Episode 65 The Bundaberg Refit Part 2 & Launching

At the end of our last post, we had just spent 6 months on the hardstand as we started a major refit on Lorelei.

We had the masts removed, stripped, blasted, painted, re assembled and re-stood.

The hull had been taken into the shed while the masts were off and had been sand blasted and repainted.

Paul also painted the deck replaced all the windows and hatches.

The long-awaited new cockpit top had not even been started due to being let down by a local steel fabricator who after dozens of failed promises, we eventually gave up on.

And the new fabricator wasn’t available until May…..

So, it being February – and stinking hot, we decided to call it a day, return the hire car and fly home to WA.

Thank goodness we did as a few days later Cyclone Alfred came down the coast and smashed Brisbane and the Gold Coast. 

Bundaberg escaped the high winds and cyclonic conditions but still coped a lot of rain and bad weather, making it impossible to do any work on vessels in the hardstand area.

 The 3 months at home proved very busy – and very sad.

Lisa was flat out at work with the start of the Expedition Cruise Ship season with Eco Abrolhos Cruises.

Despite Paul booking on to do the first few trips as a cruise director with Kimberley Expeditions, he walked off the boat just hours before the guests were to arrive as the promised dive staff had not been employed – leaving him to somehow manage 30 guests (when 8 is the law) all by himself with the only commercial dive qualifications onboard. 

Instead, he invested his time into finishing the final touches and odd jobs around our new house in WA.

We did manage to get a stack of small trips away kitesurfing and stand up paddleboarding up at the famous Coronation Beach – which is only 30 minutes’ drive from our home.

Sadly, around Easter, Paul’s stepdad Ron passed away at the aged care facility where he lived which was only 5 minutes from our home.

Mum was with him when he passed and we had only seen him the day prior.

So we spent another 6 weeks making sure mum was ok, Ron’s affairs finalised, her motorhome serviced, fence painted and the trees and yard were all trimmed back so mum didn’t have too much had work to do around her gardens when we were gone.

After 3.5 months at home, Paul loaded up the car (overloaded up the car…..) and camper trailer with all the sporting equipment, camera gear, clothes and personal things we wanted to be put onto Lorelei and drove 5500km from Geraldton in WA to Bundaberg in QLD.

It was going to be a looooong drive to do alone so he paced himself to do the trip over 2+ weeks.

The first overnight stop around the area of Mukinbudin had some excellent rocky areas to climb and offered great views over the area.

 

The first few days were long hours behind the wheel, offset by skate at a local skatepark or pump track if there was one at the town that Paul was travelling through. It was a great way to have a break and a leg stretch.

Once he hit the Nullabor Plain area then the skate parks were replaced with afternoon (or early morning) mountain biking along the Great Australian Bight on his brand-new Specialized carbon MTB which he had just purchased and had barely even used yet.

Rides along the Nullarbor Cliffs were fun.

So was camping right on the edge of the Great Australian Bight.

The overnight stop at Fraser Range Station was excellent – but crowded – understandably! Paul chose to camp in a paddock away from the homestead and the hoards of caravans that were all gathered around the power points.

The afternoon and early morning mountain biking was excellent and a lot of fun – except for the flat tyres…..

 The roadhouses along the Nullabor all had their little touristy signs and monuments.

The downside of the desert riding was lots of cats-eye seed pods (called double G’s in WA) and the took a toll on Paul’s tire tubes.

Despite have about 6 spares, he was down to 1 left by the time he reached Port Augusta in SA.

He dropped into a local bike store and thankfully was able to buy 6 puncture proof tubes there.

Jut as he was leaving the store owner said “Which way are you heading?”

Paul said QLD and he said to drop into Melrose and MTB the Flinders Ranges on the way.

So he did… 

It was only about 40km off the main route and was a beautiful little sleepy town – with and incredible bike shop/café and a world class mountain bike trail setup though the flinders ranges.

