More Maintenance and Shopping in Mackay

Friday 23^rd June 2017

It is overcast and there is a bit of light rain as we got up tis morning. The forecast says there is a slight risk of rain, but the skies appear to be clearing , after some very light overnight sprinkles.

We agreed last night that we would catch the bus back into town tomorrow, with a visit to Jaycar for the boys to get the last, (hopefully ) components to get Kite Runners solar fixed.

As a previously planned, we were at the bus stop in the marina grounds, to catch the bus into Canelands Shopping Centre, ready for the 8.49 am bus.

The bus drove straight past, didn’t  come into the marina, and left us stranded with next bus through in 2 hours.]

We  were not happy !!! , and after talking o the marina management staff, who were also pretty pissed off about the bus companies  apparent change of  of route without notice, they lodged an official complaint with the council.

In the meantime, our only option was to get a taxi. Do they want tourists here or not ????  It was pretty disappointing to have an unreliable bus service, and the couple of marina run rental cars are in strong demand ( not surprisingly given the unreliable bus service). Anyway, the taxi companies must love the dysfunctional public transport system. The marina has received no notice of the apparent new policy to not pick up passengers in the marina carpark, where the signposted bus zone is still marked.

So,  we caught a cab into town, the boys stopped at Jaycar to get some more bits and pieces whilst the girls went on to Canelands to do a bit more shopping or retail therapy). We all got  what we were shopping for, and caught the bus back to the marina, after verifying that we were really Seniors and saved a few $$, having spent so many to improve the local economy.

Back at the marina, we loaded the new groceries on board, and proceeded on the work on Kite Runner, to sort out the solar. Over the lunch break, a marine electrician wandered past and Phil immediately engaged him in conversation to see if there was a deck mounted , waterproof, disconnectable coupling , that could be used by  sailors to enjoy cruising, but be able to remove their bimini  and relatable items if they raced. This requires a disconnect  of the solar , but until now there does not appear to be a workable coupling to allow a deck flush mounting that can allow panels to be disconnect  using a deck mounted plug/socket.

The electrician cast further doubt on some of the wiring that had been hidden in the zips of the bimini, which were also light guage. In the end he steered us in the direction of a solar energy company, who could make up leads at a reasonable cost usung  MC4 fittings. So in the afternoon we headed back into town and got the new cables made up, and a test fault in one of the existing splitter cables.

The guy there was great and even offered to lend us his MC 4 crimper to make the final connections on the boat at a professional standard.  We had no way of economically getting it back to him, so we opted to get by with what we had.

By the time the job was completed it was dark, so  we look forward to sunrise to see if we get the result we expect.

In the meantime, the company I had dropped my drill off to for repair called and advised that the electronic card that operates the switch had failed and the repair would cost $184. This is still a hundred dollars less than replacing it, so I told them to go ahead and send it to Abell Point Marina in Airlie Beach when it was fixed.

We had dinner on board Mica and have decided to spend another night here, as the weather in the islands probably needs another day to be comfortable, and apparently there are 15 ARC Rally boats arriving here tomorrow.