OK. So we are away today.
A mission trip to Auckland yesterday to collect the charger from the wholesaler yesterday, late getting home as the courier driver wasn't in any hurry and didn't deliver it until 4pm! Left the depot at 7am!!
The week has been good to get a few extra jobs done, chill out, daily walks on the beach. It also gave Dans first home brew a bit longer before bottling, so hopefully it will be great by the time we get to Fiji.
Our crew is on board and settled in. We are currently charging and waiting for customs guy to come clear us and then we will be on our way.
Will update this when we get there!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
False Alarm!
Well we didn’t get away!!
About an hour after posting on the Sunday evening Dan was outside pottering around and I was finishing off emails etc when the kids and I heard a funny popping sound. Needless to say I blamed the kids initially but after a few moments when I could start to smell the burning I knew something was not so good, and it wasn’t! Our 48 Volt Shore Charger had decided it had enough after just three years of service.
Dan spent quite a lot of time that night making sure that this was the issue, phoning our crew who was supposed to be arriving in the morning and getting on the internet to see if he could fix the problem himself. No such luck, equipment like this is not an easy fix.
On the Monday morning we got hold of a marine electrician and he was great but did confirm our worst fears, so Monday was spent sourcing and organising where we could get another one from. The issue for us is that if we don’t have the shore charger we cannot recharge the batteries more than what is being drawn from them. We might be able to now with the wind generators when we are on passage, but as we have not yet sailed with them we don’t want to risk that, and if we need to motor anywhere the drain on the batteries would be just too great. Now if we regenerated with the props as we were supposed to .....
Anyway, the advice we are getting from distributors is that there are none in NZ, probably none in Australia and that it will need to come from Germany, so with the volcanic ash around who knows how long that may take. But I do have to say that our issues are nothing after listening to the news this morning about Christchurch.
So for now we are just waiting for the part, about an hour’s installation hopefully, then the right weather to see us on the way. We will keep you posted as to when.
About an hour after posting on the Sunday evening Dan was outside pottering around and I was finishing off emails etc when the kids and I heard a funny popping sound. Needless to say I blamed the kids initially but after a few moments when I could start to smell the burning I knew something was not so good, and it wasn’t! Our 48 Volt Shore Charger had decided it had enough after just three years of service.
Dan spent quite a lot of time that night making sure that this was the issue, phoning our crew who was supposed to be arriving in the morning and getting on the internet to see if he could fix the problem himself. No such luck, equipment like this is not an easy fix.
On the Monday morning we got hold of a marine electrician and he was great but did confirm our worst fears, so Monday was spent sourcing and organising where we could get another one from. The issue for us is that if we don’t have the shore charger we cannot recharge the batteries more than what is being drawn from them. We might be able to now with the wind generators when we are on passage, but as we have not yet sailed with them we don’t want to risk that, and if we need to motor anywhere the drain on the batteries would be just too great. Now if we regenerated with the props as we were supposed to .....
Anyway, the advice we are getting from distributors is that there are none in NZ, probably none in Australia and that it will need to come from Germany, so with the volcanic ash around who knows how long that may take. But I do have to say that our issues are nothing after listening to the news this morning about Christchurch.
So for now we are just waiting for the part, about an hour’s installation hopefully, then the right weather to see us on the way. We will keep you posted as to when.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Leaving Again
The nice clean props, all ready to go, No More Barnicles!
One of our Very Large Motors, all realigned and new cutlas bearings ready to go.
A comparison picture with the batttery drill.
Hard at work putting on one of four coats of antifoul, hopefully this will last longer than a year this time!
Div II with her new pink/purple bottom. Pink in the sun light, but nearly purple when wet.
New windgenerator, one each side with the cool looking carbon fibre poles and braces.
Our new wind generator before braces going on.
Well here we go again. The boat is FULL with food, water and books. Also a bit of food, wine and fuel to help us on our way and we are ready to set sail for Fiji for the winter.
All going well we will clear first thing 0900 Monday morning from Marsden Cove and around 10 days later arrive in Lautoka, Fiji.
Some changes from last time are we have a new to us dinghy, for the cost of a box of beer and the time it took Dan to repair it, two new wind generators and great carbon fibre poles and braces thanks again to Dan and Kilwells in Rotorua. Also a second hand satellite phone and a beer brewing kit!
We have a boy with a broken collar bone – about 4 weeks ago now but he still needs to be careful with it, though as I am writing this I think he is out on his scooter! And I have just had a steroid injection in my right shoulder for Impingement of my tendons, so making sure I look after that for the next couple of weeks. But we do have two very able bodied and experienced crew coming with us this time so I should be able to sit and relax a bit more on this trip!
Anyway, keeping this one short, and will let you all know when we get there. The To Do Jobs list is slowly getting shorter but no matter how organised you think you are we have still been working really hard the last two weeks and especially the last couple of days getting sorted and now feeling very tired, but once we are out there we should be able to relax a bit, just steer/eat/read and sleep...
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