About to Leave Cairns

Thursday 14th August

Our visit to Cairns is now almost at an end. We are planning to leave on Friday and head South towards Brisbane via the Whitsunday Islands and other famous beautiful islands on the way. I have already been in touch with some marinas around Brisbane. We will have company on board in the form of Peter from Asolare and 2 sisters, friends of Peter. One of them has never sailed before, could be interesting!

When we arrived here we tried to anchor as instructed but all the anchor would do is scoop up the gelatinous mud that covers the sea bed here. It took ages to clean up the anchor. On arrival in the marina I arranged to have the boat cleaned and waxed, to have the 230 volt panel investigated and to have the Raymarine radio and GPS investigated. Also I had the sails checked out and some small repairs and modifications carried out.I also arranged for the batteries to tb properly checked out.

The 230 volt wiring done in Martinique was incorrect and could have caused a fire on board at any time so that has now been rectified. He also looked at the generator and replaced the fuses due to corrosion. The batteries from Asolare were only giving 50% power and so were replaced with new ones- what a difference that has made. The Raymarine radio is in Sydney for repairs and I heard today that it is being replaced with a new one. Its only 3 years old but not worth repairing. I will be charged for this but will raise a warranty claim with the UK. There is also a new GPS aerial being fitted. Hopefully this will solve the various electronic problems we have had. The boat has been cleaned & waxed, and the main winches serviced. As the gas bottles could not be filled ia Australia we have had the system altered to the local standard and bought 2 new bottles, bigger than the old ones. They will last longer. The watermaker is unfortunately still out of action.

There was a great greeting party on our arrival and clearance. It was great to see Fiona & David, along with Van, Ruth, Josie, Damien and their children, plus Tania, Bruce and Gabrielle.

The customs and quarantine people here have been great and we now have a temporary import permit for BlueFlyer, so we are legal to stay here for up to 3 years with the boat.

We all went on several day trips around Cairns and had a great time. There were also 2 visits to Yorkies Knob Marina where we were all supposed to stay, although most of the boat have remained in Cairns. The marina is almost in the centre of the town and very convenient for all services.

Today we had a planning session in the saloon with MaaMalni who are planning to cruise down to Mackay in company with us, provided they are back in the water in time and that we get our Raymarine repairs done in time as well.