If you're new here welcome and thanks for joining our crew. Here's the quick rundown. Sick of covid
lockdowns, I quit my job. packed up our Melbourne apartment and with my boyfriend John purchased
a yacht called Tucana. Our dream is to sail Tucana all the way up to the Great Barrier Reef
in North Queensland but there's one small thing, we only have a few weeks sailing experience.
Now despite this incy wincy hurdle, a few hiccups along the way,
we've so far managed to sail Tucana from Melbourne to Coffs Harbour.
A 790 nautical mile trip in exactly two weeks. We've arrived on a weekend which comes with
an added bonus. We made it to Coffs and we are just walking to the market.
Every Sunday they have markets
and it just so happened to be that we arrived on a Saturday and we've woken up to this beautiful
surprise. John's been craving a coffee, a Portuguese tart and gosleme. But the most important thing
about today is that I am going to buy a fishing rod for my birthday. Can you hold my tart?
What's the go with the border? I can't explain it. It's convoluted. Basically we left. Let me start
again. We've left Sydney just over a week ago and since that time there's been an outbreak
in Sydney and now Queensland is saying that they won't let you in unless you've been out
of Sydney for 14 days. So we have to wait another week before Queensland will let us in. So we've
stopped off in Coffs Harbour to do a few errands and to make the most of it while we wait for our
14 days to tick over. Hopefully it doesn't get worse in Sydney because if it does, and the
whole state locks down, maybe Queensland won't let us in, but we'll just have to
play it by ear. John and I just spent a fortune.
Being in a marina is a true luxury. Fresh water and electricity is free-flowing and
we're protected from the rolling swell. A berth cost us 300 a week and this is our first day
in a marina since leaving Melbourne. The luxury of being in a marina means that we
can use the microwave whenever we want without having to put the inverter on.
But what I was going to tell you is when we first bought Tucana it didn't have a microwave, we
actually put this one in. Which is actually quite ironic because we didn't have a microwave in our
apartment in Melbourne. While we had nowhere to go, we felt like we were getting squeezed with covid
cases to the south and now north of us. "But this is really important because this virus is around and..."
Queensland is going into a three-day lockdown from 6pm tonight. But we had so many boat jobs to get on
top of, so this was a great opportunity to stop and get some serious and minor jobs done on Tucana.
Oh, I needed keys! Terrible catch. From winch maintenance to the washing, it was time to
practice gratefulness. The smallest things matter, like the passerby who can see you struggling.
It's a bit awkward.
Thank you so much, appreciate it! And while walking to the laundromat.
I guess since moving on board there's a lot more time to think and not be sidetracked by work,
the nine-to-five, and all the noise around us. Meanwhile, John was on his own quest.
Waiting at the bus stop with our good friend the winch. He's going in for a service.
He's drilled out these holes and he's put bushes in. I didn't ask him
what material was going to use. He used steel which obviously rusts but he said
bronze was too soft and stainless would bind up, so I don't know. What do you all think about the
choice of materials for these bushes? Will they rust? Time will tell. It's also a bit tight like it
like it's a little bit tight now because he's put a flat under there to stop the bush from dropping
out so I don't know if that'll be a problem. Anyway we'll find out. How much was it? $250.
The moment of truth. It might rain, might be a bad time.
This may not be a good look but John insists we work in the rain.
It is raining.
We were shoring up the bimini with more steel
reinforcements. It was a job on our list back in Melbourne but we just ran out of time.
I feel like we were supposed to do this job about two months ago. We just to get around to it.
After sunset I went online to reply to all your comments when one of you legends pointed out we've
been saying staunches instead of stanchions. We um just found out we've been saying staunchions and
well maybe is it staunchions or stanchions. I don't know. So Kieran thanks for setting us straight on
that one! Back to boat jobs. I think this is like it's just siker flex, it's not proper bathroom
sealant and that's why it's all like flaking and perished and stuff. And the problem with it
was that dust and hair was all getting stuck in it. It was gross! Look it's like gooey like paint.
Wet paint. I think John is going to use silicon sealant and it's going to take about three days to
dry, John, yeah? No showering in that main bathroom for three days.
You've eaten way too much chocolate today. It's out of control. You just had a bowl of pasta, you fatty.
Okay back to work.
The next day we walked it off admiring the beaches and talented surfers here
during a one-hour trek to a Coffs Harbour icon.
Welcome to the Big Banana!
She's big!
Supposedly this was the first big thing in Australia.
Erected in 1964, yes, this was where Australia's fetish for big things started. Australia is home to the big prawn,
koala, ram, lobster. I mean there are around 150 big things now spread out over the whole country
and given bananas a bad luck on boats, we ordered up big.
Demolishing the big banana breakfast and a banana fritter for dessert.
Yes there is a banana in there.
While the local economy once relied on banana harvesting, blueberries, fishing and tourism
has taken over here in Coffs Harbour.
