More from Mooloolaba

We're now alongside the work jetty at Lawrie's Boat Services.  Zen Again returned to the water on Monday afternoon as scheduled.  The shipwrights did a nice job fixing the delamination in the head compartment.

Topsides polished, antifoul "activated"

Tuesday was spent having the engine serviced, stanchions straightened and working on the GPS/VHF interface.  The engine service didn't go entirely to plan, with a high-pressure oil line breaking.  On inspection it was found to be very rusty.  We're waiting for a replacement to arrive (ETA Thursday).  Otherwise all is OK with the engine.  We're also waiting for a replacement exhaust system (wet box and hose) to arrive.  We had planned to replace the exhaust here.  The stanchions have been bent since we bought the boat and it was good to have them sorted.

Ready for launch

The GPS/VHF interface problem was one which had been frustrating us for months.  We were able to send GPS data to the VHF so it could transmit our position when required.  But we had never managed to get AIS data from the VHF to the GPS chartplotter.  AIS is the Automated Identification System which allows us to display large ships on our chartplotter, together with their name, size, type, course, speed etc.  Very helpful in identifying collision risks.  A call to Garmin technical support in Sydney resulted in an email detailing how to connect the two units.  Pity the manuals don't explain it, but their phone support was excellent.

Launching

Today we started installing additional fresh water tanks (150 litres in two bladders) in the forepeak, rearranged the circuit breakers to better suit the equipment we now have installed, started installing a bilge pump controller box, and had the rig inspected.  The first three went very well, the last went well but revealed two issues to be fixed.

The rig problems are damage to one of the upper spreaders and two s/s pins wearing the side of the mast below the lower spreaders.  So tomorrow morning we're having the mast taken out to have these problems fixed.  The mast can be lifted out with the boat in the water so we'll stay at the work jetty.  It's a shame issues were found, but better to find and fix than to be blissfully unaware until the mast decides to fall down!  We expected to stay in Mooloolaba for a while, but we expect it's now going to be 2-3 weeks in all.

Alongside work jetty at Lawrie's Boat Services

We spent much of this afternoon preparing for the mast lift.  We removed the boom and vang, the storm jib and furling jib, and pulled through all the halyards and coiled them on the mast.  Then we loosened all the shroud lock nuts and straightened out all the split pins.  All so the lift can be as quick (and therefore cheap) as possible.  This evening we disconnected most of the electrical cables which enter the mast.

I guess all those rum and cokes while anchored off tropical beaches have to be earned!!!