Two in one...

11th & 12th of June

Yep, that's right. Im writing two days into one. Now before you get all up in my porcelain grill, let me explain a few things. Now this is in no way making excuses, I just thought i should elaborate in our circumstances. Lets start with the fact we have no power... Yep, no power. Its hard to utilise technology without that one little thing called electricity. We have been struggling with that word since we got back from the reef. Well, we struggled out there to, but it didnt matter as much because the sun was shining and the solar panels were operating well. Now that we are back in town, because of bad weather, the ole sunshine is non existent. Since our batteries are pretty well fingered, without that bit of solar energy we have been living in the dark. So that's right, every little piece of electronics  are flat. Now this is not an excuse as we are anchored in front of town, where there is backpacker free internet all round the place. Which is exactly where I am at the moment. Sitting in a manky tourist outlet, attempting to type and spell correctly without using word to solve all the mistakes for me. So that is part of the reason why two days have become one.

Yesterday I begun in resurrecting this electrical dilemma that we are faced with. Lucky enough the spare wind turbine blade had arrived in the post, so I set to work in fixing that bad boy. It still isn't operating at its full potential as there is a bit of friction internally when it spins. Not the whole rotation of the rotor, just one eighth of a revolution. Today she is spinning happily as the winds are up around 15 knots, however it should be rotating in winds of 5 knots. I'm to scared to pull it apart at the moment. I could cut the wires and take the whole gig down stairs so I don't drop anything, but then I am relying on my skills of electrician. I know I could do it, but still, its one of those things. Ill just wait and see how much power it supplies first before I think I should operate... But now that she is up and working to a degree, after I finish writing this bad boy, I will go install the two new batteries I acquired from a previous job site.  They have been all charged up and been sitting dormant for a couple of days so hopefully when I get back to Nandji and put the multi metre on them, they say 13V at least. Fingers crossed. Hopefully then, we are back in the world of night lights and electronics.

It isn't much fun sitting around in Airlie beach when the sun isn't shining, the wind is blowing and you have decided to be all controlling upon yourself and not drink for the month. Usually in this situation, we would go to the best internet in town that we have found, (at the pub) with fully charged technology and sip cheap beer. Work is so much easier when your tipsy...

So today I done the clothes washing. I feel this needs to be mentioned as this is the first time I have done this since we have lived on Nandji... I don't wear dirty clothes all the time, its more the fact that I don't wear clothes. I don't kick around naked all day, but when clothes are worn, basically I just put on board shorts. Also there is the other fact that Bonita dominates this area of our relationship. That minor factor should be mentioned. However, today I took 'la diva' the tender to the yacht club and paid there prices to do a mammoth load of clothes in their machines. As good as Bonita is at hand cleaning the clothes on the boat, that just wasn't gonna happen with me. Ill pay the few coins to stick it in a machine and walk away. Forget about it for half the day, go back to someone who has been waiting for over an hour to use the machine and deal with their antics. It was much easier than hand washing.

Tomorrow is when the wind is really meant to start blowing. It is still forecast to blow 30 knots in Airlie. That is pretty bloody windy. Lucky it is from the South East, so it is an off shore breeze. This should keep the ocean around us in the bay, relatively smooth. Therefore not throwing Nandji around to much. Hopefully... The other week when it was only 10 knots from the North, Nandji was not a good place to be. Three different vessels around us, either broke off their mooring or snapped anchor. Its was an eventful day.

Anyway I got clothes to hang up and power to be re installed. Peace.

Captain Yosh