Return to Airlie

Monday 7th September 2015

Today we return to Abell Point marina so Nicole can catch her plane home on Tuesday morning. The forecast is for Easterly winds 10-15 knots, so we put up the sail and left Cid Harbour with expectations of a relaxing run home. The wind turned out to be variable, but mostly SW and 5-10 knots, nevertheless we sailed most of the way.

When raising the anchor we noticed the clutch in the sail drive was not engaging positively on every occasion, and suspected it may be slipping. It happened again when we were in Pioneer Bay getting our sails down, so we headed gingerly into the marina, hoping it would engage when needed. Fortunately it did, and our berth is next to Koonya, so we had plenty of help with lines on arrival.

I went up and had a chat with the Yanmar mechanic, and he knew immediately what the problem was. Apparently the cone clutches glaze up over time and as they get shiny they begin to slip. The remedy is to disassemble it and "rough up" the surface of the brass cone with a bit of grinding paste, improving the friction between the cones and the surfaces they engage with.  They can repair it tomorrow whilst we are still in the marina.

The weather forecast for the coming week is looking pretty ordinary, 20-25 knot SE winds which when against the tide makes for very messy seas. We (Koonya, Wilparina and ourselves), agree to extend our stay in the Whitsundays until the 15th when it is forecast to have passed. Wilparina has already extended their stay at Abell Point, Koonya could not get a berth guaranteed for this period, so are moving to Hamilton Island tomorrow and we have requested an extension, otherwise we will need to find somewhere else from Wednesday.

We were all invited around to have a BBQ (BYO meat and a bit of salad) on Wilparina, with Mark and Janet and Steve and Kim. It was a good night and gave Nic the opportunity to see what a 50 foot yacht looks like on the inside.