Island time… then back on the hardstand!

The Pelseart Group is probably our favourite in the Abrolhos Islands and certainly the anchorage right down at the southern end is a real gem. Crystal clear water, plenty of sand for protected anchoring and some great diving with plenty of food easily available.

After getting the boat sorted out and deciding that the steering was knackered (that could wait), it was time to get out and get foraging for some fish and crays for lunch and dinner.

It didn’t take us long to knab a couple of decent baldies (baldchin groper) to throw into the dinghy – all in less than two metres of water of course. Nicky had a crack at a couple of crays, but came up empty handed, so was keen to keep persisting. After exploring a little further, we found some broken ground and it wasn’t long before we had a couple of crays in the bucket. Good start!

And, so it was rinse and repeat – foraging, walking, exploring, and generally hanging out. Chasing Eden arrived, as did Paul Willison and Jonesy onboard ‘Starsand,’ and then Ash on Silverado.

The Abrolhos birdman, Chris Surman also arrived back on the Islands and was soon onboard for coffee and slice. Just like old times! This was followed by a run across to one of his ‘secret’ surf spots on the western edge of the fringing reef. It was about 4 miles from where we were anchored and involved picking our way across some shallows before anchoring inside the lagoon. It was then a case of paddling/hobbling our way across a very shallow reef to the outer side, where a tasty little left and right hander were awaiting.

We got stuck into some left handers which were great fun. The water was super clear and warm, and the winds light. Dreamy conditions, in fact. After successfully negotiating our way back over the reef, it was a run back to Singularity to refuel our tired and out-of-condition surfing muscles. Such an amazing place to be when the winds are down – the water clarity is next level and buzzing across it on a small boat at speed is something to behold.

We spent the next few mornings diving and exploring with the Eden crew, as well fitting in another surf with Chris and his partner, Sarah.

Chris was on the island doing his research observations on the Shearwater habitat, and he kindly shared some of his data with us. On behalf of Parks and Wildlife, he is monitoring the impact of visitors on their nesting. The main point on the Island where people tend to congregate when on land is at the old guano jetty, which also happens to be a nesting site. Chris was able to show us some chicks sitting snug in their nests waiting for their time to fly away. He compares the data from this site with a couple of ‘control’ sites elsewhere on the island where there is no human interaction. All interesting stuff for us citizen scientists.

The afternoons were consumed with trying to diagnose the issue with the steering. Initially I thought it must have been a steering cable issue, as the rudder bearings were new and whilst a bit stiff, I thought that they would probably loosen up a bit after a period of time.

Like all good yachts, access to certain components and areas is really tight. Maintenance often involves the use of an endoscopic camera attached to my mobile phone or an observation mirror on the end of an extendable stick. Then some head scratching about how the hell do I get that bit out?

Beau, on Chasing Eden, is a diesel mechanic by trade and pretty handy, so I wanted to run some theories past him before I committed to any action. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, after a troubleshooting process we ascertained that the starboard rudder was so tight that the steering couldn’t move it – nor could we from inside the engine bay. It could, however, be moved by jumping into the water and physically wrestling it – that wasn’t going to cut it!!

We locked the starboard rudder in place, facing directly forwards and with the steering cable removed. The port rudder was fine,so that would be our source of steering to return to Geraldton. After checking out and tightening a few other parts of the steering chains and sprockets, we figured it was good enough to go. Fingers crossed!

Phone reception at the Abrolhos is sketchy, but I managed to get back in touch with the guys who replaced our bearing. Josh was very apologetic, and we set about hatching a plan to rectify the situation. This would require us to get to Geraldton where, once again, the boat would have to be lifted out of the water. Cha Ching $$$! Fortunately, they do a lot of work for Dongara Marine who are based in Geraldton. Josh was on the phone to them calling in a favour to get their engineers to look at it for us, as well as sending up some new bearings in case this one was not able to be rectified.

There was a weather window on Sunday to return to Geraldton and with a big southerly blow coming Monday, it was likely it would be nearly a week for us to get back to the mainland if we didn’t take it.

After a few figure eights in the anchorage to test out the steering, we were off, and after a lumpy, but uneventful trip we were back into Geraldton mid-afternoon. As is the usual routine, we head straight to the fuel jetty, re-fuel (80 litres) and wash the boat down with fresh water, as well as filling the water tanks. Always great to get the salt off. It was nice to be greeted by Ray and Jackie, on Solitaire, as we approached our anchoring spot in Champion Bay. We hadn’t seen them since leaving the Montebellos in August of last year, so it provided a great opportunity for a catch up.

Monday morning was working through the list of people to ring to get everything organised, as well as a few other jobs we could knock off whilst in town. Oh, did I forget to tell you the fridge is playing up and we need to re-wire our house batteries? (Sigh…)

After working our way through a few of the jobs, organising everything for the lift, and sorting tradies for the fridge and battery issues, we managed to get some washing done. A stunning evening in Champion Bay with a glorious sunset across the port capped of a busy day nicely.

Tuesday morning and we awoke to a stiff easterly wind – not exactly ideal for getting into the lifter bay which is a tight enough squeeze as it is, but that is what we had, so we up anchored and headed around to the commercial harbour for the lift. The guys were ready and waiting for our arrival, so we went straight onto the lifter and up onto the hardstand whilst still remaining in the slings. Rohan, who is the Manager of Dongara Marine, was there to greet us and left us with one of his engineers, Vinny, who set about rectifying our issue.

It took a couple of hours of back and forth, but basically we shaved off the lower bearing using a sander until such time that it was looser and able to swing freely and be suitable for our steering system.

The bearing brand is Maritex, which is a composite material that doesn’t absorb water and is super strong. It is used on a range of commercial vessels, so we had good faith in the product – we just needed to tweak it to suit our steering system.

After three hours, we were back in the water and heading back around to the bay to re-anchor. The gusty E/NE winds we had been experiencing continued, so we had quite a rough night dealing with the dreaded rolls, and some overly loud hull slapping. To get our batteries re-cabled, we needed to be alongside, so we decided to go into the Batavia Marina and tie off to the service jetty. We chose this location because it faces east which would have us facing directly into wind whilst tied up. The fuel jetty at the commercial harbour, which is north / south facing would have us pinnned up against it in a strong easterly. Definitely not as comfortable, and not as kind on Singularity.

The new batteries we had installed have their own inbuilt battery management system which you can access via Bluetooth. I had noticed that one of the batteries appeared to be sleeping; i.e. neither discharging or charging. After a couple of calls to Amptron, the battery manufacturer, I had a call from their tech guy and, long story short, we connected up the communications port from the batteries to my laptop so he could remotely access them and have a look. He determined that the battery in question had not received a software upgrade prior to leaving the shop, so it couldn’t talk to the other two batteries and was effectively left dormant. Software upgrade completed and we were back in business – battery working how it should. The good and bad sides of smart technology!!

I also wasn’t happy with the cabling set up, so I had Glenn, a local sparky, come and put new cabling on. After much tooing and froing, I was finallly satisfied that the batteries were now in order… time will tell, I guess.

Unfortunately, we had no luck getting someone to come and look at the fridge, but it seemed to be working perfectly again, so just another head scratcher. Go figure?

Back to the anchorage for a quick swim and then prep for the passage back to Pelseart the next morning. This involved a quick visit to the local fruit and veg shop to restock the fridges, as well as a quick pick-up/delivery rendezvous with family of Eden, who had done some shopping for them, and we were ready to head back to the islands. An unplanned, and unexpected, visit to Geraldton, but that’s cruising for you. You’ve just got to take it as it comes…