuming was done at the bottom of the tanks there was a whole load of gunky stuff extracted. Gerry wasn't convinced that the equipment was set up correctly in the first place, Yan had hired the equipment and wasn't sure either so he rang the person he had hired the equipment from and sure enough there was a second filter that had been removed as it had broken and had never been replaced!
This made the system slower and it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do, and after trying to change the direction of the flow through the pump, they had to then run it without a filter before the pump which ended up blocking the pump and blowing the fuses. After much fiddling around and running the fuel backwards and forwards through the equipment, changing out the filter 3 times, they eventually decided that they were getting to the point of diminishing returns. The fuel was much cleaner and there were no longer great lumps of rusty debris coming out of the tanks - it was time to stop and call it a day. It was just as well that there was only about 1/4 of a tank of fuel in one side and 1/2 a tank in the other side otherwise they would have been at it for the remainder of the day! The rusty lumpy stuff that was extracted didn't originate from the inside of the tanks but there has been a weld in one corner of the port tank which looks to have begun rusting out so we will need to be aware of that for future reference. Whilst Gerry and Yan were down below doing the fuel polishing stuff I made a start on cleaning the cockpit Isen glass windows, hate full job at the best of times but as they were crusted with salt water from the trip across to here they needed doing. It took ages to get them to a state where they looked to be clear and that was just the side ones, I still need to tackle the rear and forward facing ones but I've run out of the plastic cleaner that you need to use. Once the men had finished down below and the equipment was dragged back out of the boat and onto the dock it was time to have a very late lunch, followed by a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the afternoon. We took a very slow walk to the food vans for an early dinner and both made good choices this time, I had beef and lemon grass satays with a cucumber and carrot salad whilst Gerry had chicken with cashew nut stir fry, of course we indulged in an ice cream afterwards - you have to do it whilst you can! A slow walk back to the boat and an early night followed.
Sunday, the day of rest apparently, but not for some! Having now got clean fuel in the tanks it was time to change out the fuel lines and install the new hoses that Gerry had bought. Up came the floor boards, out came the tools (but not all of the ones that would be needed), the companionway steps were removed and it was time to close off the fuel lines, undo the hose clamps remove the line from one end (spilling the fuel that was in the line into the bilge and all over the salon floor in the process)then tug and wiggle the line out from the far end underneath the cross hatch boards and between the various bits of cable that use the same space. The good thing was that the old hose came out without too much problem, of course the hose clamp broke so we had to move a few things to find the replacement ones before proceeding further. The new hose then had to be threaded through the obstacle course where the old one had come out from, it took a bit of persuasion and some washing up liquid as lubricant but we got it in place and hooked everything up, clamped it in place and then it was the moment of truth - were there any leaks. Happily there weren't any so we were good to go, it was now time to clean up the diesel that had escaped from the old hose, put the tools away, replace the steps and the floor boards and have a cold drink. We didn't have much else planned for today but as we were out of bread we decided to take a slow wander to the supermarket and buy some rather than make it. The Champion supermarket is a fair walk from our dock so we took it slowly but by the time we arrived we were both perspiring badly, it was good to get inside the store and wander around in air conditioned comfort. The supermarket is a regular sized one and had just about everything that we could possibly want. We only picked up a few bits as this wasn't going to be a major shopping expedition. The walk back was just as hot and Gerry had the additional burden of a bag to carry with cans of beer in it so we did a slight detour and went Macca's thinking we would be in time for breakfast McMuffins however when we got there (at 10.15am) they had only just opened for the day and there was apparently no breakfast menu! I contented myself with a doughnut and Gerry pigged out on a Royal with cheese (pulp fiction joke again!). We wandered back to the boat and decided that we had done enough for the day and Gerry was just about to nod off to sleep in the salon when there was a knock on the side of the boat, we had visitors! Annie and Ross, the Kiwis of Whale hitting fame had found us and come to visit. We spent a pleasant time catching up with them and shared our trip details, they are apparently leaving tomorrow and making a straight shot to New Zealand so we said our good byes, wishing them a safe and quick passage. We did learn from them that the cruise / cargo ship that we saw go out and return a few hours later had been hit with 4 crew cases of Covid, everyone was apparently tested before leaving but the results didn't come though until they were underway. How mad would you be to have spent US$7000 for a cruise that only lasted a few hours, hopefully all the passengers got a full refund and didn't contract Covid in that time period. We don't know if all the passengers would have had to gone into quarantine on return but that would have been the topping on the cake. We didn't feel like much for dinner so we had soup and fresh baguette before another early night. For some reason we are both very tired, I think it's just the wind down after the trip but only time will make that better.
Monday and it was time to see about getting our laundry done, there were a couple of bags of accumulated stuff, some of which was desperate or covered in salt water. I bagged everything up and Gerry took the bags off by himself, it would be quicker than if I went with him. On his return Gerry set about hosing down the deck whilst I scrubbed at the cockpit table covering which was filthy and had some mould that needed removing. Then it was on to the jobs of the day, Gerry needed to finish off the shower seat - it needed sanding and varnishing before putting back in place, he stupidly asked me if there was anything else I wanted varnishing and I suggested that the salon windows on the starboard side needed a light sand and varnish coating seeing as he was on a roll. What was I doing ? well the sheets on the stay sail had begun to fray at each end and the inner core was looking like a pony tail so they needed to be fixed. I stupidly offered to whip the ends, thinking that it would only be 2 ends but of course Gerry took the whole sheet off on both sides so I ended up having to whip 4 ends which took a while. Cutting the inner core off was a mission and a half as it is made of Kevlar and it is bloody difficult to cut through even with a brand new Stanley knife blade! I got there in the end and they are now back in place and will hopefully last for the duration of our boat ownership. We ate a late lunch on board and then did nothing for the rest of the afternoon, only showing our faces at cocktail hour and then eating dinner on board as the food vans are closed on a Monday. Gerry had contacted an electrical guy about our water maker brushes and he was going to come to the boat at 5pm, it didn't happen so he either forgot or was busy but didn't let us know - that's a phone call to make tomorrow!