There was over 180km of trails ranging from mild to wild and even a MTB park with some crazy dirt jumps just behind the local caravan park.

Paul was blown away and booked in for 4 nights to stay and play.

Rich the owner of Over The Edge bike shop/café and his staff were amazing and very helpful with adding some extra equipment to Paul's new bike to handle the lengthy trails and with some much-needed daily guidance to trail directions and levels.

The first day Paul played around with the local Blue (intermediate) runs getting used to the new bike and the conditions.

The next day he ventured high up to the longer and hard Black runs.

On the third day he decided to tackle the Flinders Peak trail which was a grueling 38km advanced ride that started with a 16km dirt climb with an 800m elevation rise.

What he didn’t realise was there was a lot of rocks, very large step slopes right on the trail edge and a huge number of tight switchbacks, making the uphill climb very slow going – but offered incredible views.

At the 16km peak it had already taken 2 hours to climb, walk, stop for rests and take photos.

And more importantly he had already consumed over half of the water for the entire days ride.

So the options were to try and climb another 8km to the summit and then a 12km ridge ride before descending (another strenuous 35km) or take the bailout track (yes that’s what it was called – and for good reason) which was a 24km downhill/ridge run to the next town. But that then meant a 12km road ride back to Melrose.

The bailout option won and Paul was simply not up to riding another 8km up in tough climbing conditions!

The downhill was awesome with lots of track variations.

He did however have a few stacks with one going along a straight faster section and did a complete front flip after hitting a rock and smashed the handlebar into his jaw before the bike going over the edge of the trail.

It took 30 minutes to climb down the side on the steep embankment and drag/push/lift the bike back up and onto the trail. 

It was a stark reminder that you really need to take care when cycling in such a remote area and on your own. The bike shop staff had warned that a heli-vac out would be the only option in an emergency in that location.

By the time he reached the base area, there was another small MTB park with a picnic area, MTB tool post – and a drinking water tank!!!

Thank goodness as he was almost out, thirsty and still had the 12km road ride home – dusty, dirty, bruised, tired and pretty fatigued.

By the time he got home it was 4pm and he had been gone all day including about 5 hours in the saddle and 52km of mostly hard technical riding.

He openly admits he probably bit of a bit more than he could chew with the current fitness and a new bike that was a lot different from the last one – but hey – It was a great experience and aside a few bumps and scrapes – he was fine.

Scratches already on the new bike.......

The next morning was an early start to do the shorter but very fun rides around another section. They had tunnels, banks and berms, ramps and even an old homestead to ride though – literally!!

Being so early and a lot of dew, there were Kangaroos everywhere out in the open munching on the wet grass.

Overall Melrose was the highlight stop of the entire travel from West to East.
For a MTB enthusiast it is a must visit.

Further on, Tcharkuldu Rock was a great place to stop and explore.
The camping is easy and the walks around the area are amazing.

About 20km from the camping area was the true Tcharkaldu Rock.
It resembles the wave rock style formations of WA than the other rock formations of the area.
It was super fun to walk around and on top of.

The drive through South Australia was quite nice with not too much traffic and nice places to stop.

The rest of the trip was bloody awful with terrible roads in western NSW and SW QLD.

The bashing and bouncing along finally took its toll in Cobar when the camper trailer rim exploded into pieces 5km out of town at 5pm.

After an hour of searching in the bush, the tire was found undamaged – but the rim was destroyed. 

The next day was a return to Cobar to have the rim replaced.

The lady at the tyre store said the amount of rim and tyre repairs/replacements had increased 1000% in the last decade as the amount of tourist caravan/RV traffic increases and the roads have deteriorated significantly as well.

The number of Goats on the roads in the area was ridiculous!

They were literally all over the road.

The livestock hauling road trains were no better…. 

There were a few highlights with stunning free camps along the rivers, silo art and iconic things along the way.

