Jo’s parents had decided that a visit to see us and to meet DT was long overdue. They were due to arrive on the Saturday lunchtime flight from New Zealand.
Perfect timing as on the Friday, Rod and his team from East Coast Trimming had just completed the two weeks job of making and installing our beautiful new clears and cushions for the cockpit and helm. We had spent two weeks at Horizon Shores marina while the work was carried out. Safe to say if we never have to go there again it will be too soon. It is in the arse end of nowhere and lets just say that a few cousins may have married cousins….
So early Saturday morning, we headed north to Manly marina to await the arrival of the Hegs.
We spent the day settling them onto DT and generally catching up on the gossip. We also did some trip planning for the week. The weather was looking very settled, so we decided to head across the bay to Myora on North Stradbroke Island.
Over the course of the afternoon we started to notice the fresh water pump was behaving somewhat erratically. Eventually it would not switch off at all. After checking out the behaviour and conferring with some fellow Lipari owners (Karen and Hamish) the issue was traced back to a faulty solenoid on the water pump. When we checked with the chandlery the spare part would that three days to arrive. The decision was made to replace the pump completely, and eventually repair and keep the old pump as a spare.
So the following morning I got the toolkit out and started to drain and disassemble the plumbing and replaced the pump. A couple of hours later everything was working with the minimum of leaks. In addition the 11 litre accumulator tank was now primed properly. We had spent the last couple of months without it ‘helping’ the pump. This was causing the pump to work more and was likely a contributing factor to its failure.
Once we had finalised our last minute checks we were off! With no wind it was not ideal weather for sailing but it was perfect weather to let Carol and Dennis have some hands on experience in driving the boat across the bay. Once at Myora, we set the anchor and relaxed for the rest of the day.
On Wednesday, we decided a day out was in order. We piled into the tender and motored around to Dunwich, which was about 20 minutes away. We then hopped on the bus around the island to Headland Park and Point Lookout. After a very pleasant walk along the coastal track, we rewarded ourselves with a rather lovely lunch at a local Vegan / vegetarian restaurant. We then had a meander around the cemetery at Dunwich, before heading back to DT.
The next day we caught up with from Dave and Janice on ‘Swag’ who had
joined us in to the anchorage. We went for a bit of an explore through the mangroves to find the fresh water springs at Capembah creek.
After a very pleasant few days on the hook, we had to return to Manly Marina for Carol and Dennis to get their flights. It was the calmest, least windy day we could have picked, so enjoyed motoring across a glass-out bay. It was a great chance for Carol and Dennis to practice their helming through the beacons and tidal currents.
We got back to Manly marina mid afternoon and managed to berth with the minimum of fuss. It is amazing how uncomplicated parking can be when there is no wind…
A last dinner onboard, before an early start on Saturday morning so that the Hegs could catch their return flight. We had been blessed with superb weather and they seemed to enjoy their introduction to DT very much indeed. We look forward to having them back onboard when we get to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.