Watcha doin'?

Our new strut/P-bracket

Since we arrived back in Darwin after our awesome road trip, we have been busy trying to get through our checklist of boat fixes. Matt's been making impressive progress on the 'Big 3' Projects that we need to get done while out of the water. He is also sweating an impressive amount (as are we all). Warning, boring boat work blah blah blah ahead.

Our new counter top (not even one of the
'Big 3' but it had to be done)

The critical projects were/are:

1. Replacing the bent/broken strut and remounting the engine.
2. Replacing the windlass.
3. Repairing the generator engine.

Old windlass carcass. Rest in pieces.

New windlass--ooh, aah

Let's start with the one that is done. The windlass has been replaced but it was more complicated than we expected. Of all the boat work we have done over the years, 99% of it seems to be more complicated than expected. Just getting the old one off was a chore. We were hoping to simply replace the seized bearing that was causing the grief, but getting to the bearing proved impossible.  The entire upper unit had basically corroded itself into one single piece--no amount of heat or penetrant would get the lock-nut to move. In the end it literally had to be sawed in half to get it out. 

OK, out with the old, in with the new! We purchased a newer version of our old Lofrans windlass specifically because it is supposedly a 'drop-in replacement'. Our definition of 'drop-in' is a bit different from the manufacturer's. The holes for the four bolts that hold the windlass in place line up, so that's good...but that's about it.

New windlass base that Matt had to fabricate and
drill and epoxy and paint

Everything else was different: the way the wiring is routed (requiring new, longer wiring to reach the motor), the footprint of the windlass (requiring a new, bigger base and another hole or two), and the profile of the windlass (requiring that we grind out the lid--that one was easy). Also during the process, which involved Matt pretzeling himself into the tiny anchor locker with a big comfy pile of chain to sit on, the up and down buttons decided to stop working. So we got to add rewiring the buttons into the mix. Anyway, we have a new and improved windlass and can go back to anchoring in deep water without holding our collective breaths. Anyway, now we're selling a perfectly good windlass motor that we don't need anymore.

The next big project and the whole reason we're in Australia, was repairing the mayhem caused by that Indonesian log. Speaking of holes (sorry, we're doing homonyms in school), this is the hole that the strut came out of. The original strut was fiber-glassed into place with a ton of epoxy and fiberglass, unlike being bolted on as with some boats. It is very strong but also not so easy to replace.

We found a strut that looked mostly like our old strut and the various measurements seemed pretty much the same. Since the supplier is in England, we couldn't easily compare the two, so we ordered the new one and took our chances. The new strut is very similar but just a bit bigger...unfortunately different enough that the existing hole in our boat needed to be ground out by a few millimeters. Normally this would be no big deal with a grinder, but the hole is small and enough and deep enough that you can't get a grinder in there.  Matt spent several days covered in a cloud of fiberglass dust as he ground out the hole (by hand mostly) bit-by-bit to Goldilocks proportions (not too small, not too big).

Same hole from inside the boat ('the top')

 After getting the hole to the right size and cleaning it up, Matt, with Conrad and my help, got the strut into place (lining it up with the new propeller shaft we had made along with a special collar to help with alignment) and re-glassed the whole thing. The fiberglass skills he honed throughout the islands came in handy.

Matt doing more boat yoga.

Voila! A newly glassed in strut. And
a really grody toe. Pedicure time...

So for that part of the project--yay! The part involving re-seating the engine is in progress. Matt had to harass the metal fabrication guy (both before we left and after we got back) to get the engine brackets done. After two months of having the specs, he finally delivered brackets that, of course, are not exactly right. Right now, Matt is in the engine compartment, swearing a lot, while the engine is suspended from the boom over the hatch in Conrad's cabin.

Finally, that brings us to the generator. As usual, the project turned out to be a bigger deal than we originally expected and we had to pull the whole thing out of the engine compartment to allow the mechanic to work on it. The thing weighs hundreds of pounds and is wedged into a tiny area. Miraculously, we were able to get it out with the help of the trusty boom, a large amount of pulleys and only minor injuries.

