Not in the Brochure!

We have been away for a couple of months now and I have yet to pick up a book and relax. I am yet to experience the "Cruising Lifestyle" which I thought would consist of long relaxing days sipping cocktails (well mocktails in my case), feeling bored, reading books, planning my 3 meals a day, building sand castles etc... I am afraid to admit that I am partly to blame for not having achieved any of the above, I just might be incapable of doing so (OK James I am finally agreeing with you, well just this once anyway).


Having said that there have been a few boat maintenance issues which have kept us busy.  We seem to either be waiting for parts or repairing something!  This was not in the brochure and yet some of the more experienced cruisers seem to laugh at us when we tell them about our delayed plans and express our frustration.   They all seem to respond the same way "Welcome to first year of cruising"!!  I guess this is the first time the boat has really been tested so it shouldn't come as a surprise that we have needed to repair a few things and I guess there are are worse places to be stuck waiting/repairing things than a picturesque island watching our kids experience a kind of freedom they would never get back home...well certainly not so close to Kings Cross.

The ongoing repair list since arriving in Fiji has been:

• fresh water pressure pump
• house bank alternator
• repair of burnt out windlass
• replacement of windlass after repair didn't work
• replacement of water pump impeller on dinghy motor
• servicing of winches
• repair of hatches
• replacement of water maker pressure gauge
• fixing and realigning of cupboard hatches that after frequent use go out of alignment
• failure of the BBQ (Much to Williams disappointment we are still waiting on getting this one fixed)

James says this is not out of the ordinary but I guess that I was never aware of the repairs that went on behind the scene when the boat and we were in Sydney. Now I am very much in the hands on position when assisting James.

Windlass repair

Windlass repair

The old windlass solenoid before replacement