08.00hrs Another late morning, but who cares, habbeeby. We are here in Australia, and it feels so good. Outside its blowing skittles, but for us its lovely and comforting to hear the wind whistling through the rigging and all the surrounding masts, plus all the flags fluttering away in the extreme breeze, and know that we are safely tied up to the marina. It is bloody freezing cold, but bright and sunny, with a saloon temperature of 17 degrees. Aileen and Scotty took off in the bus to Mackay town, while Skipper tended to the boat and all the bits that need to be done.
The Marina has a terrace of workshops, which house all the different services, so this was the first port of call, as they say......... Skip, met Chris from the electronic co. and we returned to the boat with some LED lights and checked then for size. He replaced the 2 lights on the boom, and also the stern nav. light, and they worked very well and gave great light. These were really a test to see what they looked like. The 45 internal lights will have to be ordered from N.Z. and have to be sent on to where ever we are when they arrive, that's because they are 24v.....
Later we got hold of Mark and had further discussions about the Generator, he has received so much conflicting info from "Westerbeke", the engine manufacturers, that he is stumped. So skip, suggested we start on Monday and do a process of elimination, tackle each element on their own, and if necessary, replace them, but this blinking thing has to be fixed before we move on from here.
Later, John (Scotty) returned with a plastic box the size of a coffin, which he is going to fill with all his bits and pieces and send them back to the U.K. Scotty is leaving the boat on Sunday night, meeting Little ollie ( the girlfriend ) and doing a tour of Australia in a camper van, before returning home to England. We think he enjoyed his time on the boat and we certainly enjoyed his. At first, he was very quite, but really came to light when Margaret joined the boat.
Aileen returned later and we all went to the Yacht club for drinks and a BBQ. The food was ok, but it was freezing cold,
anyway, we had a laugh and returned to the boat much later, hit the scratchers, and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz
That's it.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )