"The next shock came when we tried to fill the fuel tank. The breather system didn’t breath and we couldn’t get the screw-in inspection hatch to un-screw. We couldn’t fill the tank, so no engine. Since we couldn’t mess about on the fuel wharf, we used the dingy to move UHURU to a marina pen."
Here comes the rescue dinghy . . .
Towing UHURU to a "pen" . .
"Next, when the sailmaker arrived to fit the new sails, he found that he had used the wrong set of measurements. He had made the sails for some other boat!
As you can imagine, things at this point were definitely not going well. And, I was due shortly to sail in the annual “boy’s only” cruise to “Swains Reef.” [The reef is 120 miles out and some of it still not surveyed.]"
Last edited by Bill; 12-11-2006 at 08:41 PM.
And the frig was already loaded . . .
"As if this were not enough, or should I say, because of all this, I had a heart attack while at the marina.The 000 call (that’s our emergency number) brought an ambulance which took me straight into Gladstone hospital. From there I was taken to Brisbane for surgery to clear a serious blockage and have a stent inserted. If UHURU had been ready to sail to the Swains, I would have certainly died out there.
"I'm now recovering a bit and have the go ahead to drive and do “light air sailing,” so me and my mate will be getting back to UHURU next week and try to solve some of her problems. There are still sail track and winches to fit and hopefully I can get UHURU out of that expensive marina pen without killing myself. On a positive note, the sailmaker says everything will be finished by the end of the week. And to make up for his "stuff up," he will fit lazy jacks and a boom bag into which the sail just drops."
"UHURU looks OK, don’t you think? The “helipad” and doghouse don’t look too out of place? She floats well to her marks, tanks empty and no supplies or personal stuff on board. She is a bit high, level in spite of the weight in the bow. I’m happy. BTW - The boat weighed in at 2.9 ton. I was surprised."
Forepeak mattress
"As I’ve mentioned before, trial and error and pure determination to get things to work is my style, no training, no education to speak of as far as boats are concerned. The only things that I’m not happy with on board, have been done by so called tradesman. My work might be a bit rough, but it works. I now have to fix what the shipwright installed and tidy up stuff that should be already tidy. A mate, who is some sort of technician, looked over my wiring and asked, “are you sure an electrician did this? He must have used an apprentice.” Oh well, I’m alive and my boat is floating. I’m not complaining and even if I was, it wouldn’t make me a bad person -
"Well mates, you’re up to date. The plan now is to take UHURU up through the “narrows” (think African Queen country) and into the Fitzroy river where she will be put on a mooring. I will then go out to the gem fields and potter about at my mates mine looking for emeralds and sapphires. I hope to get rich while I’m recuperating!"
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