Pastime of Sydney- 2006 Adventures

The past three weeks seem to have passed very quickly. Penny's dad became quite ill and so she travelled back to Australia to spend some time with him. Fortunately, he is now much better. Her trip was relaxing in the middle but not at either end. We had prepared triplicate letters advising Immigration that Penny was temporarily departing the ship and returning one week later. Unfortunately, Solomon Airlines would not let her onto the Brisbane flight because she did not have a return ticket! The advice we had received from Immigration was incorrect and as well as the letters, there needed to be something official from Solomons Immigration. So, she had to buy a redundant ticket and hope for a future refund. There waws a further complication in Honiara when Penny had to pretend she was flying out again rather than rejoining the ship! Her waitlist also did not come through. However, the very kind Dominican Sisters form Honiara met her at the airport and put her up for the night. There was much Tok-Tok (I could hear it from Gizo). So it was a finally relaxed Penny who got off the Gizo flight on September the 10th. The front end of the trip was complicated because they do not take credit cards in Gizo. No problems, pay at the Solomon Air office in Honiara. Well, first Penny arrived and went to the ATM to get some cash. Unfortunately, the machine gobbled here card which has expired while we have been away. So, she had exactly A$1.50 for two meals (dinner and breakfast) preceding the International flight. Then she went to the Solomon Air office to pay for the International Ticket. The only person who can handle credit cards had not come to work and could not be located! Fortunately, in the end, someone at the airport was able to take the credit card details so she could make the flight. While Penny was away, I did a number of jobs preparatory to setting sail back to Australia. Most of these went well. However, on one particular day, I took the eye team (doctors and nurses, mostly from Australia and including our friend Dr Geoff Painter) for snorkelling at Olassana Island. The day started well with splendid views and ghreat sunshine. Then the alternator belt snapped. No worries, we have a spare. I thought there were two but in fact there was one. Then the autopilot died. We do not use it much but it is very handy when there are only two on board. Oh well...... Then, when we were at the precarious daytime-only anchorage, there was a big squall with heavy rain and shifting winds threatening to push us onto the reef. We avoided that by motoring awayt every time we swung close. Then I replaced the alternator belt. Finally, it was time to go home. We sailed for a while until the wind died & then motored. One of the nurses asked "what is that smell of burning rubber?". Just then, there came a loud clatter from the engine and some blue smoke. Our spare alternator belt had destroyed itself, littering the place with bits of burning rubber. Sigh! Fortunately, Penny was able to procure spare belts in Canberra but in the meantime, our batteries were quite low after cloudy windless days. I had to carefully husband our power for the remaining 8 days until Penny's return. Overall, we did quite well with only one hour of engine battery charging in a total of fourteen days. While Penny was away, I also sailed back to Vanga where I fixed a couple of computers, a keyboard and did most of the remaining tasks preparatory to our return. After Penny returned, we were again busy doing stuff with computers and generators ashore. Wonderfully, the boxes of books and other school items also arrived from Honiara. Geoff Painter had generously sent them to Honiara with his medical equipment. They then disappeared for months. Geoff and a couple of his nurses went through the four Customs warehouses and tracked them down. A Honiara nurse also negotiated the storage down to 50% of what was demanded and one of the Ozzie nurses paid it. Geoff then got a utility and put the boxes on the Pelican Express for Gizo. Penny has now unpacked and repacked them and they are all labelled to the twenty four schools which will receive the materials. Freight internally is cheap and we have left funds to ship them out. Indeed, all the boxes for the Shortland Islands are leaving tomorrow! Thank you St Leos and Dr Geoff Painter! We have been embarrassed by fareleww dinners and speeches with the last tonight. Unfortunately, last night while we were having dinner with Dr Sandy (3 months from St Vincents & in Gizo Hospital) someone cut and wrenched off our small solar panel. We almost made it through this and the previous trip without theft so this is a bit disappointing. Ah well, perhaps someone will get some use out of it but most likely it will be taken far away and sold- perhaps even in Bougainville. I will make the replacement mounting out of stainless steel rather than aluminium. Well, that's it for now. Unfortunately, our web site was down for 5 days as was the email server, but Bernadette has got the backup working again so hopefull our mail and blogs are again accessible. We set sail for the 900NM to Townsville mid morning Tuesday 19th and hope to arrive on the 26th. That's less than half the distance home but is the toughest part of the whole trip. See you all, Dave & Penny