Start Loc: Tin Can Bay Marina (25o 54.41’ S, 153o 00.42’ E)
Narrative: Yesterday was spent at Tin Can Bay Marina so I had shore power and access to parts while I installed the new toilet. I quickly discovered that the toilet had a self priming macerator meaning it doesn’t need the external water pump I have to pump sea water into the bowl. Unfortunately, the Sani-loo system I have isn’t set up for a self priming macerator. The new toilet ended up being installed in the forward head; so instead of the non-compliant (no macerator) manual toilet we didn’t use, we now have an electric macerator toilet in the forward head that we can use. Unfortunately, that means we are back to square one with the aft head.
We left Tin Can Bay at 10:00am in 1 kt of true wind, so it was again up to the diesel sail to get us to where we wanted to be. As we came abeam of Inskip Point, there was an awful clunking noise from the engine. We think bolts on the emergency high volume bilge pump came loose, allowing it to move and its drive belt to come off. As it moved, its hose pulled a rag (that I keep tucked away in the engine compartment for the daily oil check) into the main belt. With that cleaned up and the bolts tightened (and added to the weekly check list) - and rag and spare coolant relocated to a less convenient but safer location – we continued on our way.
As Garry’s Anchorage came into view, we were surprised at the number of vessels. We knew that this is a popular anchorage, but given it is winter, not school holidays and not a weekend, 17 boats was surprising. We had anchored by 2:30pm, had a quick chat with a couple off Welcome Swallow whom I had talked to at Scarborough before we headed off, and headed ashore to explore. Garry’s is nice enough, but I am sure we will see lots better over the coming months. We threw the crab pots in and Cam caught a few small fish to finish the day.
End Loc: Garry’s Anchorage, Fraser Island (25o 37.84’ S, 152o 58.34’ E)
Distance run: 22 nm
Engine hours: 3 hr, 27 min