Around Darwin

 (Darwin City skyline from the sea)

(Afternoon wet season storm approaches the marina)

(The sunsets in the west and the storm lights up in the east)

 

 

We have not done a great deal in the last week or so after finishing the work on Rob's yacht 'Babe'. We had to lift 'Babe' out of the water last Monday afternoon at Spot On Marine as we had a small problem with the depth gauge. Since putting in the new keel we found that the new keel is around 80mm further forward and the depth gauge was indicating the depth of the keel rather than the depth of the sea.

Monday at 1730 hours we lifted out on the travel lift and stayed in the slings with ground supports for 24 hours this allowed Rob to drill a new hole further forward and fit a new transducer so Nancy and I helped Rob take the yacht around to Spot On Marine and bring her back the next day.

(Larrakeyah Point, the waterfront cliffs are eroding away as they are soft rock)



(Nancy on 'Babe' as we head back towards Darwin Harbour)

('Octopus' visits Darwin, it is one of the worlds 13 largest super yachts, owned by Paul Allen co-founder of Microsoft, more information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_(yacht) This yacht has 2 choppers, 2 submarines, it has a 19m tender inside the transom)

 

I have had work to do aboard our boat with the job list that never ends, as one job is complete some other item shows up. The other day the galley 12 volt fan decided to stop working so I got another fan and replaced it but it still did not work in the end I had to run a new cable and re-wire the fan. Other uninteresting work was to replace one of the anchor chain rollers and repair the channel where the chain slides from the winch to the roller it had worn a groove in the wear plates. They say you never finish a job list on a boat, one American thought he had finished all the jobs on his list and two weeks later his yacht sank, so it is not wise to say all the jobs are done one has to keep looking for more items to stay afloat.

I have made some planks up with rubber on the one side to assist us to get out of this marina lock. We were going to test them this Easter weekend but the weather deterred us from going out for the weekend. I went and measured the inner lock gate as that is the narrowest gate and it is 7.2 metres, we are 6.93 metres wide giving us a clearance of 135mm on each side, the boards with the rubber foam are 65mm wide which leaves a gap of 70mm each side, it will be fun, I put a few scratches on each side the boat coming in I am trying to prevent that happening again.

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) we went into town for lunch and had a walk around, we were so looking forward to get out for the weekend but the weather was not the best and we did not know what that low pressure system was going to do. So we had a nice lunch and I think Nancy was very pleased to get off the boat and out of the marina.

(How to cast a bait net)

(Double Barred Finch, we have a few around the marina)

(This is Henry the cod that resides near Rob and Alison's dock)

 

We have one month left before we head out of the marina, we probably will not leave Darwin straight away as we want to get out on the water and make sure all is well, I need to beach the boat so I can change anodes and check the bottom and we need to plan our voyage which we have not done in detail at this point. We probably will not go down the west coast until spring, it is not good to go before this time and I am not that eager to head down for a winter. At least when we get underway I will have more to write about.

Cheers