Preparing for Departure

I am writing this from the small winery belonging to Chris and Jim, here in Condingup. I discovered a year ago that small can indeed be beautiful, when Chris set to Brenda a case of some of the best wine that I have ever tasted. Chis and Jim are extremely creative and innovative in their production of wine and olive products.

Chris picked us up at the boat this morning, took us for some shopping (20 liters of diesel, hosing, wiring, etc) then a tour along the superb scenic road overlooking the ocean. We then came to their vineyard and were treated a superb barbecue meal by Chris. Jim, unfortunately, is away on a bird conservation field trip and I have yet to meet him.

This is Sunday. Tomorrow will be dedicated to last-minute preparations and on Tuesday morning we expect to depart for a night at Lucky Bay, about 20 miles down the coast. There Sue, a fellow yachtie from a ferro cement yacht further down the jetty, will pick up Brenda and take her back to Esperance to catch her bus to Perth. Arnold and I expect to sail on to Middle Island a further 60 miles to the East for hopefully a quiet night at anchor.

After Middle Island we will head for Port Lincoln in one leg.

Although I've been having trouble getting a good weather fax I now have the schedule of HF weather transmissions and feel confident that we will be able to keep a good eye on the weather.

Yesterday Arnold and I added another meter to the electric bilge pump drain hose to yield a high and very healthy loop that will hopefully eliminate the bulk of our bilge water problems. While doing that work we noticed a smaller hose (20mm OD) that also had a short loop. We tracked it down to a shower drain pump that we have not been using. This morning we picked up enough hose to fix that while out at sea.

Yesterday Arnold and I investigated the installation of the "Lifetag" man overboard bracelet system. We think that we have it figured out, thanks to the information provided by Peter Turner. We purchased enough cabling to make that installation the next chance that we get.

We also rearranged the food storage around the flux gate compass so that there are no longer any tin cans within its proximity. The next time we are in a calm sea we will check out the compass and see if it is behaving. If so, we will swing it and should have a working Autohelm self steering again.

Also, two days ago we purchased two plastic 10 liter containers and hand-carried 20 liters of diesel to the boat. That 20 liters represents 8 hours of cruising at 1200 RPM and over 5 knots. Today Chris took is to get another 20 liters. The containers will be stored under the lazarette and we moved the fenders that were there to the space under the cockpit over the batteries, which are not protected with a large garbage bag.

We spent last Friday evening at the Esperance Bay Yacht Club for drinks, a meal, and socialising. We got good advice from Sue (new rule on Pachuca: nobody alone in the cockpit at night will go forward onto the deck - a fellow crewman must be roused to do the job) and Alan (sail through the Recherche Archipelago only in daylight because of the unsurveyed shallows) and others. We also saw the Commodore, John D'Emden, and his wife Adele. The club has been very good to us and we have enjoyed our stay very much.