Day 202: Mackay, Australia – 27/07/10

Johanne, Steve and Isabella are due to arrive this afternoon and after my complete lack of activity yesterday, I have 101 things to do to get the boat in some way ready for them. 

However, first things first.  The generator.  Or as Victoria would call it, “the generator of evilness”!  I hate the bloody thing, and no more so than right now.  Rick turns up early and starts the process of removing it – no mean feat as it’s a heavy bastard.  Mike pulls the boom over so that Rick can use it as a lifting mechanism, and gradually the horrible bit of equipment is winched out.

Photo:  Removing the bloody generator

Rick then takes it back to the workshop and we await the news.

In the meantime, I go off to the hairdressers for a well overdue hair cut.  I have now been cutting my own hair for nearly 8 months and although it sort of looks OK, it needs some reshaping.  The resultant shape from my new cut is very good but is the shortest I have ever had.  Urchin it isn’t.  At Stephen teased, it is more like a concentration camp cut.  Still it will grow – hopefully very quickly as I now look like a boy and will have to resort to wearing lots of makeup and sticking my chest out to show that I’m not.

Back on the boat,I start to clean up.  I remove as much as I can from the two port cabins and store it in the starboard stern cabin then clean the heads and make the beds up.  After washing the floors it starts to look a bit more respectable. 

Rick turns back up at the boat and gives us the worst possible news.  The crankshaft in the generator engine is cracked and Mike goes back to the workshop with Rick to have a look at it. 

Photo:  Cracks in the crankshaft

It really is bad.  The split is so bad that no one can understand how it managed to turn.  The decision is now out of our hands.  We need a new generator and the bill is $11500 Aussie!  F***!  That’s the rest of the budget blown.  I’ll have to sell my body on the street now, and it could be a long year!

Then, as if that isn’t enough, the holding tank still needs looking at.  This has refused to empty for a while now and we are not sure if the problem is the pump or whether it is a blockage.  Yuk!  Rick disconnects the pipes on either side of the pump which makes a bit of a mess and a smell (no details but use your imagination), then, using a long tube, he blows down and nothing happens.  So, blockage it is then.  We connect the water hose and attempt to blast it through.  At first nothing happens, then there is a gurgling and ‘things’ start shifting.  Some of what comes out goes into a bucket and then overboard (nothing to do with my body!).  When it is all reconnected, we try the pump again and it works.  We have to switch it off quickly as we can’t pump raw sewage into the marina but at least we know it will be OK when we get out to sea.  At least there is one success today.

We manage to quickly eat the rest of the kangaroo steak and salad and get the washing up done, then I get a text from Johanne to say they are in the taxi heading for the marina.  The boat is as good as it’s going to get so I head up to wait for them all, finding some trolleys on the way for the luggage (Johanne is never known to travel light!!)

Matt is waiting near the taxi stop and I drag him in to be our official photographer.  When the taxi pulls up, narrowly missing reversing into another taxi, there are lots of tears and hugs, all photographed.  Unfortunately I had left the camera on the wrong setting so all the photos as over exposed but never mind.

Photo:  With my mate at last

Photo:  Even Mike and Steve have ‘man hugs’

Photo:  Mike and I with Isabella

After loading them all into the boat, Johanne and I crack open a bottle of wine.  I can’t believe they are actually here.  It’s wonderful.

They settle themselves in and we go for a meal.  As it was Isabella’s birthday yesterday, we give her the choice of restaurants.  She chooses Italian but when we try to get in they are full so we go to the hotel where we have a lovely meal.  Even at the table there are some teary-eyed moments.  Its so good to be back with our friends again.

Photos:  Back together at last