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.
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Saturday, 12 July 2014
Thursday, 10 July 2014
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.
Thursday, 12 June 2014
Friday, 6 June 2014
And we have the money shot
The beauty of digital photography. We have about a dozen shots around this one that were not quite right.
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Hauling out
1st of April we hauled the boat out for some much needed maintenance.
I have a bunch of photos so I'll work out how to create an album and then link to that.
In addition to the clean and anti foul we needed some fibreglass work at the front, and down the back. While we were cleaning I looked at one of the propellers and noticed that it definitely wasn't working as it should.
And we have also had a slow (but getting worse) oil leak on the second hand engine that we had fitted last year.
2014 Haulout album
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Saturday, 22 March 2014
Lake Macquarie to Port Stephens
Last week the weather looked good enough for us to head on up to Port Stephens.
Getting out of the lake meant we needed to wait for the bridge to open which they do every hour between 6 AM and 7 PM except during peak hour so 8 AM and 5 PM miss out. When we go through the channel there is a couple of knots of current going one way or the other depending on an incoming or outgoing tide and we need to cross the bar on an incoming tide.
Once we've got that bit sorted we need to make sure that the weather in the ocean between Swansea and Port Stephens is good. We’re looking for minimal swell, hopefully behind us and either a cross wind or following wind and nothing nasty on the forecast.
Wednesday, 19th March fit all of the criteria and when we talked to Marine Rescue at Lake Macquarie they confirmed that it was ok to sit on one of the moorings overnight. (They have 2 moorings on the inside of the bridge for people waiting to go out and 3 on the outside waiting for people to go in).
On the Tuesday night we took the last bridge out which was about 10 minutes before last light and stayed on the mooring overnight.
We had an early start on Wednesday morning between first light and sunrise and had crossed the bar by 7 AM. It was supposed to be light northerly early in the morning followed by a light southerly in the afternoon.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114886658647201208021/albums/5993742890153555361
End result was the northerly died early and the southerly was late so although we had the sails up all day we hardly got any assistance and we motored all the way up. By 3.30 PM we were turning left into Port Stephens and that was where we met the southerly. Had a good sail inside Port Stephens and we finished the day at 5.30 PM in Salamander Bay with a beer.
Getting out of the lake meant we needed to wait for the bridge to open which they do every hour between 6 AM and 7 PM except during peak hour so 8 AM and 5 PM miss out. When we go through the channel there is a couple of knots of current going one way or the other depending on an incoming or outgoing tide and we need to cross the bar on an incoming tide.
Once we've got that bit sorted we need to make sure that the weather in the ocean between Swansea and Port Stephens is good. We’re looking for minimal swell, hopefully behind us and either a cross wind or following wind and nothing nasty on the forecast.
Wednesday, 19th March fit all of the criteria and when we talked to Marine Rescue at Lake Macquarie they confirmed that it was ok to sit on one of the moorings overnight. (They have 2 moorings on the inside of the bridge for people waiting to go out and 3 on the outside waiting for people to go in).
On the Tuesday night we took the last bridge out which was about 10 minutes before last light and stayed on the mooring overnight.
We had an early start on Wednesday morning between first light and sunrise and had crossed the bar by 7 AM. It was supposed to be light northerly early in the morning followed by a light southerly in the afternoon.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114886658647201208021/albums/5993742890153555361
End result was the northerly died early and the southerly was late so although we had the sails up all day we hardly got any assistance and we motored all the way up. By 3.30 PM we were turning left into Port Stephens and that was where we met the southerly. Had a good sail inside Port Stephens and we finished the day at 5.30 PM in Salamander Bay with a beer.
Sunday, 2 March 2014
And we're off
So this morning Stephen dropped us off in the centre of Canberra and we took the bus to Sydney central station and then a train up to the boat. No more car for us.
We've got friends coming up this weekend and we’re kind of hanging around waiting for good weather and then we’ll go up to Port Stephens. There is a boat yard at Oyster Cove where we can haul the boat out and have it cleaned and anti fouled for a reasonable price. We’ll get that done and then look at moving further north.
We've got friends coming up this weekend and we’re kind of hanging around waiting for good weather and then we’ll go up to Port Stephens. There is a boat yard at Oyster Cove where we can haul the boat out and have it cleaned and anti fouled for a reasonable price. We’ll get that done and then look at moving further north.
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