Start Loc: Abel Point Marina (20o 15.85'S, 148o 42.69'E)
Narrative: It was worth spending the extra time in at the marina. On Thursday afternoon Cameron and I caught the bus to get some chlorine for the toilet system and a grog resupply. Heather and Haydee dumped rubbish, checked us in, collected some mail, put some washing on, refilled the water tanks and filled our empty gas bottle. We also sorted the shipwright to have a look on Friday morning at the toe rails where they are splitting around two of the cleats. We got a lot done and through their help the kids earned a movie night.
Friday started with a run to the Airlie Beach Lagoon and a few laps. I was back by 6:45am as the shipwright was due at 7:00am. He had a look at the toe rails and worked out what he needed to do to fix them (remove the cleats, dry out the wood, glue and clamp, reseat the cleats) and we sorted him to do it at Hamilton Island on 6th October. The rigger is still out of action with his knee so I went and picked up the parts. The rigger range the supplier and confirmed how it was all supposed to go together, I went back to the boat to give it another crack. The bush that was provided for the halyard deflector simply did not fit, and I don't believe I need it anyway as the two head sail halyards are already "deflected" to the face of the mast, so I left the deflector as is. The two bushes for the foil went is surprisingly well and trouble free. The top cap went on without a drama (I cut a slit in it so I could slide it around the forestay which was significantly easier then even thinking about removing the forestay from the top of the mast to slide the top cap down it). The pin I removed went back in with some locktite. The second pin they provided was too small and simply slid in and out rather than locking in, so I wrote it off as well and will run with one pin in the top cap for a while. I returned the parts I didn't use and got my money back. In the end, they were not very helpful. After going to the top of the mast and having a look the rigger ordered the wrong parts (deflector bush), then when he injured himself they made no arrangements for us despite being booked in to have the work done. This was repeated when his "out of action" time was lengthened, but at least I could talk to him this time to confirm how everything was supposed to go. Then I found that another part they ordered (the locking pin) was the wrong size as well. Not the best experience and I decided I would try to find a new lock pin through Hamilton when we are in there. The rest of Friday was taken up with shopping, then portioning and stowing all our food.
The kids wanted to join me on my run and swim this morning, so I left a little later. We were back by 8:00am, and after breakfast got stuck into the cleaning that still had to be done, inside and outside the boat. We did a final top of the water tanks and left the marina at 11:50am. We had N winds at 10kts, so we were close hauled on our NE course towards Pioneer Rocks. When we reached the rocks, the wind dropped right off to less than 5kts, so we started the motor, furled the head sail (which no longer makes that clunking noise - success) and motor sailed SE to Daydream Island. We picked up the mooring buoy at 1:25pm.
The plan for the next few days is to visit some of the places we haven't been yet and do some fishing. We are booked in to Hamilton Island on Thursday 6th October and will spend the night there before Heather, Haydee and Cameron fly to Sydney on 7th October. I will spend a few days doing some maintenance on the engine (scraping off some surface rust, priming and repainting) and then pick Heather and the kids up again on Sunday 9th October.
End Loc: Daydream Island (20o 15.36'S, 148o 49.00'E)
Distance run: 8nm (cumulative: 1084nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 19 min (cumulative: 128 hr 25 min)