Back on the Gold Coast

We left Iluka on the 18 March with a plan to go to the Gold Coast. We had fairly light winds and not in the direction that was forecast so we called in at Ballina where we had a new hard drive installed on the laptop. On the 22 March we made our way to the Gold coast again. We were only off Skenners Head, a couple of miles out when heaps of smoke started coming out of the motor room again. There was a split in the exhaust water lock. I managed to sort of mend it with tape and bandages and we decided to keep going. The southerly current was running pretty strong so we had to motor the whole way and as there was still some exhaust leak everyone had to sleep on deck.

Sunrise on the Gold Coast

We entered the seaway at about 9:00am the next day and dropped anchor in Marine Stadium, outside Seaworld, Southport. Since then we have had 30 knot southerly winds that have tested our anchor and given us a wet dingy ride to shore. From here we might have a day at movie world or one of the worlds and then head into Moreton Bay. Wendy's Uncle John and Jan are visiting us tomorrow and then we are off, there are too many jet skis and aquaducks buzzing around here.

Kathleen and Amy on the passage to Southport

Back in the water and up the Clarence river

We are currently at Maclean in the Clarence River, we went through the Harwood bridge today, which was a bit of a bonus as we hadn't arranged for it happen, another yacht was waiting to go through, you would normally have to give 24 hours notice.
We managed to stop the Pacific Highway, which the diggers at Woodburn arn't allowed to do!

We motor-sailed all the way mainly to give the motor a run as it has been smoking since we fitted the new oil pipe and we wanted to see if it was a leak or just burning off old oil, it seems to have settled down for the time being.

We will only be here for the day before we go back through as we will be dropping the car off at home on Saturday, then the real holiday starts. We have decided to go North and take our time to ensure that cyclone season is over as we don't want any surprises.

Hopefully the weather will be kind to us and be favourable to start north on Sunday or we will be here until it is. Next stop back to Iluka where the car is and then onto the Gold Coast.

Saltheart's paint job at Yamba

On Friday Saltheart was pulled out of the water at Yamba. What a job we have ahead of ourselves, her hull was thick with barnacles and tentacle things hanging off. The kids and Grahame a man who works at the marina said that she looked like Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. We borrowed some big scrapers from the marina to make the job easier. Ian did most of the work on it but we all had a go, he was just to quick it was hard work. We had booked into a caravan park while we did the work.

This took a while. After we had to get little scrapers onto the job to take all the paint off.
It was a job that took the rest of Friday and a good part of Saturday. By the end of the end we where able to put a coat of primer onto the hull. A swim at the caravan park was well and truly warranted after a shower of course.

The following day we started to treat the rust which was coming through on the windows and bolts etc. It didn't feel like we were getting anywhere but we were.

The next day Kathleen and I painted the top side of the sides white, rolling and feathering. Ian had the job of sanding so we could paint. She is looking much better, she had no name on side anymore and we had to find a sign writer.

Time to anti foul the hull now we really are looking good. this took the whole day as we could only paint in between the rain showers, but we did get there in the end. Now its get a matter of waiting until tomorrow to back into the water.

Wednesday we were ready to go back in. At lunch time we were lifted up and got half way into the water when the lifter broke and someone from Grafton came up to fix it. This took a couple of hours by the time he got here. Half in half out but in the end we afloat again and looking good.