Finally, after 15 days and 5500km, Paul managed to arrive at Bundaberg – tired, dirty, a little battered and bruised, but ready to go for Lorelei’s second half of the major refit.
He headed straight out to Bundaberg Port Marina at Burnett Heads which is 20km out of the main town centre and close to the mouth of the Burnett River.

Fortunately, the Marina staff had simply left Lorelei where she was when we left so all we had to do was unlock the door, open the tool box and get into it. 

Months before Paul had sent a list of steel work to Ricky at CLR Fabrication so he knew what to expect and a timeline so he was ready to go.

The first and biggest project was the new hardtop – which was long awaited after being a no-go at the end of 2024 after being let down big time by another local fabricator. 

The first thing was making the base plates for it to sit on. They were curved at the front and tapered on the sides so it took a week to do those and then temporarily bolt them into place. 

We had to remove the headlining in both the galley and workshop area so we could put the nuts onto the bolts to secure it.

We also had to shorten the existing handrails. 

Then came the framing. We spent hours together working out angles for both aesthetics and to fit in with the boom, all sailing aspects all whilst offering easy access in and out, shade and headroom.

It took ages!!!

Ricky (who is the same height as Lisa) testing for head height

After a lot of welding and bracing (so it wouldn’t move and distort during transport to the shed) we used the main boom to lift it off and load it onto a truck to go to Ricky’s shed in town.

From there we spent over 2 weeks (and often until midnight) fabricating it.

There was so much to consider – windows (maximum viewing and affixing), a wide brim for shade, mounts for stainless handrails (inside and out) and a ladder, a skylight, lifting points, water collection system, electrical wiring, solar panel mounts, ventilation hatches and areas under the shade brim to store gaffs, boat hooks, etc…

While Ricky plated it, Paul got some MDF board and made templates for the windows. Nothing was square or had 90-degree angles so each one took ages – and they had to align and be parallel to the next one.

It took almost a full day just to work out the mounting holes so they all lined up and were uniform!!

He also spent time to make up MDF templates for the inside roof lining before transferring the templates onto 3mm aluminum sign board and cut out the foam pieces for the roof insulation.

Finally, after a lot of late nights, pizzas and drinks we were finished the fabricating part.

Whilst it wasn’t overly heavy – it was large and the biggest issue was how to get it the 22km from the industrial centre of Bundaberg to the Marina at Burnett Heads.

We hired a truck, loaded it on (which was a logistical nightmare as it hung over the sides and back way too far) and drove it out at 1:30am while there was no traffic as it took up almost both lanes.

We had a car in front with hazard lights flashing and Paul in the 4WD behind watching just to make sure it didn’t move on the truck.

It did slip at about the halfway mark while trying to get around a large roundabout so we had to stop (in the middle of the road at 2am) and re-tie it down.

But we made it safe and sound – and very tired!!!

The next step was to get it into the spray shed and let Tony’s boys go to work.

They had to sandblast it, primer, sika-wipe the non-welded joins and then finally primer and top coat paint before letting it dry and cure for a few days.

There went another week…

Then it was transported back to the front of Lorelei where Paul spent another week on and off running the new electrical wires and attaching the rubber strips to insulate the alloy structure from the steel of Lorelei’s decks. 

Fortunately, Colin Quin (who re-rigged Lorelei and was still doing work for us making new sails and covers, etc...), had a crane coming to remove the mast on another yacht, so he kindly let us use the crane first to pick up the new top and place it onto Lorelei’s deck.

It took a bit of pushing and pulling to get it to fit so the holes lined up and we could bolt it into place – but we got there in the end.

Paul and Ricky took a break from the hardtop for a while and Paul took the MDF sheets into Wide Bay Plastics to get 10mm Acrylic windows made and Ricky started to make the stainless handrails, ladder, move onto other parts needed elsewhere, and tackle some other customers work that got put on hold while we had the canopy taking up space in the workshop.

Paul decided to head inside and to start the extensive renovations on Lorelei’s interior.

