Adelaide Stay (2)

22 June 2008

Yesterday Arnold and I put in a big effort and installed the new marine toilet and pressure pump. This included a journey into Port Adelaide to get some hosing and clamps. While I worked on the toilet Arnold worked on the pressure pump. Everything went very well with the toilet installation because the replacement unit fit perfectly over the four bolts holding the old toilet. The new installation is an improvement over the old. The water inlet hose now loops 30 cm higher than before, and all hoses now have double clamps. I then helped Arnold with the pressure pump installation and by 4.30PM both jobs were completed. We then examined the faulty pump. Its only fault was that it would not stop pumping. We took apart the pressure sensor unit and saw that the diaphragm was intact. There was a small adjustment screw and I can't help thinking that a small tweak of that screw may have restored normal function. In any event we gained some insight in how the pressure regulation works. Soon after we completed the installations Reg and Colleen arrived and the four of us went to a barbecue at the club.

Today Arnold and I spend about 90 minutes installing the new reefing lines. We took the opportunity to make improvements on the routing of lines from the mast to the cockpit. During this operation I noticed that the nut holding the goose neck bolt (i.e. where the boom meets the mast) was loose and had no cotter pin through it. The top of this bolt forms the hooks for the forward reefing points. Had this nut dropped off we would have noticed nothing until we tried to put in a reef at which time it is possible that the bolt could have been pulled out and the boom dropped off from the mast! Dealing with a dropped boom in high winds with the mainsail up would not have been a pleasant experience. I put a cotter pin through the nut and reminded myself to always check the work of others.

At this point Arnold and I think that we have completed almost all of the remedial work that we had planned. The only remaining thing that we can think of is to extend the loop of that shower drain pump hose which is a simple job that we plan to do tomorrow.

Our constraints now are (1) getting the repaired jibs back from the sail maker and (2) completion of repairs to the self steering. I will make inquiries about these items tomorrow. In the meantime Arnold and I will begin to provision and prepare the boat for the next leg of the journey (to Eden). This will mean lots of groceries, gas cylinders refilled, laundry, etc – not to mention a badly needed hair cut for myself.

23 June 2008

After discussions among ourselves Arnold, Brenda, and I agreed to bypass Sydney altogether. We will spend extra time in Eden then sail from Eden directly to New Zealand, making landfall at Opua in the north island, which is a port of entry. We would like to have sailed in Sydney Harbour, but it is all about tradeoffs. We want to reach Seattle by Christmas and we'd rather have the extra time in French Polynesia which we are unlikely to ever visit again.

24 June 2008

I got no phone call from the sail maker who had promised to complete the repairs yesterday; nor did I hear from the electronics person who had promised to phone me in the afternoon regarding the result of his thorough investigation of the Autohelm computer. I am not too concerned about the sails because we have a few days up our sleeve. However, the Autohelm issue was a disappointment because I hoped to give the OK to order any required parts yesterday.

However, we got a ride to Semaphore from Tim the works manager at the club. He dropped us off in front of the laundromat. From there we walked two blocks to the barber shop and then another kilometer for the train. After getting off at the Osborne station Arnold went on to the marina taking all of the laundry. I dropped into the grocery store and went slightly mad with the shopping and wound up lugging $189 worth of groceries more than 1 km to the marina. These things may not sound like much but they saved us more than half a day of sail preparation time.

Arnold and I will go into Port Adelaide this morning for a booked Internet session at the library and afterwards we will visit John to discuss things with him personally. While there we will look at the Raymarine chart catalogue and order the next chart cartridge which I was told in Fremantle covers the Pacific ocean all of the way to the NW coast of the USA.

Today we will pay for the pen for another full week through to Friday. Arnold and I hope to be ready to sail by Friday morning. We checked out the weather on the HF radio last night and learned that there are 40 and 45 knot winds predicted for today for the area in which we plan to sail. This prompted an investigation of havens between here and Wilson's Promontory. We have identified three useful ones:

Port Fairy (38S23, 142E15)
Warrnambool (38S24, 142E29)
Portland (38S21, 141E37)

We see Portland as the preferable one by far. We think that the reliable 3-day forecasts should see us to Portland OK.

We had a very pleasant evening with Bob & Shirley and their good friends John & Cathy last night over splendid food and good wines. They plan to visit the boat on Thursday with John armed with a video camera.