'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West' - A shuffle forward and two steps sideways

A shuffle forward and two steps sideways

'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'

Pete Bernfeld

Mon 15 Jul 2013 10:48

First port of call today was Battery World. I'd got a battery for my old laptop through them un Brisbane and they know their stuff. The first bit of good news was a new battery for my Olympus SLR could be got in two days for just under A$50. OK let's do it. thinking of Komodo Dragons and similar photo ops. A 200 A/H wet battery would be A$347. Not so good and we discussed 6 Volt cart batteries. 2 giving me 225 A/H would be just over A$500. Probably not a bad price but not possible right now. Aha, they can pick up my batteries from the yacht club, over-charge and test them. Right, we'll think about that but hold hard, there's more! There is the possibility of 2 second hand cart batteries. The Port Authority apparently run golf carts around the commercial docks and the batteries are replaced every year regardless. Two have my name on them, subject to price of course but things were looking up. I returned to the Yacht club and felt moved to have a celebratory beer, the first for over a week.

Then reality struck. Help arrived at the boat and we looked at re-aligning the rudders. Starboard rudder, in perfect condition, should be no problem. All the bolts holding the shoe onto the skeg had corroded away so most likely just replacing them should see the rudder post sitting nicely in the shoe. Now for the port rudder.....

The stainless pole seems to have been bent, God knows how. In the course of trying to get it to pop back into the shoe (it's not that far out) another chunk of the rudder blade broke off. After various suggestions, all good ones but all requiring varying degrees of money which is in short supply, as always, the solution would seem to be to fabricate a new rudder blade out of ply, epoxy and GRP matting. Yes it would be possible to float the boat and drop the rudder out BUT it took two divers to insert the pole in Fiji, about a half an hour under water so tanks are needed and then there are the crocs, or maybe not but do I want to take the chance?. Of course that's two dives, one to drop the pole out and one to replace it. No way can I get it straightened (I need fuel, lots by the latest GRIB files from Indonesia, some reprovisioning and we've been advised to arrive in Indonesia with at least A$300 in Rupiahs) and anyway if it is bent will it drop out and more to the point will it go back in? Working on the beach it is then. Paul Calypso has volunteered to mentor me which considering he has his own job list to work through is very decent of him. He reckons possibly two days work. I should say at this point that I reckon the rudder got belted by debris in the Brisbane river. The other one looks in perfect nick and I still have sufficient faith in John the GRP's work to think that he wouldn't have buggered up one rudder.

Tomorrow I will mainly be spending money. Tonight I feel vaguely guilty about having brought a beer. Bloody boats!

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