24 July 2014, Musket Cove Fiji

The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Wed 23 Jul 2014 22:08
Partial success at last! After our third haul out, change of propeller and gear box reversed, we finally got on the way. It looks like someone before we bought the boat reversed the gear box for some unknown reason which means that we were going forward in actual reverse gear. We are mystified... Anyway, reversing the gear box means that the old propeller we found on boat is working fine. We have achieved 6 knots at 1500 rev which is not too bad. There is a unhealthy rattling going on over 1500 rev so we think that the shaft is misaligned. We will go back to Vuda and get an engineer to look at it.
We came to Musket Cove on Tuesday and have taken a mooring buoy. Unfortunately a front went through so up to now it has been very windy with grey skies and some rain. Sun is back today though. Had a good impromptu party on board the first night with two other couples to celebrate our first night out of a marina!
Mike commissioned the watermaker this morning. All was well until one of the pipes burst so there has been a lot of swearing. Because of its location under the kitchen work surface, it is very difficult to access the pipe and we might have to take the whole unit out which is a real difficulty. Just another problem to solve...
But we are well!