Since the last post, almost all the outstanding items needing repair have been completed.

Sam, the wizard of an electrician from Overkill Electrical came by and fixed the intermittent bow thruster problem. He took about 5 minutes to determine the problem which turned out to be a set of inexpensive small relays like those used in automobiles. He replaced them and the bow thruster now works immediately and every time I press the control. Several other mechanics and electricians had spent considerable time replacing components and had not been able to fix the issue.

The pump head for the water maker finally arrived a week late. We installed it the day it arrived and were making fresh water that day. Another major item off the list.

The upgrade to the refrigerator and freezer was started yesterday and will be finished by next Wednesday.

My household goods have arrived in Sydney but the quarantine people randomly chose the container containing my pallet of items for fumigation. This does not make much sense because the container was fumigated on the ship during transit but apparently that is not taken into account which the random process used. I hope to receive the shipment next week or the following week at the latest.

On Wednesday, I was invited to crew in a race of very old gaff rigged boats. The local crew needed another crew member because one of the crew could not make it. Unfortunately when we had rigged the boat and were ready to head to the race course, the engine overheated due to a failed water impeller. The ended our participation in the race. I invited the crew to come for a sail on my boat and we had a very pleasant afternoon heckling the fleet as we sailed through them on the way out of the bay. I will likely race with them next week on their repaired boat.

The big setback is that Tom, my crew member decided to return to the United States. He left last Wednesday and so I'm looking for a crew member again. I've put out the word and have several potential candidates to interview. Hopefully, I can find the right person quickly because as I mentioned above, I want to do some longer passages and see other areas. For shorter passages, several local sailors have told me they would like to sail with me. This means that I may leave Pittwater Bay even prior to having a new crew member join me.

I am back on a mooring again. Sam, the electrician has a mooring that he is not currently using and has allowed me to put the boat on it for now. It is much easier to manage the boat by myself when it is on a mooring vs being anchored.

Finally, I received a surprise package from Larry Pringle, the broker at David Walters Yachts who helped me find and purchase the boat. It contained a lovely vest with the boats name embroidered on it. It has come in very handy, especially when sailing out on the ocean because we have had a lot of cold southerly winds lately.

That's all for now - I have to go and check on the Mango bread I have in the oven. I made it to use up some mangoes that were getting ripe and also to warm the cabin on this cool (17 degrees) and rainy day. It was supposed to cook for 1 hour but now will have been in for 2 hours. I don't think the recipe accounted for the moisture content in the mangoes. It does smell delicious though 😊.