BIG FISH -BIGGER PROBLEMS...

 G'day All, Hanni and the boys have come and gone on what waz an eventful trip.

First up "big fish" While spear fishing at Outram Patches young Adam decided on an 18 kg cod as his first ever fish, damn it was Big and yielded 2 monster fillets, they got a few spangled Emporer and red throats also.

Plus we managed a 4.5 kg coral trout on a towed surface lure in 18 meterz of water, strange but welcome. With 5 extra people on board the upstairs pergola worked a treat with 5 swags looking like a tent city.

Unfortunately the weather gods didn't shine on us much, with windy conditions and strong currents. Our trip to purple patches over 2 days saw us catch lots of small emperor and cods but few larger fish for the table.  Still we managed a few fillets for dinner and some in2 the freezer.

Only the one trout on the trolling lines for at least 3 days of trying! But what a trout.

On the problem front we had a week of frustrations!

First to go waz the fan belt on the Stb motor (no problem I had 4 spares) but once the belt waz replaced the alternator light stayed on the dash, I'm not sure if itz a faulty Alternator or sender as the tacho is still working. this requires an auto electrician to come and suss it out later this week.

Then it waz the turn of the port motor to have a hiccup. For no reason we can tell, the starter motor has stopped working leading to much discussion, I eventually used my spare jump battery and some clever wiring to rig the starter with a new high and low amp wire meaning I could start the motor from the engine room while the dash still wasn't working. 

Once we solved the starting issue a new and stranger problem occurred with the motor losing revs and stalling after and hour or so of run thyme, we surmised that it was dirty fuel or bad filters so both filters were changed and some water was found in the collector. However the problem didn't go away with the motor stalling at random intervals such as low as 5 mins or up to 2 hours but it still kept on stalling. Most frustrating, I rang Aaron in Perth for advice and he has suggested a couple of possibilities for a mechanic to check out once I can get one to the yot.

This has shattered my confidence with the motors and I need a mechanic to have a look at the fuel system and hopefully he is smarter than me. It seems these dayz all I'm doing iz fixing broken stuff, and it is wearing me down, so much so that I briefly considered returning to Perth with Hanni and the boys for a 3 week holiday/ break. However Big Ash pointed out that
when he arrives in 3 weeks the yot would still be broken and this needz 2B fixed B4  he arrives with his son Cooper for a week aboard.

With the weather gods not playing nice we moved the yot to Tantabiddi for shelter with the hope of getting into some nice sized emporer. But alas this wasn't 2B. 

As usual sharx took a heavy toll on our rigs and fish we were bringing to the boat, the boys each had "shark shields" a personal shark deterring machine that sends an electric signal into the water that the sharks don't like.  Watz even better is these shield actually work! I watched as several sharks headed for the guys snorkelling and the sharks would turn away once they got within 6 or so meters from the device.