On the road again!!!!

To all those people wondering if we are ok yes we are and to all those people we did not manage to catch up with many apologies. We flew back into Australia on 4th August and collected our car and Rosie from Andy and Robyn in South Australia. Drove home via Sydney to see the kids and then it was home and a whole lot of work. Peter worked on the house and we managed to get a bit of babysitting in with our beautiful grandchildren. Peter flew back to Langkawi on 19 September to take the boat single handed to Phuket to haul out to do some work on her. Following is an email I had from Peter:

Well what a day. We were delayed by one day as Brian snapped his throttle cable. Went into town and luckily sourced a new one and had it installed by 3.30pm. We departed Rebak at 7.30 and made our way to Telaga so Brian could get fuel. When we left there we were half way up the west side of Langkawi when I started taking on water, lots of it. Checked all the hoses on the motor but eventually found that water was gushing in at the propellor shaft seal. Had the big electric bilge pump going and also the hand bilge pump and made the 2 hours back to the marina. Tim off Raven gave me a hand as it was still gushing in tied up to the dock and the travel lift wasn't working today. Found the cause and fixed it. The two grommet screws which hold the pressure ring against the shaft seal had worked loose and the ring moved up the prop shaft separating it from the seal and allowing lots of water in. Eventually fixed it, phew and left Rebak at 1.15. Going the clappers to get to the anchorage before dark when Brian broke a fan belt. He eventually installed a new one and we got into the anchorage at 7.00pm, still light. Brian just called and he has cooked his batteries, they are smoking. Have to wait for them to cool down before he tries to find the problem. Hope tommorrow is a better day.

Well he finally made it and put the boat up on the hard only to discover that we had a heck of a lot more rust than we ever knew! So Peter has been working super hard on the boat at times holding the fire extinguisher to make sure none of the sparks from the grinding etc caught the boat alight. He has been living aboard among the dust and the grime. They have to use water when they are grinding and this turns to a nasty sludge in the boat. Anyway grinding has finished and Peter has cleaned out the sludge - a huge job by all accounts and now they can start on the original job of painting the boat - obviously a bit behind schedule and a blow out on the budget!!

I have been working very hard on our house getting ready for new tenants and also moving all our furniture from one storage facility to another one - financially it was worth it but it was a huge job. Many thanks to Darren, Stuart and Brett for all the help. Couldnt have done it without you all. It was so lovely to be surrounded by all our wonderful family. Will miss you all terribly especially little Jessie (such a wonderful little boy - missing your cuddles) and little Charlie (such a happy cheeky little girl).

I am currently writing this in Renmark - Rosie and I have been on a road trip to drive to Andy's. Finally finished packing the house up on Thursday night and stayed with Stuart - what a relief to finally be finished. Friday night was with Judy in Yamba and then Saturday drove all day in the rain to Sydney so stayed Sunday as well. We camped at Narrandera and then last night at Renmark and today we make Andy and Robyn's. I fly to Melbourne on Sunday 14th and on Monday 15th will be back in Phuket to inspect all the work!!!


Anyway time to get back on the road again

Cheers

Dell
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