Deja-vu all over again...

Farked...

Yes, we have checked back into Hotel California.

If you look back to our departure delays out of Mooloolaba in Jan last year (click here) as we tried to depart Oz for NZ, you might be forgiven a sense of deja-vu. Delayed by TC Oswald, a gearbox rebuild and a long holiday weekend, we slowly watched our departure schedule go out the window.

Saildrive swap

And here we go again, except this time we have two holiday weekends back to back (Easter, followed by Anzac Day), so we have three days to sort this, or we won't be leaving for Fiji at all. I'll simply be out of time, before returning to work on 6 May. Yes, work - remember that?

One of the needle roller bearings in the Saildrive top assembly is confirmed farked (a technical term), taking the clutch plates and top shaft with it. And no replacement assembly available in NZ or Oz. Only alternative: replace the entire Saildrive. Ouch!

The engineering team

Luckily, the Volvo-Penta agent in Whangarei had a complete Saildrive in stock. It's a slightly different model with a tad shorter leg (not a bad thing), but having been on their shelves for 4 yrs, it comes at a (relatively) knock-down price! A quick rent-a-wreck road-trip to collect, and hey presto, we had it fitted by the end of the day.

So to recap:  we returned to Opua last Sunday, removed the top assembly on Monday, lifted Harlequin and had the top assembly 'condemned' on Tuesday. Now we have the new gearbox fitted late Wednesday.

Newly fitted

Can we get a coat of anti-foul on it by PM Thursday, and still splash & CIQ out (again) for Fiji, before New Zealand closes down once again for their next holiday weekend...?

Time will tell...