The months without Stella pass quickly because I keep myself quite busy helping other people with their boat jobs. Malaka Queen is still on anchor near Port Whangarei with the occasional 12 nautical miles return trip up over the river to Smugglers Cove to clean the hull and to run the watermaker…
The growth on the Hatea river is prolific…. In only two months the Maxprop H6 propellor is fully covered again with barnacles, so many that the engine won’t turn faster than 1300 rpm at full throttle! No alternative than to clean it here and now. The visibility here on the river is 30 cm so full diving gear on. Pfew, succes and the boat moves again, on to Smugglers cove. Cleaning the hull takes another 2-3 days in the water.
At the same time I am doing several jobs on Chris’s Amel in Whangarei Town marina while Chris and Biru are in Australia: a watermaker repair, a swivel overhaul, a foil repair and a new forestay.
