Volvo Maintenance!

So there we were ready to cast off and sail from Pittwater up to Lake Macquarie and when I engage gear nothing happens, increase revs, still nothing.
Cutting an even longer story down by a bit, we have Volvo sail drives that work kind of like a car automatic transmission and they make the prop turn forwards or reverse.
Anyway, according to my owners manual I have 2 x MS 25 SR reverse mounted sail drives.  According to the Volvo documentation they should have automatic transmission fluid in them.  Reality is a little different, thanks Robertson and Caine.  I actually have 2 x 130SR-A sail drives. One has what looks like some really old engine oil and it works perfectly, the other has some milky looking transmission fluid in it and it doesn’t work at all.
Reading the manual is a good thing, right?  Check the internet, it says for that model we should use transmission fluid.  When the sun comes up we go shopping for 5 litres of transmission fluid and replace the lot.  Now reverse works great but it’s still a hit and miss afair with forward.  Eventually, David (my brother) finds this link http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f114/volvo-s130-saildrive-issue-clutch-slippage-41659.html# and then one to the service bulletin itself.  Apparently the one with engine oil in it is correct.  Off to the shopping center again for 10 litres of engine oil this time because we figured we’d need to flush all of the transmission fluid out and we might as well do the starboard side as well.
Thanks Volvo, 5AM start delayed, worked until 3PM and then had two working transmissions.  Quick run around Scotland Island to make sure we’re happy and then leave at 2AM the next day.

Coxswains course in Newcastle

So, I've decided that I want to spend some time not doing IT and I’m going to take a couple of months off.  After looking around at what jobs I can do I've come to the conclusion that working on boats will need a coxswains certificate.  Roughly speaking you spend some time doing theory and practical and then have a log book to keep note of your hours.
End result when I have the certificate is that I can be in charge of vessels up to 12 meters long and take them (with passengers) up to 15 nautical miles off shore.  Also means that if I’m bumming around in a marina I can drive the commercial tender legally and therefore would be insured.
Anyway, we looked at lots of options and I’m going to do the 8 week course full time at the Newcastle TAFE.  Belinda is going to do the General Purpose Hand course which is a 2 week course and then she’s going to do some sewing.