Away at Last

Wednesday 1st September 1993
    Today the plan is to put Lowana into the water.  We've decided to stay aboard tonight ready to leave Mackay first thing tomorrow.  There's some time to fill while waiting for the boatyard owner to come and launch the boat, so we spend it by checking for items overlooked.  Surprisingly we continue to find items either broken or missing.  Fortunately there's a chandlery nearby where two new spinnaker sheets and some blocks, flares, shackles, glues and other sundry necessary items are obtained.
    In due course the operator arrives with a tractor and boat trailer.  The trailers adjustable rails are slid around and underneath Lowana, before she's lowered off her blocks onto the trailer and secured.  The system is straightforward and in short order we are on our way, following the tractor as it tows the boat down to a concrete ramp in the Inner Harbour.  The journey is only a few hundred metres and it doesn't take too long.

Ready for launching.

     The launching goes relatively smoothly as the tractor reverses the trailer down the ramp and into the water.  The idea of the apparatus is for the boat to simply float free, but Lowana has some small difficulty when her bilge keel fins snag on the trailer supports.  It needs a little bit of coaxing but she presently comes clear and floats gently, while Brian and I hold her temporarily against the trailer's upright struts.
    Paul opens the cooling water seacock and starts the motor.  It fires up immediately with a burst of black exhaust smoke, but this is normal for a diesel engine that has been idle for some time.  It quickly dissipates and the motor settles into a satisfactory healthy rhythm.  Paul gives us the nod to push away and we slide gracefully back, before he puts her into gear and executes a nice tight turn out towards the mooring poles. 
    Almost immediately the temperature gauge starts climbing up into the red area of the gauge, indicating an overheating problem.  We'll have to be quick to avoid damage, but the poles aren't far away and a quick burst of throttle gives us enough momentum to carry us the rest of the way.  The motor is choked down while Brian and I, positioned at the bow and stern, throw securing lines over the fore and aft poles to bring Lowana to a standstill.
    Paul is already pulling up the companionway stairs and wheelhouse flooring to get at the motor.  The cooling system relies on taking raw saltwater directly from the sea, pumping it through the motor and returning it to the sea via the exhaust hose.  Asked what he thought the problem might be, he replied, "There's no water getting through the motor so it's most likely going to be the water pump."
    The area behind the engine bay where the saltwater cooling pump is located must have been intended for people no taller than about a metre.  It requires some twisting effort to get down inside through a small hole under the quarter-berth in the wheelhouse.  To work on the pump means lying in a semi-prone position and is most uncomfortable, with all sorts of steel projections ready to poke into your body or your head.  Paul manages to squeeze down there and pull the pump off, then brings it out for inspection.
    As suspected the rubber o-ring seals are perished and require replacing.  Additionally, the shaft and faceplate are also badly worn.  Much of the day is spent trying to get parts and fixing the faults.  Unfortunately we are unable to get a new faceplate, so some fine wet-and-dry paper is used to render the brass plate as flat as possible to repair it.  Eventually the pump is re-assembled but the problem is still there.  The cooling seawater simply isn't getting through the motor.
    It's getting late in the day and we've spent enough time trying to fix it ourselves.  Whatever the fault is, it's bound to be something simple.  But we still have other things to do.  Sometimes no matter how hard you look at a problem, you can't see the solution even though it may be obvious.
    For the next half hour under Paul's direction, we set about preparing the boat for the trip.  To save some time tomorrow it's decided to get a diesel mechanic to come out in the morning.  With this decision, we climb into the dinghy and go back ashore, where the arrangements are made by telephone.
    It's late afternoon as we travel back to the house to say our farewells and collect our belongings.  This doesn't take long and we are soon on our way back to the marina, where the gear is taken out to the boat.  We have to hurry to catch the car-rental office before it closes, but there are no delays on the trip back into town and our trusty hire car is handed back.
    Back out on the street we wonder how we will get back out to the marina, but we're lucky enough to get a lift back without having to catch a taxi.  It's almost dark as we get back aboard, but before we can relax for the night we still have just one more job to do.  We set about making a home for ourselves making up bunks and stowing our gear.
    It's been a long day.  Paul broaches the subject of safety at sea, and discusses several issues with us.  One of these is drinking alcohol and it's decided to limit ourselves to just a couple of cans of beer during sundowners whilst underway at sea.  Later on we go ashore to seek some entertainment, ending up spending part of the evening at the local yacht club.
    Brian later said that on return to Lowana, Paul and I had promised to teach him how to play the guitar since we would have time to do it.  This conversation may have been lost in the fog of cordiality after our night ashore but sadly, Brian never got to learn how to play any guitar.  He still reckons we owe him plenty for the cab fares into town the next day to buy one, plus heaps of lessons.

Thursday 2nd September 1993
    After a leisurely rise and breakfast, we went ashore to wait for the diesel mechanic.  We waited for three and a half hours for him to turn up.  When he finally arrives he explains he'd been delayed by a previous job.
    The mechanic only needed a few moments to tell us the water pump is not self-priming and that the water-trap is set higher than the waterline.  For this slightly embarrassing news we paid the mechanic his fee and took him back to shore.
    It's perhaps something we should have seen for ourselves but the water-trap had been bolted into position, so it hadn't occurred to any of us to question it.  Lowana's actual waterline must have changed by having some weight taken off her at some time.
    The water-trap is unbolted and subsequently re-positioned down further into the engine bay.  Seawater starts pumping immediately through the motor, and we're now quite confident that the problem is fixed.  Final preparations are made and after a quick lunch break, our mooring lines are cast off and we ease away from the poles under motor.

Leaving the marina - away at last!