Wind and Water Pump 12th August

At some stage over the last few weeks we had noticed larger amounts of water appearing in the bilge. Peter investigated in the dark recesses behind the motor and discovered that the water pump was leaking indicating that the seal had gone. He ordered parts on line and had them posted to Greg and Leisha's address. One of the reasons they came up for the weekend was to deliver the parts. Monday was then set aside for repairing the pump. Firstly, this is a Volvo MD7B 3000 series diesel motor and Peter had extraordinary difficulty getting behind the motor and below the exhaust manifold to disconnect the pump for repairs and then replace it afterwards. I heard a few choice words strung together in ways I've not heard before. I don't usually stick around when these jobs are done. However soon you will discover why I had to remain on board on this day. It seemed to take ages to fix and several times nuts and spanners dropped into the bilge under the motor, which resulted in the air turning blue. Eventually everything was put back together and no more leaks.

Once this job was completed, we were just sitting back admiring Peter's handiwork when suddenly a huge gust of wind hit Rene. It had been obvious that the weather was taking a turn for the worse, but the wind was incredibly strong. Gusts whipped over the water flinging spray in the air across the river. We were in a sheltered spot on a mooring in the Hawkesbury River. Goodness knows what it would have been like at sea. The tide was going out, the current strong and we were held side on to the wind, which made things quite uncomfortable as the gusts came through and at one stage heeled Rene to about 20 degrees. During the afternoon the wind remained strong and gusty. Later we heard on the news that hundreds of people requested assistance from SES throughout the Sydney area as trees and power lines came down. Also a 40' catamaran was turned over while sailing on Sydney Harbour. It was reported that the winds were gusting to 100km per hour there.

We had originally thought we would sail to Lake Macquarie this week. It is 35nm north of Broken Bay entrance and an easy days sail. However the weather forecast was for strong winds or winds from the north east (that's where we want to go) so we decided to stay in this area for a few more days until the weather turned more favourable for us.