We've turned southwest towards Brisbane, which is definitely a good feeling - its all down hill from here. There are still a few more reefs we need to navigate past in the next 24 hours, but after that, it should be a pretty straight shot.
Yesterday's maintenance projects went off without a hitch. We successfully transferred fuel from the starboard side to the port after doing some surgery on the wires, and we tightened up the lower shrouds just enough to take the slack out.
I also think I've finally figured out where the oil is leaking from on the port sail drive. Not that it matters all that much at this point since they're being replaced in Brisbane, but it's been bugging me, so it's going in the blog. I'm guessing there's a seal on the input shaft inside the bell housing casing, and the oil is leaking out through there when it gets warm and less viscous after running. The pressure in the gearbox is higher when it's operating, which would also force the oil out.
My theory is that when the gearbox is running and the oil is being circulated, there's less of a leak. But when we turn off the engine, the warm, thin oil settles at the bottom of the gearbox, and the pressure pushes it out. To try and alleviate this, we've loosened the dipstick to release some pressure, and I've been topping it up with the thicker gear oil I got for the starboard side. That sail drive, by the way, has a completely different leak – it's leaking saltwater into the oil, so it's been retired for this passage. Ah, the joys of boat maintenance!
On a more positive note, the GRIBs are all showing almost identical conditions for the next week, which is a huge relief. It's always a bit unnerving when there's a big discrepancy in the weather reports; you just never know what you're going to get 'like a box of chocolates'.
We sailed the majority of last night in pretty great conditions, with the boat speed hovering around 6.5 knots and the wind coming over the port quarter. But we're back to steady motor-sailing now. At this stage, I'm just happy to be consistently covering over 150 nautical miles a day. Every mile closer to Brisbane is a good mile, and we have 640 miles left. I normally cant bear to watch the miles clicking down as it puts into perspective how slowly we are going. Our ETA for Rivergate marina is Monday o'clock which is about as accurate as I can be at this stage.
