Cairns-North
We left Half Moon Bay Marina, north of Cairns on the 20th July, on the way out the leads we noticed the autopilot was not functioning. Before leaving to work last hitch we had a technician come do some tweaking to our autopilot, however, he didn’t check it out properly and disconnected it from the compass. We diverted to Cairns and went into the Marlin Marina to rendezvous with the technician. Unfortunately Friday is a local holiday (Cairns show day), and NO ONE works on weekends in Australia, so we are now awaiting a new autopilot control box from Sydney. We may not get out before Tuesday-Wed to head north! We had a 7 day weather window with winds SE 20-25Kt, the winds we need to power up Crusoe when she is full of fuel and water, winds start to go lighter mid week in the Cairns area, so all this combined is putting a monkey wrench into our plans. Frustrating since we are at anchor right in front of the Cairns Marlin marina and winds are a solid 22kts.
Cairns Marlin Marina, from our anchorage.
More updates soon, once we are moving again (Internet access permitting).