Leaks - tangles - not driving or talking - wobbling

After an early morning trip to "help" mechanic Wayne repair a leak in one of our heat exchangers, we were back on the water for Crew 2 training at 1400.

The first job was to move the boat off the Airberth & untangle one of the snorkel (lowering) lines that had become increasingly hard to operate due to multiple twists. Once completed, and without anyone falling into the Marina, we were about to head off when a call from Ops put a bit more direction into today's training.

We motored out to Waikauri Bay (Takatu Pen) to collect a 12m Pelin launch that was suffering from the engine electronics not talking to the drive system, so while the engine worked, it wouldn't drive anything, except the anchor winch. Not helpful for a planned long weekend fishing trip and not the type of thing that could be fixed on the water.

We passed over a towline and held position while their anchor was retrieved, then headed south towards Gulf Harbour, at a sedate 8 knots.

The launch had a high fly bridge and a stern drive underneath, so was quite a lively tow, rolling along in the side on, 25knot+ North Easterly. This gave our crew plenty of time to get into other sections of their training, as it was 3.5hrs to wobble our way to Gulf Harbour. Crew 2 then got some practice on barging the launch stern first into its berth, with Dan ably positioning both boats without getting remotely flustered.

Our homeward trip was in the dark, which was also great for our newer crew members to gain extra experience in our area at night.

Thank you to Neale for the Easter eggs -yum. Definitely welcome after 6.5 hrs on the water.

Thanks to the crew of Dave, Neale, Dan, Nick, Michael and Jim - the more the merrier today!

Also thanks to Wayne, one of the community groups who support us and keep us going.