FRUSTRATION AND SETBAX!!!

G'day All,
                 My previous optimism regarding the return of the dinghy were just a little premature!
It seems the dinghy arrived on the beach in a perfect condition with all equipment in tact even the buckets and crab nets.
However a friendly thief decided to unbolt the outboard and electronics, he's basically stripped the dinghy clean. Without the weight of the outboard the dinghy has then been pummelled by the surf and sand leaving a destroyed shell for us to dig out and return to town with.
Still it could be worse as the local copper is pretty sure he knows  who the culprit is, and will be paying him a visit this weekend.
After much digging and recovery work we had the dinghy on a small motorcycle trailer then came the task of travelling back through the rainforest and then to Townsville itself.
It was soon obvious that the trailer couldn't handle the load, so we headed for Richard's place to swap to the bigger tandem wheeled trailer.
The dinghy is safely back in the yard minus the motor, echo sounder, livebait tank, battery and seats.
But for now itz lots of hosing and cleaning to retrieve the hull and salvage what we can.
On 2 more positive stuff!
I mentioned Torsten's adventures with a fishing line while we were parked at Rattlesnake Island. Here are just a few of the pics that got taken during our stay.
He did have a few almighty battles with BIG Tiger sharks (the best was 45 minutes). Considering he was only using small gear these battles were truly a feat to watch  as the shark would often circle the Yot leaving Torsten to work his way around the stays and the kitchen area with the 4000 size reel screaming in protest most of the thyme.
We managed several nice fillets of spangled emperor and cod from this anchorage but the best was yet to come when a 15kg Spaniard took the lure as we left North east bay on Palm Island this provided a more familiar style of fight B4 he fell victim to a nice gaff shot and was brought aboad to become photo's, fillets and fresh sashimi.
Problem :No wasabi!
That didn't deter us much though with a change over to soy, chilli and fresh lime juice making the difference to what would of been a very boring dead fish, plus we have a new dish in the Yotz repertoire.

The return trip from North East bay was a real eye opener with huge windz and seaz pounding us as soon as we left the safety of the headland. We got slammed by a few bigger waves that added a realism to the term shake down!
However the boat handled the conditions really well and I was amazed the difference of having no dinghy on the stern makes. we have now decided that the dinghy will travel aboard the Yot when covering any long distances or sailing at night.
We returned the Yot to the yard with a firm 1 week determination (wkoa).
Wishful thinking and totally unrealistic! But with much swearing, bourbon, sweating and worklists we managed a 10 day turn around.
This effort was compounded when a section of dry rot was found in a ceiling section that I was refibreglassing to remove a solar ceiling vent that didn't work. No problems just cut out the area and fit Nema board then fibreglass.
Well we cut and cut and cut all the way "under" the plates that hold the mast up!
Still job done! , repaired and glassed even a coat of paint.
So Tuesday morning it was load the last of the fuel, ice and supplies then wait for Torsten.
12 noon we set off for THE WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS!
FINALLY!!!!!
See next blog entry......