Picture this: Anui is anchored off Crab Island near paradise Point in the middle of a busy waterway for the Australia Day long weekend: an endless procession of stink-boats, luxury cruisers, runabouts, the odd yacht under motor and obnoxious jet skis go past us creating monster wakes! Some of these were so bad we’d yell « INCOMING » and had to prep the boat as if we were going for a rough offshore passage to stop stuff from flying everywhere! And the noise… OMG!!!
Ok so it was not one of our best ideas for an anchorage! But there was a reason for staying there before getting to The Boat Works. We had a few things to do: major dental appointments, provisioning, emptying the local post office of all the gear we had ordered… But the biggest reason was picking up Chris’s new laptop! Now that put a smile on her dial: great performance, colour and speed for photographic work, lots of grunt. No more squatting on Wade’s machine, no more complaints about its slowness and dullness. Lance Wallis at Computer Repairs Hope Island made the transfer over from old to new easy. He was able to recover all the data, clone the set up of the old Dell onto the new one and bar a couple of odd things with software access, everything worked smoothly straight away. He has even installed a “look Mum no hands” remote access application, so that if we get into trouble, he can assist at a distance. Perfect!
Wade’s laptop must have felt totally let down and jealous, because two days after Chris had her new beast, his broke down – oops! Back to computer doctor Lance for diagnostics (a corrupt drive) and fix: new solid state drive installed. It was back in operation the very next day and performing better than ever! Go Lance! So glad we found him!
The sunsets at Paradise Point were spectacular but by Monday we had had enough of the wakes!
As soon as Chris was out of the dentist’s torture chamber, we moved up to the Coomera River to anchor in front of Boat Works.
That’s it for the pretty photos, now onto the serious business! On Wednesday we moved into our pen at The Boat Works and the team at 143 Boat Building started working on Anui. The task list includes replacing the flexible coupling between the starboard engine and the sail drive, getting a new motor for the anchor winch, replacing the hydraulic ram and brushes for the hydraulic pump on the NKE autopilot, and since we are here for a while, the paint touch ups by our gun painter Geoff, of MMA Millenium Marine Painting, who was not available in December.
We initially thought we’d be here for a week and were progressing really well, until we got news that the coupling for the engine would take at least 10 days to arrive. And with one engine out of action, we are not going anywhere! So now we will be at the Boat Works for probably two more weeks with not a lot to do but wait for parts to arrive. The good side is that we can use water and power with complete abandon! We might have to hire a car and go exploring on land to avoid cabin fever though!
Sv-Anui 
Wow, the winch motor is overdue for a swap! Stay safe, be well. 😎🇦🇺
Yes, it was the original one: lasted 20 years!
That was lucky that the company was still about and you could get a spare. A remount of a different unit would be messy. Happy land exploring.
Hi Graham – if you are talking about the anchor winch, it’s a Maxwell so definitely still around. As for the NKE auto pilot this company is very well established in Europe for racing and around the world sailing so we are safe there too, just not well known or supported here! But agreed – messy when you have to start from scratch again!
Argh… boat maintenance and monster wakes..yuk!
Hi Ross – Both are our bugbears!
Does that mean we will see you at The Boat Works? Australia Day is always mad around Paradise Point – we had trouble getting back to boat in the tinnie with the amount of traffic, but we too moved to a quieter anchorage (we went to Perry’s Hole for the night (despite the midgies) – the option of Jumpiinpin was taken off the board when I saw there were at least 120 boats there!). If you are looking for a day trip for walks – we can highly recommend Binna Burra!
Thanks for the suggestion Trish. Can’t remember when you are getting hauled out but we are here for at least another 10-12 days!
That computer looks beautiful. I think it funny that Wade’s decided to die, maybe it was jealous at Chris’s new one. I bet it felt much better with a tune up, possibly a long time between services. Good fire works in spite of all the stink boats and the jet skis. The winch looks great, shiny and new, the old one leaves a lot to be desired as we know. Enjoy your stay at Boatworks. I guess you had more fun at the dentist today ouch
Hi Sue- Computers working well, winch all done, second session at the dentist on Saturday for me and for Wade his is on Monday! We’ll need a straw for the G&T afterwards – a numb mouth and drinking from a glass don’t mix 😂.
I think electronics are like trees that talk to each other. This week, my PC monitor/TV broke down, yesterday my laptop joined it! Healing thoughts going your way after the dentist. At least you get rocked asleep at night! While laying in bed these days, I’m trying to devise a mechanism that will rock my bed like a boat!
Hi Janis, yes electronics are a bit if a dark art! Funny you talk about being rocked to sleep. Whenever our friends stay on board they sleep really well… the gentle movement does wonders. But it is a fine line between just right and too much!
Nostalgia for me, in terms of the joy of having replaced some rotten parts with shiny new ones. That anchor winch looked a bit grim!
Lots of good walks in the Gold Coast hinterland, Lamington NP etc, worth getting that car to stretch your legs!
Hi Elgar – yes The Lamington NP is definitely on the hit list. Once the painting is done and the autopilot in, we will escape.
I must confess, Chris, that I am much more in my element when you are talking about replacing computer parts that boat parts. Congratulations on your new computer. I mostly use Macs, though I do have a couple of Windows 10 laptops that I used to use for work-related projects. I mostly use a 2010 vintage Mac Pro desktop that I have upgraded in many ways, including the video card, RAM, and hard drives and soon will be upgrading the dual processors. I’m sorry to see that it is taking so long for your repairs to be done, but I am sure that it is worth the wait–it was a nice visual touch to show the anchor winch motor and its replacement. I am sure that you will manage to fill your “free” time with projects. I have noticed that staying completely idle is not part of your makeup.
Hello Mike. The computer upgrade has been wonderful and very timely given our long period out of action! A good chance to catch up on photo processing courses I had not finished when the old laptop started playing up. But you are right, staying idle and being hemmed in feels very frustrating. We try and use the time productively but it is not a lot of fun.