Year 2 -27 June 2025 – Breakwater Marina- Townsville- More Jobs Day

I had another good night’s sleep but it was a grey cloudy day when I woke and quite a bit cooler. However, we had breakfast of banana pancakes which was a nice start.

After breakfast we decided to change the oil in the generator and fired her up to warm the oil to make it easier to extract.  She fired up well and after about 5 minutes we turned it off. The drainpipe had been fixed to a bracket and it took us a while to get it off. We were then able to drain the oil and remove and change the oil filter. It is always a messy job and needs to be done every 100 hours. Whilst we were doing this I noticed a few black bits in the sea water inlet valve for the generator. The concern about this is whether the black bits were rubber from the impeller (which helps move the seawater round the generator) and so it may need to be changed. I removed the lid and in doing so the housing moved and a slow leak started from its base. This will need to be solved -another issue!!.  I checked the black bits and was unsure and unlikely to be from the impeller. I will juts note the temperature to check she does not overheat. It was good we had changed the oil and she ran well after starting again  and without any leaks.

We had to remove all the contents of the lockers over the compressor for the freezer so the technician can inspect it. This meant that there was a load of stuff and spares around the saloon in the boat. The technician was supposed to come today but he said he was stuck on a job and can come on Monday (they do not work weekends here). This was annoying but there is nothing I can do about it. We will just have to put up with the mess until Monday. We had some lunch and rested for a bit.

We then changed the water filters for each tank as they need to be changed every 6 months or so. This went well and we cleaned up in the engine room.

We had a sundowner at 5.30pm as it was getting dark and we listened to some Tahitian music and I think Mark was quite impressed by it. It had been a productive day with the exception of the no show of the Technician.

Mark cooked snapper for supper which we had with ratatouille which was most enjoyable. We had an early night as it seems to be the thing to do here as everyone seems to get early due to the early light.

The picture of the day is the view of the Breakwater Marina we are in on a grey day.  

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