Each room was going to be different so Paul simply decided to start right at the very front and work from front to back - as he was sleeping in the master stateroom in the rear and wanted to leave that until last – and that meant the galley would be second last – and he wanted Lisa to have a say in how those 2 areas were re-vamped. 

The anchor locker had already been renovated (see the last blog post) when the deck above was removed and anchor, winch and chain was all replaced so that meant to start on the v-berth area.

Paul was really looking forward to renovating this area as the v-berth is actually the “toy room” where all the sporting equipment is kept.

Additionally, all the new surfboards, kite gear, bike, etc… were still in the car, camper or stuffed under the cover in the tinny – so he wanted them out of the sun, harm’s way and the potential theft risk.

The problem was all the existing stuff in there had to be removed and there were piles stacked high in the saloon area.
It was a mess!!
Thank goodness Lisa wasn't around to see it like that...

The big issue was the bike locker.

During our last cruise we took our 26” Canadian dual suspension MTB’s.

But now Paul’s new bike was a 29” Specialized carbon and was a much bigger bike with a longer frame length. And Lisa was looking at a new E-MTB bike and they are too.

And previously the bikes only just fitted into the locker with barely cm’s to spare.

So Paul had to get inside the locker, strip the old walls out and built new partitions into the area to make it longer.

At the same time, he decided to compartmentalise the whole area and build separate lockers for wetsuits, spear gear, scuba gear and a new area for kiting gear only.

That meant a lot of new partitions and also new opening hatches on top.

As you can imagine, none of the walls up the front are square and everything is curved, so the partitions were all a very unique shape. They have to be made (and often re-made) with MBF as a template before transferring the shape onto marine ply and cutting out.

Then each had to be sanded, dummy fitted, removed, primed, painted and refitted.

Additionally, Paul lined the entire bike locker with marine carpet so the bikes and their frames were protected in rough weather and ease of getting them in and out. 

Then he completely re-carpeted the tops of the lockers so other things like surf, kite and skateboards could be placed safely on top.

The result is a much better system than our last cruise and so much easier to access specific gear as required.

The fishing rods got a clean and oil only and we did re-organise the speargun/flyrod side.

We scaled back on the amount of spearguns onboard and removed all our reel guns and only kept rail guns onboard. We did however increase the room for fly rods as we wish to try some freshwater flyfishing in Tassie and NZ.

We also added a rack for hiking poles and found a new home for our pony bottle scuba tanks.

Paul also has a lot more camera gear onboard then before so we made a new area for the camera boxes.

Overall the v-berth area took almost 3 weeks to complete.

The spare bedroom was a lot easier. We simply but new partitioning in under the bed (like the v-berth), but the locker is huge and much easier to access and sit in.

We painted the ceiling, under the bed, the new improved lockers and even the shelving areas in the cupboards.

We also put in new laundry clothes lines, lights, a mural on the wall and new bed linen.

The toilet was the smallest room in the boat – but took the longest time.

We had always had an issue with rust around the base of the stand-pipe/seacock. Prior to leaving Lorelei in storage, Paul ripped the floor out, removed the insulation and treated the rust areas.

So this time it was to cut out the seacock area completely and treat all the surrounding steel properly.

Then Ricky welded in a whole new system and Paul primed, painted and laid new insulation before running the electrical and plumbing.

Putting a new floor in took ages as he had to remove all the old framework, bog and fair the walls and start again with a whole new system.

Then he made a box to mount the toilet base on and paint.

The biggest hurdle was working out where to put in a new holding tank.

There was simply no room underneath so we decided on sacrificing one of the linen cupboards to put on in.

After a lot of searching, we found one that fitted – just – by mm’s.

It took ages to plan, frame, support, paint, install, plumb, wire and finish.

There even had to be vents going to the outside which took ages to workout and install.

After almost 9 weeks of off-again/on-again work it was complete.

But it may require a version 2.0 modification if it doesn’t work properly – and it cannot be tested until Lorelei is in the water…..

