Getting organised at Airlie to head further North

Sunday 6^th and Monday 7^th August 2017

Sunday was very much a settling back in day, and there were scattered rain showers throughout the day and virtually no wind.

We need to re provision Mica, so set out in the rain to walk to Cannonvale to do a big shop at the butchers, Coles and BWS. We plan to get a taxi back to the marina.

By tye time we were finished there was very little room left in the boot of the taxi, but he got us safely back to the marina where we filled a large trolley and struggled to get it back don the steep ramp to the marina leg (it was almost low tide).

As usual we are amazed at how Mica seems to absorb all of these supplies and soon everything is neatly packed away in all available spaces.

I decided to attack one of my chores, fitting the new fuel tank to the outboard. With Carole’s help it was all done within an hour and hopefully our leaky fuel tank days are over.

Next I thought I will wire in the new anchor control switch and after rewiring to fit the new switch socket, it still didn’t work. The new switch was fine, but the cables look like they are not enjoying the tropical conditions. Surprisingly the control cables are just plain copper wire, not tinned as they should be. After a bit more testing it was clear that the up cable was heavily corroded and now must be in capable of carrying enough current to trip the solenoid.

I gave up in disgust and put it on tomorrows project list, as it now looks like running new cables to the solenoid.

Brian and Amanda from Dalwhinnie touched base and asked us if we would like to join them for dinner at Hemmingways Restaurant here at the marina. We could use a bit of cheering up so readily agreed.

The food was excellent and it was an enjoyable night. We found out over dinner, that the had lived very close to us in Cherrybrook when we had the house in  Paxton Crescent. They were living in a house of similar design to ours on the corner of Edward Bennett Drive and Paxton Crescent, at around the time we were living there. Talk about a small World.

It has been a long day and a good nights sleep was most welcome.

Monday 7^th August 2017

Well rested, after breakfast it was time to tackle the anchor winch issue. Just to confirm that the wiring was the problem, and eliminate the solenoid as a potential problem, I wired the new switch directly to the solenoid and everything worked fine.

So it looks like I will have to run a new cable from the solenoid to the lug point in the anchor locker where the pendant switch plugs in.

The marine electrician was open at 8 am, so I bought 10 m of 3 core tinned cable and a fuse holder (as I planned to wire everything back direct to the solenoid and take the power supply from there. I couldn’t be bothered searching for where to current power was being sourced.

I need something to poke the cables through the impossible to get at spots, so bought 5m of 6mm stainless multistrand rigging wire ,which I had observed electricians using in the past.

Carole was assisting at the other end and between us, and the removal of a bit of furniture, we eventually got the cable from the main switchboard are to the forward bulkhead for the anchor locker.  Getting the cable through that bulkhead proved too difficult, as it looks like they did the original wiring and then covered all of the access points with permanently fixed panels. I was not in the mood to start cutting holes through panels to find some access, so fitted the socket to the wire inside the forward cabin.

I figured we could pass the control switch up through the hatch when we wanted to anchor, and I will tidy it up when we get back to Sydney and I can talk to the shipwright to find out where everything runs.

Wiring now complete, I hooked it all up and we are now back in business with the system operating as it should.

It was now lunch time, and after a sandwich we walked back into Airlie to get last minute food items as we plan to leave to head further north tomorrow morning.

Sundowners are on Jo-De 7 this afternoon, a Hanse 575. A very big boat. They and Dalwhinnie, a Moody Classic 45 plan to sail north with us tomorrow, so plans were discussed over a few drinks before dinner back on board.