Keep on keeping on

Sadly we’re still here in Scarborough waiting to take off up the coast, heading for Cairns where we will be joining the Sail 2 Indonesia rally. The good news is that thankfully the auto pilot is now working but frustratingly, a leak has sprung – apparently from a valve where our newly furnished prop shaft enters the boat.

Of course the person who “fixed” the prop has not returned any of our phone calls and to be honest we aren’t sure that we want him to do anything else to the boat but the good news is that a recommendation from someone we trust has turned up trumps. Our new contractor has kindly made time to help us out (even though his entire team is booked up until the end of July). Bali Hai is now out of the water at Scarborough Marina and should be fixed up by early next week.

In in the meantime we continue to prepare for taking off and yesterday our son Ben’s partner Sarah helped me load a large amount of provisions onto the boat – everything from pasta to washing up liquid, including dozens of tins of tomatoes, tuna and countless bottles of sunblock and insect repellent! We also picked up the many charts we need for the Indonesian Islands and our made to measure fitted sheets for the new bed in out remodelled cabin.

Next time I write we will be underway at long last. Even though we have moments of doubt and wondering if we are completely mad,  most of the time we just “keep on keeping on.”