The generator mechanic finished work on it while we were away. He actually called us to say it was done (you don't know how rare we have found that here). It turns out that the seal that Rudy said was okay actually did need to be replaced. The fly in the ointment was a new drip tray we were having fabricated. It took over a month and lots nagging for the fabricator to finally get it done (are you seeing a pattern here?). Now we just need to put it in and hook it up, which I'm expecting will be pretty straightforward. You can predict how this will turn out.

The Spectacular Jumping Crocodile
Tour was spectacular

FOR SALE: Lofrans Progress 2 Windlass Motor 1200W 12V

Almost brand new Lofrans 1200W 12V windlass motor for a Progress II Windlass (Part 418a #LWP8251). It may also fit other older Lofrans models (uses a 3 point bolt on configuration).

It has only been in use for 3 months. We installed it because we thought it would help with a breaker tripping issue. It didn't because the actual problem was a corroded bearing. Unfortunately we weren't able to replace the bearing as the rope drum and lock-nut had seized up on the shaft and the windlass had to be sawed in half to remove it from the boat. So we bought a new windlass and you can get a bargain on an almost new motor!

We are currently in Darwin, Australia. We can ship it, but it's a heavy little beast and will probably be expensive. We will also be cruising Indonesia and Southeast Asia in the next 12 months, so we could meet up if we're in the same area.

The cost of a new motor from Lofrans is $1150 US not including shipping. We're asking $700 US.

Pictures from our Australian road trip - continued

I couldn't fit all the pictures from our road trip in one post, so here are the rest.

Our friends, formerly of Jade, and their
awesome Labradoodle Dougal

Grampians National Park

Emus!

MacKenzie Falls, Grampians National Park

Twelve Apostles

London Bridge, Great Ocean Road

Us, acting weird

Cockatoos in Portland. They're Australia's pigeons.

One of the Melbourne Alleyways

The boys with their friend Riley (previously of Miss
Behaving). They have a Spoodle named Dexter. So much
quality time with pooches this trip.

Fairy Cave (Buchan Caves)

Aptly named 'bacon' rock formation.

The fantastic War Museum in Canberra

Luna Park in Sydney

The Blue Mountains

Scenic World in the Blue Mountains

View of Sydney from the home of our friends
Helge and Liz (they have a great Blue Heeler
named Tessa)

Goanna. If one heads towards you, lie down
so it doesn't try to climb you with its razor-sharp claws.

Naracoorte Caves. The only place in the world with
mammalian fossils. Yes, we love the caves.

Road trip around Australia - The fast track (redone)

This post has been republished due to some strange formatting I couldn't fix in the original post.

The kids are officially sick of the car. When we first bought it, they jumped at the chance to go for a ride, even if it was just to the store. Now there is zero interest. Being stuck in it for 11,976 kilometers (7442 miles) in 28 days has officially killed the novelty.

We joked that once we had seen Uluru, kangaroos, koalas, and the Sydney Opera House, we had checked off everything we needed to see in Australia. But there are a few more things in the vast country (though sometimes it doesn't seem like it when you're fighting the monotony of driving through huge expanses of Outback).

A small Grey Kangaroo

It seems smaller in real life

We finally saw something in real life that
can kill you. A red-bellied black.

We saw cities, mountains, valleys, gorges, canyons, the ocean, lakes, waterfalls, caves, and fossils. We got to catch up with some friends. Mark's passport is renewed. All told, we had a great time and even managed to avoid killing each other in closer quarters than the boat (there may have been yelling).

Signs in Coober Pedy

Back in Darwin, our boat survived the Category 2 cyclone that hit while we were travelling. But the city and surrounds will be cleaning up downed trees for months. Now it's time to finish our boat work and get the heck out of Dodge. It's expensive in First World countries.

The termite mounds are well-dressed
in Central Australia. Well, dressed anyway.

