Year 2 13 July 2025 – Marlin Marina- Cairns – A Working Sunday

The wind was still quite strong when we woke but it looked a bit brighter. As it was Adams first breakfast I decided to make the banana pancakes (yes I know again- but we had to use up the bananas and they are delicious particularly with maple syrup!) which seemed to go down well.

It was then on to jobs. Mark and Adam were going to wash the deck and cockpit as it was covered in salt after the sail from Green Island. They set about it well and then Adam, who has many skills I was not aware of set about cleaning the teak grills in the cockpit. His trick is to soak them in the sea for a couple of hours which apparently kills any mould or anything like that and then he scrubbed them with a stiff brush and washing up liquid and they came up a treat and looked almost new. He the set about the toe rail which needed some tlc and did one side of the boat and that also looks great. He said he will do the rest tomorrow. Mark helped with the washdown and cockpit.

Nicola was making a full list of what we have on board and had pretty well tidied all of the cupboard and now knows where everything is. She has done a very good job of sorting. I call her Mrs S sometimes (S for Sketleys!). This sorting took her quite some time.

I have had a problem with my printers which I have been trying to resolve. One has never worked as I cannot get to complete set up -it is a HP. The other is also an HP and the colour cartridge is empty. We tried to find a new one in Townsville and Cairns without luck and if I ordered one online it would not get here until after we leave. The annoying thing is I have plenty of black in and that is all I want to use but the b machine will not allow this because of course they want you to but more cartridges. William tried to set up the one which I could not and despite spending about two hours he could not do it. We looked up an electrical shop which was open on a Sunday and headed off to Office Works. We spoke to them about this printer and they said it is probably an error with it. I tried to get a new colour cartridge for the other and they suggested a different one which should be compatible. I had my doubts whether this would work and because I need a working printer in Indonesia for paperwork etc I bought another cheap printer and some spare cartridges.

We got back to the boat and plugged in the colour cartridge and it did not accept the cartridge. We therefore had to set up the new one which took some time but eventually we got this working. Technology hey!

By this time, we had some lunch. After lunch Adam continued with his works and then Adam and William emptied the anchor locker and took all the chain out on to the deck. The reason for this is that the anchor rope markers were coming loose and some had come out. In addition, the paint which the guys in Townsville had put on had fallen off. We are going to try and get some webbing and to sow it into the chain. It was an opportunity to clean the bottom of the locker and to get rid of some mud and stuff. We checked the rope at the end of the anchor to ensure that it was secured and the shackle was tight. The guys looked through the anchor locker and suggested we got rid of the old fire pump hose but keep the fitting as it is now not useable. Adam also helped sort out the fitting for the hose at the mast which had become a bit stiff.

I had quite a lot of admin to do in terms of preparation for Indonesia and all the documents we required. I was also sorting out a lot of stuff in terms finding flags, looking at the passage plan and preparing the route in the light of the advice given in the seminar plus printing all the things I needed to print. This took a number of hours and by 4.30pm everyone had had enough and we had achieved quite a lot. We will need to go to the chandlers to get things we need to sort everything out.

We all showered and retired to Salt – the bar conveniently located at the end of our pontoon to have a well-deserved beer. I had booked an Italian restaurant which was beside Tha Fish.  We had an enjoyable meal with some nice Italian wine and everyone is in good spirits. There are 4 contractors coming tomorrow – Freezer man, Leaking pipe man, heads man and the hydraulic specialist. Let’s hope they all come and can complete their jobs on time.       

The picture of the day is the chain out on the deck after the guys had cleaned the anchor locker.

Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com