3/9/2019: Port Bundaberg Marina, Bundaberg, Queensland

After 3 nights in Keppel Bay Marina in Yeppoon, and another two nights anchored sat Great Keppel Island awaiting better wind, we motorsailed the final 130 miles to Bundaberg and arrived yesterday morning. It's not somewhere we probably would have stopped but we need to have maintenance work done and this marina and the adjacent services have been recommended to us. So this morning we swung into action while there was next to no wind and got the genoa down (last time we tried in Bora Bora it jammed but this morning it came down easily) and delivered to the sailloft to have a new sacrificial sun strip added, effectively a strip of material along the base and side of the sail which protects the sail from the elements when it is furled away. Sounds fairly straight forward but we were shocked to be quoted $2250. Nothing is ever cheap with boats!

The next job was to take the anchor off and remove the 80 metres of anchor chain in readiness for re-galvanising. We positioned a trolley on the dockside to receive the chain and used the windlass to eject the chain itself. All went well for 57  metresbut then everything groud to a halt. Paul climbed into the anchor locker only to find the final 23 metres had fused into a ball with salt and rust! A few judicious bashes with the hammer enabled him to release some of it, taking us up to about 60 metres useable but the rest of the chain was so badly corroded we decided to throw it. 60 metres is plenty for most anchoring situations unless in very deep water.

With the chain out of the anchor locker it was an opportunity to clean it out, and cleaning became the theme for the rest of the day! We shouldn't complain, we've had 10 months at sea doing very little maintenance and so a few days hard work now is justified. Alongside our endeavours we'll have the engine and generator serviced, bimini cleaned and stove spot welded. Sometime next week when everything is returned and back on board we'll continue on our way south.