John just said I'm the passenger of his boat.
Because I'm always working and you're always on your computer tik-toking
instagramming. Clearly that's not true. I'm a massive help.
Can you just clean that?
And when it comes to sheaves and steering cables, I'm happy to get my hands dirty.
Oh hang on. Just.
John and I make a good team.
What's happened with our steering? The sheaves are worn out.
And what does that mean for people who are non-technical?
You could think of them as pulleys that the steering cables run on. The holes on the center of them
like you think of it like an axle, has worn into the pulley, so that they don't run
straight and they wobble all over the place. How do i shorten this tripod? We work to our
strengths. It's more complicated than fixing the boat.
The steering cable we're on the starboard side
looking into the port side. The steering cable comes out, round the bottom and then that appears
to go to that bottom pulley, over there and then up over the helm, down over the helm and then from
around the bottom of that pulley, to the bottom of this pulley up over the port side, down the
starboard side, around this pulley and then that goes to the top side of the quadrant. It's slack
but it should be going to the top groove and then tied to the port side.
John actually found some pretty significant issues with this steering system that was overlooked by our surveyor before
we had even purchased Tucana. Being a critical system "and again" we had to get onto it right away.
Righto, ready?
Okay.
Next one ready?
Okay.
Next one?
We were in Coffs Harbor for a total of 10 days, waiting it out before we could cross the border
into Queensland. Tight spaces! I'm trying to cook chicken and leek pie. Meanwhile John who's in
the engine bay, turn the tap off. There's ducting in there that circulates air around the engine
compartment and there's an exhaust fan which creates a slight negative pressure in there
which basically stops the hot engine smells from escaping from the engine compartment into the aft
berths. So the fans died, so we just bought a new one and it's pretty much just unplug the old one,
plug the new one in, which is pretty easy. I'm actually interested to know if people are more...
interested to see you replacing a fan or me cooking chicken and leek pie. Chicken and leek pie.
Do you reckon? I'm hungry. Comment below.
Can you... Just be careful it's hot behind you. Just grab that, grab that screwdriver.
Yeah see if you can prize that by putting it in the hole.
Pretty much just
unplug the old one plug the new one in,
which is pretty easy!
It's hard because you need like 10 hands.
I need like one screwdriver here.
I'm really worried you're gonna poke your eyeball out.
John's just putting detergent on it, good idea. I find the organic one works the best.
I'm just taking care of the sea turtles, hey. Can you just put a bit of water on there as well?
That actually wasn't a promotion for organics.
What did you want me to do? Just wet it a bit.
If that works!!
We got it, we bloody got it! Shhhh.
Yes! It's not on yet.
My hair dryer has a purpose on this boat. Like a real purpose,
other than just drying my hair! The fact that you're even using it makes me happy.
Okay whoa!
That is so loud, I don't think it's ever worked!
Maybe you wouldn't hear over the engine anyway? No I definitely didn't hear that.
Anyway that'd be good. Save us smelling engine smells.
So when I cooked the chicken, there was a heap of broth left over. Instead of throwing that out. I'm going to be making a soup with it. So I've added
a can of coconut milk and some egg noodles and I'll also put a few veggies in there too.
So we got to experience the markets twice. The second time I spotted a Sea Shepherd stand
and had to say hello. There were so many whales up the coast and I knew the organization did so much
to protect them. And there are so many whales off the coast right now but it's not here that you're
worried about i'm assuming?
Well it's everywhere anything related to the ocean and
anything related to marine life locally and globally.
Sea Shepherd is a global organization whether it's here in Coffs Harbour.
Australia, nationwide or the planet.
Sea Shepherd are concerned about what's happening to the ocean.
Yeah an international movement.
Yeah it's not just saving the whales, obviously a big problem now is um,
there's marine plastic and ghost nets but there's other things like
illegal fishing off the west coast of Africa
Because fish populations have been over exploited around Europe around southeast Asia
foreign industrial fishing vessels are coming from around the world and congregating in Africa.
A place where there still is fish.
We've got the Chinese and other um countries now legally fishing in the Galapagos Islands.
A huge issue
saving species like the Vaquita dolphins off the Baja peninsula. There's a lot going on.
And where can people go to support?Go to Sea Shepherd Australia website and all the information's
on there. From volunteering locally to volunteering on the vessels. Thank you so much
for explaining that. I think it needs a bit more publicity. Absolutely. Because that's not enough out there.
Coming up next...
A boat we had had our eye on before purchasing Tucana turned up right next to us, de-mastered.
The craziest thing has just happened. John.
We had heard that a boat had ran into trouble.
I had the experience of a de-masting and no warning.
BANG! And I just turned around I just saw this...
going like...gone.
That's what happened to Peter who owns Sebu. He pulled up right next to us just the other day.
He was in shock but after a couple of days he sat down with us and told us his story.