Monday 6th of Dec

Yesterday was an even hotter day. The heat so intense I didn't have the energy to walk to town to sit in the pool. We did a few more little chores on the boat. Dried the sails, repaired a small catch in the mainsail, fan repair, and a bit more cleaning.
It's Monday now and it turns out the engine mounts haven't even left Melbourne yet. I couldn't bare another minute in the marina, so I talked Bruce (wasn't to hard) into heading out for maybe the reef tomorrow if weather still permits. We thought we would go to Stonehaven to sit for the night, and leave from there out to Bait reef. It was 1 before we got the news on the part, so we didn't have time to go to far. It took us about 15 minutes to ready the boat and we were off. Just out of the channel making our way, Bruce checking the port engine to hear, see feel the difference in the new engine mounts on that side, and he was just back up in the cockpit when a bilge alarm started going off. Starboard side Bruce quickly lifts the floor boards and we have water just about to overflow the bilges. He checks the engine and sees water flooding in through a hose, and we quickly shut down the engine. I'm at the helm just keeping her into the wind, which was blowing from the North about 15 kts. For some reason Bruce can't get the main bilge pump to operate. The emergency pump was doing ok keeping up with the water, but the main pump was needed to empty it. Hand pumped for a bit to remove the massive amount of water until he finally got it apart to find twine was wrapped around the impeller. Once remove the pump worked fine. Bruce repaired the hose clamp that had come loose. (thinking it must have been kicked or bumped when they were in there the other day checking the engine mount) We started the engine up again, and all was going good. We had a big mess to clean in the bilge once again!
By now I had us on course making our way into some rough bit of water with spring ebb tide against the 15 + kts of wind. Bruce is trying to cool off in the breeze as it is stinking hot, and he has been down below with the hot engine. With the strong ebb tide helping us to make a better track with the North wind I asked Bruce once he caught his breath if we can raise the sails. We were having a beaut sail out to Stonehaven when Mackay weather comes on with a severe thunderstorm warning coming our way. I'm beginning to wonder if my impatience is going to turn into a BIG problem after all we are running with a broken engine mount that could have the potential of causing a huge amount of damage if further damaged. We are just about there when we hear more on the radio that the storm is approaching our area and we can expect 50 kts of wind. We started the engines and decided to bring down the sails to motor into the moorings. We spot a couple of moorings in the SW corner and head in. We tied up and began getting the boat ready for the storm. Still sweltering in the heat both of us dripping sweat we went about our jobs. Once she was all stowed away we decided to get the bilges all clean out AGAIN! This is the 3rd time in 2 months. Between the two of us we had it finished in about an hour. Showered and had a cool drink on the bow.
Nearly 6 hours later and we never did have the storm probably because we were all prepared. We did have a few spots of rain, and a bit of a wind shift that cooled things down. YAY at present it is back to calm winds not enough to turn the windy stick. Here's to more adventures in paradise!!!!