SLOW PROGRESS!!!

 G'day All, What a week!!
Stinkin Hot, humid and uncomfortable.
This made progress on the rear deck works extremely slow going, with work limited to a just few hours early in the morning and an hour in the evening after sundown. To top this off, the big tides were highest in the middle of the day making yard work slow to a crawl as well. With both cradles unable lift boats clear of this tideline. Depressing Really!
We have however made major progress on the rear floatation (wkoa) tanks with last weeks repair works ,a brilliant success "NO LEAKS!". Once the tanks were painted, a new cover was made, fibreglassed  and fitted.

The  "pergola" poles are finally fitted and work has now begun on the new fibreglass roof, with 5 sheets of Nydiaplast now coated with a layer of glass cloth and the ready to be fitted to the jig that has been constructed  in the shed under a 50ft catamaran. This is the only area in the yard large enough to fit the 4 meter by 3.5 meter jig. The work to build the roof will begin on Monday when the sheets will be screwed to the jig then fibreglassed together.This second layer making the sheets solid with the 80mm curve set and permanent. The roof will then be unscrewed from the jig, flipped over and

we will fill and sand the joins before fibreglassing them to make the roof complete. This roof / pergola is the ultimate in multi-purpose items on the YOT. Providing shade, water collection, support for the solar panels and wind generators, overhead lighting and 12 rod holders. It will also be fitted with shade and insect curtains. It's taken a long time but this will be the last MAJOR piece of construction on the YOT.
It's now started raining heavily in the afternoons so the roof will be a very welcome addition.
The other major step forward this week is the ordering of the new generator for

the YOT . Also the distilling has begun for the year with a triple batch being brewed to replenish the bourbon consumed during the festive season. This brew will take several days to distill. This should begin on Wednesday or Thursday.
No time for fishing this past week, this is something I hope to change during the next week or two.
Friday's lunch was a superb "Surf and Turf" with scotch fillet steak,prawns and fresh spanish mackerel caught during last weeks reef trip. All this was served in a garlic cream sauce and with a bed of saffron rice.Half of the spaniard was also turned it a fantastic Thai red curry.
I've heard from Carl and Brad this week, with fishing conditions in Perth perfect this weekend. They are heading for Two Rocks chasing Dhufish. Good luck Guy's I'll swap some coral trout for Dhufish fillets??
It was also Dad's birthday and Anniversary  this week as well. Congrat's Mum and Dad! I'm not sure how many years it is, but itz got to be around 42.Also Brother Mark has called to organise the Tickets and arrangements for Our Bathurst trip in October with the Yot heading for Sydney around June or July this year, slowly making my way through the Whitsundays, past Brisbane and into Sydney harbour. "Fingers crossed"

That's about all from the sweaty land of Galley Cat this week.

Captain Felix.

THYME 4 WORK / THYME 4 PLAY !!!!!

G'day Guy's / Galz, After the Festive season it waz thyme 2 get bak into the serious side of Yotting and continue with the repairs and upgrades of Galley Cat!
The posts for the pergola roof R now fitted and locked into place and we were ready to start the roof when the work took an unexpected twist, as you can see Galley Cat was placed onto the large cradle and pulled from the water. The cradle was vacant for a weekend so I was offered the opportunity 2 slip the Yot and finally repair the troublesome rear floatation tanks (bootz or lazarettes) These tanks have caused

nothing but trouble since I arrived here some 14 months ago,so I jumped at the chance to get them repaired once and for all! So after pulling the Yot up onto dry land we went searching for the leaks.
BINGO! the water was coming out of the 2 skin-fittings midway down each hull.So I set about the task of removing / repairing and replacing these leaks. Itz Sunday night here and the repairs are complete and both "boots" are clean and DRY ready for a coat of paint first thing tommorow before the Yot is sent back into here mooring position around 9am. The rear deck work has also been completed along with  

a new hatch and cover for the starboard "boot" with any sort of luck this should be the final repair needed and I'll finally have 2 clean,dry floatation (wkoa) tanks. I've also taken the opportunity of the yot being high and dry to fill and repair various points of construction under the hulls. The whole task seems overwhelming again but then it is a full moon!
The gods have decided that its a good thyme for stuff to break with both the generator and my camera failing this week, more expense that I could do without. So with things going astray it waz thyme for sum fun.