Devil's Marbles

Stanley Chasm. The kids are
wearing shirts on their heads to
keep the flies off.

Final thoughts. Wombats are huge. We had no idea. They're the size of small pigs. Gas is expensive in the middle of nowhere. We paid $7.64 Australian (over $6 US) for a gallon of gas (2.02 per liter) in Central Australia.

King's Canyon area

The flies were horrible. They go for your eyes,
ears, nose and mouth and are relentless.

The Parade of Lights in Adelaide (also
going on was Womadelaide and the Fringe Festival)

Civilized Darwin

From the Darwin Military Museum,
like most of the pics in this post

A big reason we went cruising was to see places different from the U.S. So I almost feel guilty writing this. But after spending so long in  areas where many people live in grass-covered huts and your choices in stores (when you can find one) are limited, it has been a nice break to spend some time in what we think of as civilization.

Darwin was bombed in WWII too. A lot.
Apparently Australia didn't really teach it
schools here for a long time.

There are two big grocery stores in town and friends that we have made here often have their favorite. For us, it's all heaven. We have been eating fresh broccoli, cauliflower, peaches and berries for the first time since I-don't-know-when.

 

From a memorial at the Military Museum

Not to make light, but this is not
a cause of death you see everyday for
a soldier.

Darwin has tons to do, especially for families. There are great public parks, including free water parks. We visited the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the Darwin Military Museum. We learned lots about Darwin's history, including the Japanese bombings during World War II and Cyclone Tracy. We still haven't visited one of the crocodile parks (although we did see a croc in the wild, albeit at a distance), the Botanic Garden, or the Territory Wildlife Park. We're trying to balance boat tasks with fun stuff. I think boat stuff is winning.

 

 

Lizard on a tire.

Other than the "Darwin born-and-bred" foks we have met, much of its population is from somewhere else. It makes for a very diverse population, including the Aboriginal people who were here first, of course. Despite the general small-town friendliness and outgoing Aussie nature, there seems to be an awkward co-existence between the native and non-native Australians. There are always groups of native Aussies who sit around in various locations and have a disconcerting (to newcomers like me, anyway) habit of yelling at each other to communicate. It took me awhile to figure out that they weren't angry.

 

One local Australian cruiser complained that he could only buy 2 boxes of wine a day because that is the mode of drink favored by Aboriginal people, some of whom have issues with drinking. In that same vein, there's the requirement that anyone buying liquor show an ID (even old farts like us).

 

We finally got hauled out and are sweltering with the sand flies at Spot On Marine. It's what we get for coming here this time of year. The Roodberg lift was a new way of getting taken out of the water. The night before, we motored up to Fannie Bay, so that we could be at Spot On bright and early near high tide (around 6:30 am). We got tied up and waited for the tide to go down so that the machine could be put into place. There were a few disconcerting minutes as our hull bounced on the concrete ramp, before settling into place so we could be lifted.

 

The next day, Matt worked to bend the strut back. The bending bar that we had custom made in Indonesia couldn't be used because we didn't have enough clearance under the boat and Matt was only able to dig down about a third of the way needed into the hard ground before the blisters on his hands made him try another tack. The straps that he set up seemed to be working well, up until the point that the strut snapped and ricocheted into Matt's calf, leaving a grapefruit-sized lump. Miraculously, there was no swearing.

So now Matt will be grinding out the remainder of the strut (P-bracket as they call it in Commonwealth countries) and we will most likely be having a new one (or two--as a backup) fabricated. He has been missing fiberglass work. I'm pretty sure.

In other news, the main bolt for the windlass is seized up. So far, no amount of coaxing with Liquid Wrench, a levered winch handle (which actually bent under the strain), a butane torch, or a hammer will budge it. So today we got to explain to the kids what 0-for-2 means (as in, 'we are 0-for-2 on the two things we needed to be out of the water to work on'). Good thing we have been enjoying the blueberry pancakes that Matt has been whipping up. We might be eating them for awhile longer than we thought.