Coming in to Port Macquarie

Apparently they removed the old triangle leads a while ago and now they have a light that shows green if you are too far right, red if you are too far left and white if you are spot on.
Roughly speaking, the correct transit is a heading of 224 248 degrees which will see you on the white light.
The light is at the bottom left. The yellow line is our track across the bar.

(Needed to edit that, when we left on Monday the 4th August I took much better notice with Belinda watching out the back and calling out when I was in line with the white light. The white light shows when the bottom of the three dotted lines is in line. It really feels like you're going way too close to the northern wall but there you go.)

The best weather we've had for weeks

Went for a walk into town to see what's there. Found a pub for a light lunch and a beer overlooking the Hastings river. About 20 degrees, blue sky, no clouds, just a breath of wind.  What more can you ask for?

Port Macquarie

It's a beautiful morning in Port Macquarie, Martin is cleaning EverRest's port side, removing the black marks she received from our overnight stay at Crowdy Head. Today we are going ashore and have a look around town, hopefully find a place to buy white pigment to change the colour of our epoxy to match our gelcoat.

Crowdy Head

So last night we stayed at Crowdy Head on the old fuel dock but for ages we've either been on a mooring, anchored or tied up to a floating dock.
When we tied up at the old fuel dock last night we didn't even give the tide a thought.  We were just so knackered after the 14 hours that we tied up, had a beer, dinner and then bed.
We woke up at midnight with a loud crack (just happened to be low tide) and then saw this.

Problem was we'd tied up completely wrong for the conditions / position and when the tide dropped (about 1 metre) the rope had just got way too tight and pulled the bolt through and broke the cleat.

Now that we're here in Port Macquarie we'll get that fixed before we move on and remember to not do that again.

The old fuel dock.

Selfie at the Crowdy Head lighthouse

Belinda on the phone to her dad

Moving forwards part 2

10am still a bit chilly, the good news the sun is trying to come out.

Moving forwards now

Finally heading north, early start this morning 2.30am. photo of Martin taking a nap from his 6.30am shift at the helm.

Adjusting the output voltage on the alternator

When we came up from Newcastle with the brand new batteries I noticed that at one point the voltage had got up to 14.8 volts.  The alternators are supposed to put out 14.4 volts and the batteries are ok with this.  As soon as the engine turns off it settles back down to 13.6 volts and then as the batteries are used it will drop down to about 12.5 volts and then we charge again.
That's how it's supposed to work.
Anyway, I've just spent some time with both alternators out and like a lot of other things on this boat we find that things are not exactly the same on both sides and not the same as the original manual says they should be either.
On the starboard side the alternator was putting out too many volts and I've discovered that on that side I have an externally adjustable voltage regulator.  Looks very much like this.

Anyway, some very careful adjusting with a jewelers screwdriver and the voltage is back down to 14.4 volts.  Very happy now.

Two in the cave

And there's room for two in the cave

The plastic cave

Now that Belinda has finished with making the plastic cover at the helm I stay warm and dry when it's raining and windy.  Difficult to sail with it all up because the winch handle hits the plastic on the way round but usually if the weather is that bad we need to charge the batteries anyway.

Leaving Newcastle

These guys are a lot bigger up close.  This is in the channel leaving Newcastle harbour.

Heading North again

Driving with no hands and talking on his phone, what am I  to do with him. Any way we are back in Port Stephens, heading in the right direction again. We will stay here until Sunday for the weather to clear.

Tough day.

Finished work and now it's time for cheese and bickies.

New Batteries

Out with the old and in with the new.

The old batteries were just truck batteries (wet cell, lead acid) that are not deep cycle.  At three and a half years they had done all the work they were going to do.  Lots of research led me to Peter at www.batteryvalue.com.au and we ordered and paid for 3 x 125AH deep cycle AGM batteries on Tuesday and had them delivered to Newcastle marina by lunch time on Thursday.

The new batteries are smaller, lighter and more efficient. Oh yeah, cheapest price I could find anywhere as well.  I toyed with the idea of putting in lithium ion batteries but although they are great technically there were just not cost effective yet.  Next time.

Engine fixed?

So this is the timing case cover that caused the oil leak.  The previous owner (or the ratbag that sold us the engine) had severe corrosion and bogged over the holes and then painted it 'Volvo' green.  First picture doesn't look too bad apart from the bolt hole does it?

How about this then?

All that stuff that I'm touching is bog and the two bolt holes have been completely corroded.  In one spot there is a whole about 3mm in diameter that went straight through.