Happy New Year to everyone!

New Years Eve -

Well we got into Port Douglas around 7am on New Years Eve, tied up had a drink and got some sleep till 11:00.
Unfortunately the shore power cables we have do not have the correct plug so relying on solar and generator.
Then we did a bit of cleaning and went into town to do a quick grocery shop for some fresh fruit etc.  Back to the boat, catch up with friends and family online, shower and off to town for dinner.

Town was heaving, people everywhere.  We managed to get a table in one of the local pubs.  The menu looked good but when it came time to order Kel was not feeling too flash and ended up with a bowl of fries which only got half eaten.  We ended up back at the boat by 8pm.

New Years Day -

My body clocked was stuck in boat mode and I was awake around 4am.  Dozed in and out of sleep for the next 3 hours before getting up and getting started on the engine rooms.  Checked the fan belts, Racor water separators needed draining of all the crud in the bottom and filters replaced.  Port side was worse than the starboard which seems to be the norm on this trip.  Also the port side turbo was getting a bit sooted up so will give the engines a blast once we leave to tried and burn some of that off.  They get sooted up because of the low rpm we have been running them at to get the range we needed all they need is 10-15 mins of high rpm so the engines get up to higher temperature which helps to blow out the soot that get accumulated.

The fuel dock in port Douglas is not accessible till after 10:45 due to commercial movements within the marina. We were there bang on 10:45 and started to filling process which was complete by noon.
Then it was lines off and away we go on the final leg to Sydney.  This one is 1,300nm and “should” take 6 or 7 days depending on conditions.


Conditions as we leave Port Douglas are yet again super smooth with virtually no wind

Current forecast suggests it might be a bit lumpy on the nose going round Harvey Bay peninsula which would no the ideal and may require a quick stop in somewhere like Bundaberg but forecasts do change so fingers crossed.

Photo

Comments

  1. Chris Webb1 January 2025 at 15:10

    There are worse places than Bundaberg to call into. You could visit the Bundy distillery and try their fine amber liquid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pete1 January 2025 at 20:05

      Bundaberg is where I learnt to dive. Great school very deep pool. And was the cheapest place in oz to learn.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Hong Kong commissioning "Pikorua"

Image
Today is Saturday 23rd Nov '24 and we are in Hong Kong on a beautiful 2024 GranOcean 60 that we are delivering to Sydney.  We have been here for just over 2 weeks now.   We are tied up to a barge in Kwun Tong typhoon shelter which is along side the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong.  We don't have the luxury of a "normal" marina as in the western world, no power or water connection and a very large construction site 200m away bang poles into the ground all day!  The only place to tie a tender to if we go ashore is a concrete wall covered in barnacles, not a good match with inflatable tubes so we have to use the local sanpan (water taxi) whenever we want to go ashore. Commissioning any newly launched boat always has a long the list of jobs to get ready for the maiden voyage.  It seems you tick jobs off the list and all of a sudden there are replacements at the bottom of the list!   We are now at a stage where virtually everything has been ticked off...
Read more

Tuesday 3rd day 4

Image
The higher fuel consumption and slight vibration mystery has been cleared up.  The pic above is of the starboard propellor and rudder.  Unfortunately a Chinese fishing net has decided to tag along for the ride.  At lunchtime today the conditions were safe enough for us to stop the boat, go out onto the duckboard and put the afore mentioned camera and 3m selfie stick underneath the water and have a look and would you believe it we are trailing what's left of a fishing net.  Now real surprise there! The sea conditions are not safe enough to go diving down under a 30+ tonne boat bobbing up and down in 1-2m swell so that is going to have to wait.  In the meantime we are now running the port engine at 1800rpm (30lph) and the starboard just in gear (600rpm) to lube the shaft.  With this set up the vibration has stopped and we are burning 32lph at an average speed of 7kts. As for the fuel contamination, the port side which had the major problem yesterday is lookin...
Read more

Saturday 30th Nav - Departure day!

Image
Today we finally departed Hong Kong!   There were a few last minute organising and making sure the boat was ready for the passagand by just after 10am we cast our lines off and away we went. We had to dodge all the shipping entering and leaving HK and there were quite a few!  We picked our spot between ships and went for it crossing the shipping lanes without getting in anyones way.  Once past them we then had to navigate our way round all the local fishing fleet with the multiple longlines streaming out the back.  I somehow managed to forget about them from previous trips but it all came flooding back once we were in amongst them all. “Pikorua” is going well, we are running along at 1550rpm averaging 8kts and sucking 15lts per hour on each engine.  It's just under 1,100nm to get to our first fuel stop at Kota Kinabalu in Borneo.  We should arrive on Friday or Saturday all being well. 
Read more