THE FIRST SHAKEDOWN

2 days of travelling completed but not without a few things going wrong, we left Townsville at 9.00am heading for Rattlesnake Island which is only 18 Nautical miles,
Upon recieving the weather forcast earlier that day once we were halfway out Coastguard gave out a strong wind warning for the Townsville area, it was not too much of a worry as we only had a couple of hours to go.
We anchored at Rattlesnake for the night on the northan point which was uncomfortable as the waves worked their way round the point, we upped anchor early to get as far as possible before the wind reached the 30 knots predicted, this is when the trouble started, I noticed some water in the port engine room so after pumping that out I looked for the source but could not find it, we set sail and after a couple of minits I checked the engine room again to find water gushing in from the rear shaft seal, by this time we were sailing along at 7 knots and had to drag the sails in and head back to shallow water to anchor and fix the problem.
So after a short time the problem was fixed and away we went again, we were cruising along and decided to have a cup of tea to settle down and the gas ran out... of course the fridge works on gas, so the bottle had to be changed and squeezing Robbies frame into the gas locker is a task in itself in calm waters let alone under sail with 2 metre waves pushing us along.
After much grunting, pushing and cursing the new gas bottle was going and it was indeed time for a cuppa, alas by this stage Tess had changed colour and was praying head down into the yellow bucket, she was making some strange noises and by the look on her face I tried to make myself invisable but that did not work, next plan was to try and convince her that those white cap waves were not higher than the boat, she replied by praying into the yellow bucket again.
The best thing now was to find some calmer water so we passed close to islands for some respite for Tess, but once away into the roughness the yellow bucket was given another prayer.
Calm water was close at hand after an hour and the greeness disappeared from the skin of my beloved, so here we are tucked away nicely in Little Pioneer Bay waiting for a break in the weather to continue on, at this stage we will go through the Hinchinbrook Channel as this is not affected by foul weather,
Cheers R&T.

THE FIRST SHAKEDOWN

Townsville, Australia