A few issues to sort out...

Yes, once we stopped we realised that we had a few issues to sort out on Endless Summer. Nothing too major, but still important.

First a warning, if you are eating or about to eat then I suggest that you close the blog and come back later....

OK, you are still reading, but you have been warned. Still, I would like to begin with a bit of philosophy. A boat is like a microcosm of a city. It has electricity, water and sewerage systems, all of which need to function well in order to create the comforts to which most of us in Western society have become accustomed. If any one of these fails, then we won't be happy. Today, Endless Summer has suffered failures to key components of its electricity and sewerage sytems.

Faulty bilge pump level switch

More specifically she has had a failure of her sewerage macerator pump and mains battery charger.

The macerator pump  is the piece of equipment which chops up the stuff which comes from the toilet, and the mains battery charger is what charges our batteries when the main engines aren't running.

Added to this, one of the bilge pumps is malfunctioning, and malfunctioning bilge pumps are never good on any boat.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Tin Can Bay Marina was incredibly helpful in sourcing a new macerator pump, and it will be delivered on Monday. If you need chandlery in this area check them out at http://www.truelocal.com.au/business/marina-chandlery/tin-can-bay

In the mean time Captain Bligh and I are working out how to change the pump without ending up covered in you-know-what. We think that we have a good plan, and I shall report the results on Monday.

We have also discovered that our mains (240V) battery charger is not functioning. This isn't a problem while the engines run for a few hours each day, but will be a major issue if we get held up by bad weather. We are still discussing what we need to do about this.

So what did we do today?

Firstly we changed the faulty switch on the macerator pump circuit which probably had contributed to the pump failure.

Next we changed the automatic level switch on the bilge under the bathroom.

Finally we dismantled and oiled the gear shift levers which had been vibrating at speed.

All in all it was a great day, and we retired to Captain Bligh and Pacifica's house for sundowners before going out to the Tin Can Bay Yacht club for dinner.

Here we enjoyed Bundy and coke to warm us up  as it was unusually cold at Tin Can Bay for this time of year. There was also good food and wonderful company.

The Tin Can Bay Yacht Club is a very friendly little venue and has great views out over Wide Bay. If you are in the area call in for a drink or have something from the cafe. The web site is http://www.tincanbayyachtclub.yachting.org.au/

All in all it was another great day, though we still have a few more things to sort out before we begin the next major leg of the journey.

The end of the day at Tin Can Bay - Image by Navman

And so to bed, goodnight dear readers,

Navman