Wide Bay Bar - "The Mad Mile" / Leaving Scarborough Marina heading North towards warmer climate
Sans Peur
Grete & Fred Vithen
Sat 13 Jun 2020 07:59
Anchored at Rainbow Beach 13-14 June, 25 56 67S 153 10 22Et
Hi,
We left early this morning from Mooloolaba due to changing weather conditions.
You have to be able to anchor, only in the right wind SE, and then wait for high tide next day
and there should not be to much dangerous swell. We didn't want to be stuck in Mooloolaba for a number of days
so we decided to take off early this morning although another day in The Warfighters Marina would have been nice
(and we already had paid for 2 nights).
Today we motored with sails (not much wind, swell was getting better during the day)
52 Nm, 8 h. Sunny day. Already getting a bit warmer.
All worked well and we are getting used to be sailing again. Wonderful!
Tomorrow we will be able (we think and hope) to pass through, at high tide, this famous/infamous bar, "The Mad Mile".
The Border Force at Tin Can Bay are very supportive, caring and helpful.
The Wharf Marina, Mooloolaba
We left Scarborough Marina first light, means around 7.
Motoring 41 Nm, 7,5 h, to Mooloolaba.
We where a bit nervous about Mr Perkins our dear reliable friend. After 4300 dutiful hours he needed some love and care.
Fuel injection pump had to be renovated. That was a major time consuming operation.
And much more complicated then anyone thought.
At the same time we choose to check the 4 injectors (atomisers)
The valve tip clearances was checked and adjusted.
At the same time a couple of worne out hoses was changed and a couple of seals
(Kit, Joint/Gasket and Joint delivered from Perkins Australia).
It's very expensive and hard to get spare parts for Perkins here in Australia.
Anyway it had to be done and we were very happy about it now.
When we finally leave Australia there is not much hope to get anything serious done until we are back in The Med.
While waiting we managed thanks to Graham (he and his his family are living in the marina) to find
3 Imperiel bults to be able to fix the start engine in a better/stronger way.
On top of that we managed to renew and better secure some of the nuts and washers on our engine mounts.
Geoff (US) was a great help. Marine Ingenier, also living with his family on a sailing yacht.
On top of helping us out with the whole engine issue he also checked our drive shaft angle
and renovated our alternator.
Of course we already had made the obligatory maintenance; changing oil, filters, ....
But now we also changed our coolant, 16 liters.
As you understand we where a bit worried how all this would come out.
But after two days of motoring, about 100 Nm and 16 h of motoring, all seems to work. Puh!!!
Without a prober motor you would be in serious problem in no time.
Thank you Geoff.