Wow! Really! You kidding me! Something else broke! Besides me!

No pix on this post. Just some rants and raves.

Got off the hard and got splashed on Monday. After two long weeks. We were living on the boat (on the hard) the last week because hotels are a little pricey here. Its a bit primitive. And we kept hoping we could get put back in. There had been sustained high winds that prevented them from dropping us in the sling lift. Its 4 stories down back into the water. We needed 20 knots or less and high tide or it’s a no go. It took 8 days of waiting. Then an alternator bit the dust. Then an engine would not stop. (Usually it’s the other way around but on diesels it is possible to have an engine that will not shut off.) Then gen set would not start, and a few other annoying minor issues. But we got our provisioning done. Enough to make a 16 day run up the Whitsunday Islands. And get out of Mackay. I like it here but its time to move on.

So we set out for the nearest island. Keswick. Its back to blowing 25-30 again. After the one-day reprieve we took advantage of to get back in the water. Seas are back up. Not to bad but its going to be a windy time at the anchorage for sure. So we drop the hook at Keswick Island at high tide/pretty windy. Within a few hours as the 5-meter tide goes out it becomes pretty evident that I went in to close when I dropped anchor. Coral heads that were not even visible below the surface are now showing. Charting here is poor and the guidebooks pretty lousy. We got spoiled in San Blass and Polynesia by the excellent guidebooks. Here not so. Bob and Dave jump in to snorkel the anchor and come back with the news that we were wrapped on a couple of coral heads and would need to work on it in the morning to get it freed up. My bad. Should have gone for the deeper water but then you cant see what your caught up on. Here you almost can but its still not a fun one. Been there before. In a lot of places. None this cold and windy though. So as the tide is coming in the next day Bob and Dave set about in the dingy to redirect the chain and anchor so we can make a clean pickup. I’m on the throttles in case it really cuts loose. Usually no big deal but the visibility underwater here is poor. Maybe 6 feet. So it’s about 50% guess work as to where things should be. We had a couple of marker floats on critical sections of the chain path so we knew where to position ourselves as we bought up the chain. Was going pretty well in fact, and we were probably about 50 foot of chain still down when there was a huge bang as the windless internally self destructed, cut loose, and let the chain free-fall. Its own weight taking it up out of the chain locker over the gipsy and overboard she goes. Bob was in there flaking the chain when it happened. He was clear of the pinch points, as is the procedure, but it must have been interesting to be that close to it cutting loose. We arrested it with a clutch break but there was no way to get the chain back on board. On a dead calm day with no tide or currents it might have been something we could have pulled off, but in the conditions we were in I had no choice but have them let the whole thing go. 350 foot of chain and a brand new Manson Supreme anchor. And I mean BRAND new. I got it here in Mackay and it was the first time it ever saw salt water. No exaggeration. The first time we dropped it we ended up cutting it loose. We got a couple of marker floats on the chain as we dumped it so now I have to find a salvage guy to go out with me to recover it while we wait for a new windlass. The old one was ten years in and probably was something I should have looked at replacing before we set out. It lives a hard life and the last 13,000 miles did her in. So its back in the marina we sit. Again. This is getting old. And its still blowing 25-30 and its not getting any warmer.

And a brand new dual fuel filter set up I just had installed is sucking air and no one can figure out where its coming from. You get about one hour of run time then the engine dies. So I have to save the port engine for times it for when I absolutely need both engines. Anchoring, marinas, etc..

And its hard to believe but some of the others have even more issues than I do. Cruising is like fun, only different.

So other that that Mrs. Lincoln. How was the play?

More griping later.      But heck…. Zip line with 10,000 bats? Who gets to do this stuff?

M