The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Year Two
Date: 23/7/2009 16:00
Weather: Windy
Location: Tu'ungasika Island (18 39.46' S, 174 04.30' W)
Author: Peter.

Its a little cooler today as the wind is up. It is only 24 deg celsius and we are dressed warm again. It is actually warmer in the water, 26 deg celsius at the surface and 25 deg at 20m.

Anyway now to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The ugly:
A few days ago I started doing some checks and maintenance as we will be crossing for Fiji in a few days (Monday) and we wanted to be prepared. Part of this involved the engine, so late in the day just after I had finished changing the engine oil I headed up on to deck to cool down and to check the exhaust from the back of the boat. Being somewhat tired after a long day and not thinking straight, I happened to lean on the BBQ, the very, very hot BBQ. Needless to say I now have a ripper of a burn on my arm (you should see its colour now) and a small one on my left side. How stupid. Stop work time Dad.

The bad:
The next afternoon I decided to check our engines impeller (a small rubber part that pumps saltwater into the boat past the engines fresh water cooling system and then back overboard). It needed replacing so I went and turned off the valve that lets the sea water into the boat so I could change it. All was going well until I went to turn the valve back on. It would not move, so silly pete decided a little persuasion was needed and in the process completely snapped the handle off. Now we had a problem. Without the sea water our engine cannot be run as it will get hot very quickly and then cook itself. with no way of moving it I decided to sleep on it but only after calling up Twin Image asking them to stop by in the morning so that I could borrow a large shifter, and calling Carl on Narvara who is a diesel mechanic with exactly the same engine as ours.

Navara - Carl and Linda from New Zealand

The following morning Richard and I started to pull the fitting apart but we still could not get it to move. After some careful thought (during the night) it was decided to remove the valve. The problem here being that once removed the boat would have a large hole in it that would let in water very quickly. This was solved by a few meters of glad wrap wound around the sail drive leg (a good one to remember for the future) and once the valve was out, a wooden plug. We still could not get the valve to open once we had it up on deck and with no spare we decided to drill an opening in it. Not pretty, but it is now back in place and is working well and should see us back to Aus where we can replace it.

The Good:
Where to begin. We have had some great swims lately. Yesterday Both Kylie and I had a rare experience that is so hard to describe. We both got lucky enough to swim with three Humpback Whales. It was just breathtaking, that is all I have. I know that is not much of a description but WOW.

Here is proof, ok poor quality but it is a still from the movie footage Peter took. Hoping to get movie footage up on blogsite

Whales in our anchorage

Kylie swimming with whales!!!

Today I also went diving at Tu'ungasika Island with Richard from Twin Image. The water is just so clear. We were twenty meters down, you could see at least 60 in each direction, the fish and coral were amazing and to top it if we also had a turtle and a whale. Bring it on.

Scuba Taylor, a smaller version of scuba steve

Kylie snorkelling

Peter snorkelling