Back on the Water – Plans for 2015

This week Zenitude was gently deposited back on the water by the Gold Coast City Marina (GCCM) shipyard crew. This time she is not shinny and she is full of dust, waxing and cleaning will be done next week after engines work is finished. We are replacing the engines batteries that lasted 5 good years and installing heat monitors for the engines, a gadget that has taken us too long to finally get so that we can monitor engine temperature and take action well before the alarm goes off. With the impeller issues we had last year this was on the list of ‘have to have’.

Oscar is targeting Wed/Thu to depart. With hired crew he is hoping to be in Mackay in 4 to 5 days and then wait for me, while I finish my working duties in Sydney at the end of April. This year we plan to reach Magnetic Island, some way or another but hopefully slowly and without overnight trips, before the end of May. We have planned a month long land trip (Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) during June. Zenitude will stay in Nelly Bay marina.

We’ll be back on the water in July. Our intention this year is go slowly north up to Lizard Island. We do want to spend time there to visit the outer reef as many times as weather allows. Hopefully then, the northerlies will come sometime in October letting us sail back south without too much ‘wind on the nose’ type of trip. Destination on the trip back will depend on many things and it is too far in advance at the moment to plan and get it right.

These are the plans, which of course may change, more than once, after all it’s good to go where the wind takes you.  

G.