1000 hour engine service

Amazingly the 1000 hour service has rolled around for the engines after only 4 years. Although I hate using the engines unless I have to , we wouldn't have gone far in SE Asia without them, that is the joy of being in the zone around the equator. 

I'm still by no means mechanically minded, but can now do the basics. For this service I'm engaging a real qualified Yanmar service person.
Since I've owned the boat, I have been shown how to do bits and pieces by Pete and then Steve,when they have been aboard.In Cairns I had  Yanmar mechanics down to give it a once over, and change the exhaust elbows.They were great, really informative and happy to pass on tips and answer my questions. Now it's time once again to let someone who really knows what they are looking at, to do the service and cast their expert eye over what I have been doing.

There are items listed to be done that I haven't got a clue about, let alone the tools and skills required.  The marina where K'Gari is berthed did in fact have a Yanmar mechanic based there, but alas he has gone now , so my choice is either head south to the big smoke of Brisbane or north to the medium smoke of Gladstone. Gladstone wins, as the Yanmar chaps at GMM  have been very helpful over the years answering my questions,supplying my spare parts when the boat was still in Asia.I would on each occassion I returned to Asia take a selection of spares back with me, as for me it was easier than trying to source them locally in unfamiliar places. Additionally, I know the guys to talk to, as well as the bonus that I would be able to catch up with friends whilst there.

This was literally a quick  trip to get the service done.  Jo came with me.
After the service if weather conditions permitted we planned to  return home via Lady Musgrave or perhaps Lady Elliot Island.

As I have been away for a couple of months, all the usual startup checks needed to be completed and an additional task was removing the swallows nest(s) from the mainsail bag. I thought I had secured it satisfactoraly, but no, the little varmints had found a way in.












We  had a pleasant 50mile run up through the Sandy Straits utilizing as always the tides and currents to best advantage and anchoring off  Moon Bank.Apparently Jo thought it was a bit uncomfortable as an anchorage. I didn't notice a thing , so I guess that means ,I had done 'all' the work, as I slept soundly.

Perfect MPS conditions

We heaved up as the tide started ebbing, to carry it out into Hervey Bay. Managed 5 hours with the MPS and 30miles short of Gladstone we ran out of wind.It just died! So we motored a couple of hours, using the flood tide,finally anchoring  on the NE corner of  Jenny Lind Bank 2miles east of the channel,in glassy calm. We sat (slept) out the ebb and at the  civilized time of 0700 the tide turned and we sailed the final 16 miles to the  Gladstone marina arriving just as the wind faded away before swinging to the predicted Northerly, which we had been trying to beat.

The service was carried out the next day as scheduled, but we chose to wait overnight for a replacement heat exchanger coolant pipe to be freighted in ,after one of mine was declared 'dodgy', still servicable but.....

So I opted to get it replaced. It was also discovered ( when we went through my box of spares with someone who knows) that I have been blissfully sailing aound for the last four years with  incorrect belts! Luckily I hadn't needed to change them in the middle of nowhere. I foolishly had assumed that the correct spares had been supplied in Vietnam, when the boat was new. I had certainly paid for the basic spares relevant to my engines, that I might require whilst sailing offshore. Of course I should have realised by now, that there was every possibility that 'as supplied' might not in fact  be the same as 'as required'!

Mother nature wasn't going to play nicely it appeared,so instead of heading out to the Bunker Group, we opted for Pancake Creek, a handy 'do-able' 30 odd miles from the Gladstone Marina and often used by boats from Gladstone as a destination. To date I haven't been there , so why not have a squizz?
The only two notable events enroute, were seeing a baby crocodile swimmimg on the surface in the vicinity of S10 beacon. It was only about 18" long .It was definately a croc , not a seasnake or an eel or a figment of my imagination. It had legs, a tail and a croc shaped snout! .
I've often pondered what the 'magic barrier' was that meant crocs are known to inhabit waters 25miles north of Gladstone, but aren't supposed to be south of Gladstone. Odd, when the waters are connected by The Narrows, which run between Curtis Island and the mainland. I'm pretty sure that cunning as crocs are, its not the manmade denoted  Tropic of Capricorn which magically keeps them north of Gadstone, especially as one has 100% definately been sighted furher south in the Mary River and signs on Fraser Island also now denote that esturine crocodiles may inhabit the area.

Oh and the second event, lost another fish and lure- ho hum, thank goodness we always have tins of tuna on board!