May 2019

We planned to slip the mooring lines and leave Perth forever sometime in May.  There were a few little maintenance items that needed to be attended to and then we would ‘Putter off into the Sunset’… That was the original plan.

We took ‘Opal Lady’ to Fremantle to have her bottom cleaned and engine serviced, and aside from our moving out of the house at the same time, Neon (family cat) going in to the Kattery and moving the ‘Son who won’t leave’ down to his student housing, it all went well.  On the way down (punching in to 20kn winds and a mixed up sea all the way) the Murphy Gauge (it’s job is to report what is going on in the engine) decided to stop working, so it was sent away for a stern talking to and was refitted a week later. The scheduled maintenance was attended to and we were back to Mindarie.

Peter had a DiCaprio moment while we were bringing ‘Opal Lady’ back to Mindarie. Life is good.

The plan was to fit the new solar panel, have the hydraulic oil for the steering topped up and then off we would go.

Unfortunately the work on the hydraulic steering system found a bigger problem with the rudder…