In the Shute chute.

It was haul-out time, to repair the damage from our little encounter with the rocks a few weeks back. We were booked into the Shute Harbour Slipway, the only place in town apparently, that could deal with our beam. So, we slept just offshore for the night and had an appointment to come into shore on the early morning high tide. We were kind of expecting something plush, especially after our last haul-out back at BoatWorks on the Gold Coast, which was brilliant.
No such luck in Shute Harbour, where we were precariously balanced on blocks of wood on a dodgy little vintage trolley, hauled ashore by an efficient, but equally vintage Ford Prefect motor, hooked up to a winch. With a no-doubt vintage length of steel cable.
It was a harrowing experience, with the apprentice swimming around under the boat, the little motor chugging away, the tide starting to run out, and the boat still dragging on the bottom because there weren't enough blocks of wood under it. Anyway, it went on for a while, but eventually we were high and dry on a dusty, rubbish-strewn concrete slipway, the boat was tied down and we clambered ashore to check the damage that Pearl Bay had done.

Almost ashore at the slipway. The Bougainvillea's a nice touch on a rough ol' shore....ya can't beat the Tropics!

And the damage was much worse that I'd imagined. When I'd previously dived on the keel, that's all I'd looked at, thinking that we'd only connected with the rocks on one side. But, in fact, both keels and one rudder had been comprehensively scrunched. 

This is what rocks can do to fibreglass. Ouch.

But Billy and the boys took it all in their stride, setting about sanding and grinding furiously, until the bottom was bared and we just had to cool our heels waiting for it to drain and dry. After a day or two wandering around what there is of Shute Harbour, we decided to escape the grotty little slip and move into a motel in Airlie Beach for a couple of nights to await the arrival of our next guest, one Mr. Steve Koehne. Steve was flying in from Perth to join us on the voyage North to Townsville.
After a couple of nights in the luxury of the motel, I called the Slipway to check on progress....which wasn't good. The boat had fallen off the slipway trolley and damaged the new repairs!

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Dragging poor ol' Steve along into our drama, it was a few days more of stress before everything was finally sorted. We had rain, wind, a few more painful incidents and we were wondering if it would ever end. But with the deeply discounted bill taken care of, we were finally out of there and back in the water with the boat all fixed. To be fair, it was all a grotty and awkward few days in a seedy little slipway, but the guys worked hard, fixed the problems, the boat's watertight, everything looks good and its time to move on. Life ain't all beer and skittles!

Vintage trolly and dodgy wooden blocks.

We had to hire two cranes to get back on the trolley.

It was wonderful being back in the comfort of Abel Point Marina again, socialising with the neighbours and stocking up for the Townsville run. Playing with the flash new dinghy and sign writing the name on the side....I love getting out the old brushes!

El Gatito....the little cat, or "The Kitten".