It is Sunday today but we are still working hard. This morning we put on 
our 2 foresails – genoa and staysail. They came back from the sail 
makers on Friday but it was too windy then to raise them. The bottom is 
completely painted. Only 2 coats with some extra on the waterline. Not 
as much as I would normally like but we do not plan any long distance 
cruising till next year at the earliest, perhaps longer. 

We hauled the generator back on board yesterday. It has been sitting on 
the tarmac since we lowered it two weeks ago. While it was out I cleaned 
up underneath where it sits which was filthy with old oil leaks. I also 
cleaned up the engine itself, changed the impellor on the water pump. 
I’ve already connected all the wiring and now I have only to connect the 
water hoses and fuel lines and its good to go though I do need a new 
exhaust gasket which I will get on Monday before I bolt on the exhaust 
pipe. 

The new engine mounts are in with just a bit of “drama” as they say 
here. Lining up the engine was tricky because the front of the engine 
had to move more to port and the mounts were already fully extended. So 
we had to remove the forward mounts and machine out the mounting holes a 
bit so we could shove them over a bit more to port. The alignment is 
complete now and all that is left to do there is to install the shaft 
seal and bolt up the coupling then the exhaust pipe (which was removed 
to fix a small leak) has to be bolted back. Then we will be ready to hit 
the water again. We also have to re-load all of the gear we removed from 
the two massive cockpit lockers which has been sitting across the street 
in a storage locker since we hauled out. 

Once we are back in the water we are heading up to a place called 
Yorkeys Knob where there is a really nice marine at about half the rate 
as the one in downtown Cairns. We drove up to have a look a couple of 
weeks back and it looks great. Very nice facilities and very new 
looking. It will also be a good place to leave the boat while we are 
back in the US visiting next month.