Carnarvon, Crew and Repairs

 I’m still anchored at Carnarvon but a lot has happened since the last post.  When I was unable to get the autopilot repaired locally, I ordered a new unit which would take 3 weeks to a month to arrive.  My crew John and Fran decided they did not want to wait and so left to return home.  I arranged for a sports store in Carnarvon to allow me to have the autopilot shipped to their address so I could wait at Carnarvon and search for new crew.

I placed advertisements for crew on several crew wanted web sites.  Another yachtie friend Marcel also spread the news and he was able to quickly send me some potential candidates.  My ads turned up several additional good crew prospects.  After several interviews, I offered positions to two people, Glen and Paul.  Both are Australian, experienced sailors and retired.  Glen will arrive tomorrow and Paul should arrive next Monday.

Just after John and Fran left, one of the motors in my dinghy davits failed.  The davits are the arms which are used to lift the dinghy up out of the water when not in use.  I ordered two new motors from Amazon in USA for delivery to the Carnarvon sports store.  Last Friday the davit motors were delivered to the sports store and the next day the autopilot motor also arrived.  I immediately installed both motors and am happy to report that the autopilot and davits are now working correctly.

The new autopilot drive motor on the left and two davit motors to the right


During my wait in Carnarvon I used my time to do some more maintenance on True North.  The hatch over the forward cabin had when waves came over the deck in heavy weather.  I had tried to fix it in Mandurah by resealing all the screws which hold the hatch down and applying a bead of sealant around the base of the hatch.  Since this had not resolved the problem, I cut the hatch out of the deck, removed all the old sealant and rebedded the hatch using butyl sealant.  I hope this resolves the leaking problem.

The forward cabin with ceiling removed and hatch cut out

View of the forward cabin hatch removed and preparing the deck for reinstallation

The hatch back in place ready to be screwed down


I also changed the oil in the main engine and in the generator.  The generator has a zinc anode in the coolant head exchanger.  The anode needs to be checked yearly but when I removed it, I found the zinc had broken and was stuck inside the heat exchanger.  Luckily I was able to drill a small hole in the end of the stuck zinc, tap threads into the zinc, screw a bolt into the newly threaded hole and then pull out the stuck zinc by pulling on the bolt.  I determined that the zinc was 20mm longer than specified which caused it to break when screwed into the heat exchanger.  All my spare zincs for the generator were also too long so I had to cut them down so I could use them.  The generator maintenance took much longer than expected but it’s all completed successfully.

We should be able to get underway again soon weather permitting.  It will be great to be on the move again!  You will see True North’s track when we get underway and I’ll post more frequent updates.



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