Well we had another easy leg from Jurien to the Pelsaert group of Islands at the Abrohlos. We departed Jurien at 1400hrs on Saturday and arrived just off Post Office Island in Coronation Bay at 1030hrs Sunday. A lot of motoring with just 2-3hrs of sailing during the mid to late evening. Listened to the Dockers beat Geelong on ABC radio streaming over the web, as the TV couldn't pick up a signal, and my 3/4G boost aerial provided just enough to let us listen to the game while sailing about 15miles off the coast. The aerial on our normal radio doesn't exist - something to look at maybe one day when we are stuck in port!!
I had hoped to pick up a mooring at the Abrohlos that appeared on one of the electronic charts I have, but it didn't exist in reality and may have just been a recommended anchoring area. We carefully anchored in about 20m of water on arrival, but I thought we were a bit too close to the island and rapidly shelving coral reefs for comfort. We lifted the anchor to try and anchor out a bit further. In doing this the winch started labouring as it hauled in the 40-50metres of chain and eventually "click-clicked" on the up button refusing to lift any further. Hmmmm, lucky there was only about 5m of chain and anchor left to lift and also lucky there was no wind at all - complete glass off.
I figured the last place you want to be with a dodgy anchor winch is the Abrohlos, so decided to head to Geraldton (5-6hrs) to get the problem sorted. I had another go at using the anchor after an hour or so on the way to Geraldton. It seemed to work all right for a bit, but then got hot and did the same as before. Suggests needs an oil change and maybe electric motor brushes cleaning? I'll pull it apart tomorrow. Kicking myself that I didn't service the anchor winch before we left, but it had never caused any problems before - oh well. The weather window at the Abrohlos is looking great this week, so hope we don't get held up for too long, but will just have to go with the flow.
I had hoped to pick up a mooring at the Abrohlos that appeared on one of the electronic charts I have, but it didn't exist in reality and may have just been a recommended anchoring area. We carefully anchored in about 20m of water on arrival, but I thought we were a bit too close to the island and rapidly shelving coral reefs for comfort. We lifted the anchor to try and anchor out a bit further. In doing this the winch started labouring as it hauled in the 40-50metres of chain and eventually "click-clicked" on the up button refusing to lift any further. Hmmmm, lucky there was only about 5m of chain and anchor left to lift and also lucky there was no wind at all - complete glass off.
I figured the last place you want to be with a dodgy anchor winch is the Abrohlos, so decided to head to Geraldton (5-6hrs) to get the problem sorted. I had another go at using the anchor after an hour or so on the way to Geraldton. It seemed to work all right for a bit, but then got hot and did the same as before. Suggests needs an oil change and maybe electric motor brushes cleaning? I'll pull it apart tomorrow. Kicking myself that I didn't service the anchor winch before we left, but it had never caused any problems before - oh well. The weather window at the Abrohlos is looking great this week, so hope we don't get held up for too long, but will just have to go with the flow.
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