Royal Brighton Yacht Club Marina

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Thu 28 Feb 2013 10:16
Position: 37 54.45 S 144 58.9 E
Alongside Royal Brighton Yacht Club
Wind: South F5 Fresh breeze
Weather: overcast, showers, cool

We made it to St Kilda where we anchored in behind the breakwater for the night. It was too late to catch up with Mark so I had a quiet night on board and caught up on some sleep.
A front was due through early yesterday afternoon and I was concerned that the anchorage in St Kilda would be open to the strong southerly winds. I was keen to catch up with Mark which would mean that I would need to leave the boat unattended for several hours. So yesterday we moved from St Kilda to the Royal Brighton Yacht Club marina. where I could leave Sylph and RC unattended with peace of mind. Thus last night I was able to catch up with Mark and his family at long last.
Today I returned on board and kept myself busy repairing the wind vane. There had been a clicking noise coming from the wind vane for quite a while now and I have been trying to work out what the problem was, but with no success. Yesterday as I was adjusting berthing lines on our arrival in the marina I glanced over the stern and noticed that a bolt securing two of the supporting struts had snapped. It had presumably been broken for some time but because of the way the struts fit to the windvane they still worked quite effectively and the broken bolt was, up until yesterday, not visible. So I am glad that is sorted out.
I also and installed a new GPS/depth sounder unit. My old Garmin GPS is now some 20 years old and has started to become a little unreliable. It used to be a nitrogen filled sealed unit, but I had to crack open the casing a few years back to repair the battery compartment which had fractured. I do have two back ups but they do not interface with the AIS unit, a piece of safety equipment I am loathe to do without now that I have it. Also the depth sounder has become rather temperamental over the last few years. It has a couple of cracks in the housing, a few lines of pixels on the screen no longer work, and I am sure it will only be a matter of time before it fails altogether. The depth sounder part of the new unit is not working yet because I have to install a through hull transducer, which I will do when I have Sylph hauled out of the water sometime later this year.
Looking at the weather forecasts, Wednesday looks like the winds might be suitable for continuing on our way back to Sydney. Tomorrow we will move back to St Kilda and in the evening I will pay Mark another visit.
All is well.