The saloon area was much the same – although on a much bigger scale.

It had the roof, settee and walls all sanded and painted and the entry stairs revamped.

Probably not the safest way to solder wires in the ceiling but
Paul had to support the soldering iron somehow...

There was also a cupboard under the internal helm area that needed a makeover.

We had to run new wires for the new electronics, radar and navigation gear in the area behind the cupboard, so we ripped it out, installed the wires and rebuilt the walls and shelf system.

The storage cupboard was a simple strip out, sand, repaint, new lights and shock cord retainers and trim put back on, new grip lining installed and a repack.

After two months of Paul being alone, Lisa arrived – but earlier than expected – sadly.

She was due to fly over about 3 weeks later but sadly her uncle John passed away on the NSW Central Coast.

As they were very close when Lisa grew up (they lived across the road) Lisa very much wanted to attend the funeral.

She left WA 3 weeks early and made the stop in Sydney to visit the family and funeral before flying onto Brisbane and Bundaberg.

It was sooo good to have Lisa back onboard.

But she was still working full-time (now just remotely via starlink) so she was only helping with the physical part of the refit after business hours.

She was helping financially A LOT though.

Thanks goodness Paul had just completed the settee area so she had somewhere to set up and work.

The workshop was much the same as the v-berth with more roof painting and hatch partitioning for ease of tool and spares storage.

With parts starting to arrive for the new canopy, we were able to put the windows on and the new ventilation hatches in.

The windows and hatch inserts came from Joanne and Roy who are locals who own Wide Bay Plastics in Bundy and are fantastic people.

Roy has a PHD in plastic technology and is a guru on all thing’s plastic, acrylic and polymer technology.

The quality of the work was terrific and very reasonably priced.

The clear top for the skylight was installed and now a waterproof place for the starlink system was also ready.

Ricky had also finished the stainless handrails and the ladder.

 

Then we put the solar panels on the roof and ran the wires down to inside.

The back section also had to have a c-section track installed right up to the paneling so we could put a rear cover around the back of the cockpit to enclose it.

 

The roof lining inside was a slow and tedious job.

Paul had cut the alloy panels at Ricky’s workshop but they had to be marked, drilled and the roof tapped for the bolts.

Then the holes drilled for the speaker and lighting wires to go through before putting each one up. And each bolt had to be tef-gel coated and a plastic cap installed before screwing in (with an allen key) so it was very labour intensive.

The plastic strips then had to be installed between each one meaning it need to be a very precise fit.

There were 9 panels in all and over 300 bolts required.
The lights and speakers even took a whole day as there were a stack of them.

Up near the bow, Ricky built a new rope drum on the front area to store all our longer ropes and did some modifications to the anchor roller system to secure the new larger anchor.

The early winter mornings were sometimes very cold with some very heavy dew and thick fog.

The late afternoons were different with some fantastic sunsets.

One night we got to watch the blood moon eclipse which was great and fortunately very clear with no clouds.

One weekend there was an annual event at the marina called Oceanfest.

They blocked off the whole street right next to Lorelei and had a huge festival over the weekend. There was a lot of live music, stalls, food, Heli flights, long table lunches, etc…

We were working away on the new generator box on the Saturday morning while they erected the tents and set up for the festival. 

We all knocked off at lunchtime and went and had an afternoon off and enjoyed the event.

The generator box turned out great, but it meant moving the BBQ and table and the gas bottle mounts.

After the metal work was all done, Craig the upholsterer came and started work on building the rear cover. It had to have doorways on both sides and windows with flyscreens and covers so it was pretty complicated. 

It took a few trips back and forth from the workshop to get it just right.

He also made a cover for the skylight, a cover for the new rope drum up the front and a cover for the new generator box.

We hired a scissor lift platform off Tony who painted Lorelei and removed the old solar setup off the davits.

We had brought 6 new panels - 2 for the top of the new canopy and 4 for over the davits.