Friday morning (very early) Ken and myself headed north from Townsville, hooked up with Carlo and headed much further north to the Hinchenbrook Channel. Everyone said the only way to describe Hinchenbrook is "pre-historic" they R not far from the truth, itz definately Volcanic and looks alot like Jurassic park. But we are here for 1 thing only!!      FISHING!!!
And Fishing we did, the first fish aboard was the biggest damn Barracuda any of us have ever seen. With Carlo more than a little intimidated by the size of the Fangs, as he tried to retrieve the 10/0 hooks from those fearsome choppers.

After a few foto's the beastie was released to chase down "nemo's mum". Next up was some serious fun with big schoolz of mack tuna busting up all around us. So we fired off  a couple of chrome slices and bingo instant hook up! Several tuna came aboard for the next hour or so with each of us catching a couple. We then headed further out towards Bramble reef in search of bottom fish. Several small coral trout came aboard along with sweetlip and various cods. The floating mulie (pilchard over here) was grabbed by a passing spanish mackerel and he too made his way into the icebox. We then headed out wider still in search of slightly bigger bottom species. The visibility down to the reef at 27 meters was incredible with Ken hooking what looked like a nice sweetlip only to watch as 2 sharks closed in to eat his prize fish before it was half way to the boat. The day way perfect with glass calm conditions and the fish biting even if they were a little fickle. We caught a feed which is all you can hope for. As the day continued we headed back towards Bramble reef and spent a few hours dropping

bigger baits around the edges of a couple of big coral bommies. Attracting a few more coral trout and sweetlip. A gr8 thyme was had by all with the heat becoming almost oppressive.
Lunch was a mixed bag of small bits and pieces such as roasted chicken drumstix plus pickles,boiled eggs,diced pineapple pieces plus fresh grapes and pears.
Late in the day I scored my best fish of the day a nice Barramundi Cod, apparently very rare and very protected! So after a few Foto's he to went back into the water.
We headed back towards land at a nice 27 knots,much quicker than any yacht.

 

Then after about a 1 hour run re-entered Hinchenbrook passage to take the boat out of the water,clean her down then head back towards Townsville and our real lives.
All of us wondering what the peasants are doing today. A truly gr8 day was had by all and Carlo definitely came up trumps as a skipper with the day being a real highlight for both myself and Ken.
The mackerel will be served with fresh prawns and scotch fillet steak for this coming Friday's lunch "Surf n Turf". I was going to add a picture of Carlo's fluffy dice hanging from the windscreen of his charter boat (you can see them through the windscreen) but as he probably wants more customers I decided that discretion was the better option.
On the contact front it was really great to talk to Mermaid this week! its no mean feat to get a call between her life and mine across the other side of the world with about a 10 hour time difference to make it even trickier. Still it was damn nice to actually speak to each other again. Big Ash has also been on the fone along with Hanni and Carl plus Dad as well. The blog comments seem to have dryed up I'm not sure if nobody's leaving comments or the system is blocking them, as I'm aware a few people have tried with limited success,it seems you can only leave a comment as an anonymous subscriber with your name in the text area but if anyone can't get through drop me an e-mail and I'll communicate that way instead.
So you know as much as I do about the going's on aboard Galley Cat. It will be very soon that the next trip will begin "The Palm Island group" is the chosen destination (wkoa). These islands are clearly visibly from the hinchenbrook area and I might just head out to the reef from there now I've got an idea what to expect.
This week is all about finishing the "boots" and building the pergola so it'll be a busy one, but with any kind of forward progress comes the hard graft.
 So until next week itz farewell from THE YOT!
Captain Felix