Success!!!!!!

I must say that I wasn't feeling very confident as I made the short drive over to Sea-Dog and Marina's house. It has been some three weeks since Endless Summer came off the slip, and the mechanics have been dealing with a range of problems ever since.

It was pleasing to see that the mechanics were already on the boat when I arrived at the appointed time. The generator was pulled apart to ready to change the control card, and the mechanics were alternately scratching their heads and reading complex troubleshooting instructions from their laptop. Occasionally we could hear the generator starting, but never for more than a few seconds. It wasn't what we wanted to hear....

This situation carried on until about 10:00hrs, and I was beginning lose hope of any departure, let alone Monday next week.

 Sea-Dog and I retired to the pleasant warmth of the flybridge to talk through some details of the trip. Ten minutes later one of the mechanics emerged to say that the generator was now working and just had to have the covers put on!

Thirty minutes later the mechanic had diagnosed the problem with the port engine audible alarm. Apparently it was a faulty alarm module and he had brought a spare one just in case. Phew!! Just after that, the second mechanic announced that he had changed the sender unit for the port gearbox oil pressure, and that it was now working.

Engine alarm module

Three weeks of going backwards, then three problems solved in less than an hour. I, for one, was stunned but greatly pleased.

By 11:30 we were cleaned up, closed up, and ready for a sea trial. We cast off from Sea-Dog's jetty and by noon we were at sea, running along beautifully before a 2.5m swell at full noise! We ran about 5 miles up the coast then came back into  the swell for the run back to our river.

Everything is now working well and I rang Captain Bligh later to get him to book his air ticket south. He will now arrive here on the South Coast on next Saturday afternoon. On Sunday we will all get together on Endless Summer for a final check before a pre-dawn departure on Monday.

Speaking of Monday, the wave chart which I showed on yesterday's blog is showing a dramatic development today. Waves of up to 15m are now predicted in the Southern Ocean on Sunday evening.

Wind Wave model prediction for next Sunday - Image courtesy of Bureau of Meteorology

Monday morning looks like it will be a good window for us to run north. As mentioned previously, Ken Ring's long range forecast predicts there could be a little rain, but we can deal with that. The aim will be to get Endless Summer north of the NSW/QLD border before the big swells catch us.

I'm off to celebrate the day's success,

Bye for now,

Navman