Arriving at Manly
Note the strong wind
So here we are, comfortably tied up in Manly Marina. Looks very nice, and indeed it is… but coming in was a bit of an adventure. The first berth allocated to us by the marina office would have been fine, if it hadn’t been for the 40ft motor yacht occupying the neighbouring spot in the pen. I was proud of the way I manoeuvred the boat into the berth using quite a lot of prop walk (don’t ask!) to turn the boat in what was a very tight spot, but once in the berth, I had to phone the office and ask for another one. I didn’t think Jo would want to spend a week standing on our deck, leaning on the motor yacht to keep it away from us!
They were most understanding, and we did move, but getting out was a learning experience, as prop walk, which had worked well getting in, worked against us going out!
The big job that had been waiting for Manly was fixing the engine exhaust. Not long after leaving
According to the Catalina website, the exhaust pipe is a custom manufactured item, made out of stainless steel lagged with heat-resistant fibreglass, and precision fitted to the engine at one end and the muffler at the other. So I steeled myself for the prospect of a visit from a marine exhaust expert, with much tut-tutting and shaking of heads, and the inevitable heavy whack in the credit card.
So, with some trepidation, I contacted an engineer.
Said engineer was called Jeff and he runs a business called Manly Marine Services. Jeff was a real find. Not only did he remove the offending pipe and take it away, but he also came back the very next day with the news that it was far from worn out. The reason for this was that, instead of being a smart piece of custom made stainless, it turned out to be a couple of cheap lengths of 2in steel water pipe, screwed into a couple of steel right-angle fittings. And as the piping was still nearly 3 millimetres thick, there was little chance that it was going to rust through in the next decade or so… Seems the problem was that the end that is screwed into the engine had not been screwed up tight enough, and over the years it had worked loose.
So Jeff put it all back together, lagged it with fibreglass tape and left. The bill was well under $200, and the engine is fine again! His parting words were ‘change the soundproofing matting on your engine cover. It’s deteriorating, and soon it’ll get sucked into the engine intake and bugger the engine up’. So I shall do what I’m told.
Needless to say, I highly recommend Jeff Ross!
Mike
Mick and Sue came for lunch on Wednesday with Elaine and Bernie, Rebecca’s parents-in-law, who are also escaping the cold
Mick and Sue
Mick sporting a
new (to us) beard
Mick, Sue
Elaine and Bernie
Today, Thursday, Mike and I decided to go out for a sail (but then, as usual, there was no wind!). All was not lost though because we really did need to go a long way out into deep water and empty the holding tank. I know this is a very distasteful subject but you lot can’t expect to only hear about all the nice things. After all life isn’t just a bunch of sweet smelling roses it also consists of smelly holding tanks that require emptying!!
Jo
