10:57.90S 142:42.58E

20/06/13

Anchor up 0625, anchor down 1005

After a night of fretting about how the hell I would get the anchor up if the engine played up, in the event it lasted long enough to get the job done. It was close though and I don’t think I’ve ever pulled an anchor up that fast before. Grim determination I call it. I did not want to stay at Bushy Islet another night. The plan was that Calypso would leave for Escape River that morning as they needed water over the bar in daylight and if I hadn’t shown up a day later they would beat back with the remanufactured fan belt. A 23 nm beat into 20+ knots and maybe 2.5 metre seas. That’s friendship!

Anyway, it worked out in the end and I averaged 6.28kts to Escape River, that’s how strong the wind was. I was able to sail right into the anchorage and dropped without touching the engine. It shelves quite rapidly and of course the depth gauge, having worked well for the last couple of days since being rewired, played up. Calypso was anchored in 8 metres and as I went whistling passed them Paul radioed to kill the speed, it shallowed rapidly. Using the IPad as a guide I let fly and dropped (no dramas this time). Paying out the anchor the weight came off suspiciously soon and I think I probably dropped in about 2 metres at half tide. It’s sand so all should be well.

The next job is to look at the engine and decide how to proceed. I should have two spare impellors on board, one I put somewhere logically safe and can’t find right now and the other one should be in the ‘dead engine’, unless my favourite mechanic pulled another flanker. It is always possible that the impellor survived, step one is to fabricate a new fan belt. I should say that’s step one for Paul, my best (only) idea was gorilla tape!

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