Still floating

Well as you can probably guess, we are still in Lake Macquarie. The summer heat has been abominable some days so our boat work has been slow going.

After the haul out we started sanding and varnishing Freya’s exterior timber which we are still working on. We also polished all the stainless steel again. Everytime we raise the anchor, we use our saltwater deck hose to wash the mud off. The salty overspray makes our bow roller go rusty very quickly.

Tim tried to adjust a bolt in the gearbox, but it broke off as soon as he touched it. Bugga, all round panic as we thought all kinds of nasty thoughts like hauling out again and getting a new gearbox! Thankfully Freya’s captain has a good knowledge of his boat so he managed to remove the gearbox while still in the water. A quick trip south of the lake, 30 minutes and $100 later, he returned with a repaired gearbox which he managed to install within the hour and preventing Freya from sinking. Phew, could have been much worse!

We have been able to reconnect with sailing friends and make new ones. We lead a fairly social existence. The local bowling club is about 5 minutes walk away and on Sunday afternoons we meet up with friends for drinks there. Tim has been lucky enough to win a meat tray twice now.

We were given a car for the weekend so yesterday we did a lap of the lake by road and finally managed to get to the coast and a few beaches. It was heavenly to sink our feet in the sand again.