They were however a different shape and thickness to the older ones, so we had to completely re-design the framework for the ones over the davits.

Ricky built the frames and Paul painted them and put them together on trestles set up on the ground.

We also put new lighting in under the panels for illumination over the tinny and rear swim platform.

The finished result was great but it was a mission to get them, back onto the scissor lift and up onto the top of the davits – which were over 6m high from the ground.

At the same time, we removed the old wind generator which was playing up and not working properly.

The fenders were cleaned and had new covers put on them.
Believe it or not, they came from Temu...

 We had worked for months non-stop, so it was a welcome break when we had to take a time out and head down to the Gold Coast for a close friend’s wedding in Currumbin Valley.

It was a big event with formal dress code and 300 people attending.

At the same time, we went shopping and brought new lithium batteries, a SUP for Lisa, and finally ordered 2 new beds for us after the terrible debacle of ordering ones from another company called Simply Beds (who completely stuffed them up) in the last blog episode.

Fortunately, they only took a week to make in Brisbane and Paul was able to go down the next weekend and pick them up.

At the same time, he had a great Friday night catchup of one of the Kimberley Trip reunions that he was the Cruise Director on. It was great to see so many of the guests again from onboard that trip as they were all lovely people.

Fortunately, the beds from Makin Mattresses fitted perfectly.

The battery swap over was a bit more difficult as we had to remove the six old Gel cells which were 70kg each. We built a sling and hoisted them out individually through the hatch in the saloon and over the side onto the ground. 

The new lithium batteries we simply carried in though the main entryway.

We went from having 840amp gel cells @ 420kg total to 1280amp lithium LiFePo4’s @ 128kg.

It was a hug difference in size vs. weight – but at a $$$ cost…

Additionally, Ricky had to build a new cradle to store them in.

We had to tie them down both around and over the top with large webbing straps to hold them securely in place.

When Greg the electrician became available, we ordered a large (and very expensive) Victron Energy setup online and had it shipped to us from Sydney on a plug and play board.

We didn’t like the overall finish so we ended up dividing it onto two smaller boards and did a few modifications to the board – particularly the 240v circuit breaker systems.

After Paul installed it onto the wall, Greg came in and wired it up. 

He also put 240v outlets right throughout Lorelei’s interior and also connected up the house & engine cranking batteries, the new generator, alternator, anchor winch and solar.

With the canopy finished we were able to put the galley roof lining back in and start the revamp of that area.

Just like in the toilet area, we gutted the under-sink area and Ricky cut out and removed the old seacock system and installed a new one.

We also welded up the leaking stainless-steel sinks and put in newer drainage systems and more modern sink plugs.

Paul also treated any rust and gave the area a whole new paintjob and new insulation. We built new shelves and areas for the pumps and even put an inspection window so we could monitor the area around the seacock as it was the only ball valve seacock below the waterline in the whole boat.

Lisa now had a new area to store pots and pans.

The old stove finally got replaced.

With the larger battery system now installed we wanted to go completely electric in the galley.

We brought an electric oven that was a 13 in one unit that also had air fry, bake, convection, grill and defrost functions

The biggest issues was how to mount it on a gimble system so we could still use it whist sailing on an angle.

We kept the old pivoting system brackets and Paul built a new timber box to house the oven. It had to have a lot of ventilation and we also put 2 fans in the top rear of the unit to push the hot air out.

On top we put a recess to house a convection stove top that could be removed if necessary.

On the top edge of the unit, we put back the old stainless-steel rail which holds the locking fiddle rails to stop pots from moving around in rough weather.

It works a treat and the whole system is a game changer for ease of cooking and baking.

Paul also put in some new sliding baskets and a microwave shelf above the fridge.

The second last room to tackle was the rear bedroom.

It meant that Lisa had to sleep up the front for a few weeks and because it was really hot, Paul slept in the roof top tent.

We had to move the 2 new mattresses around each day alternating from standing upright in the hallway at night to the workshop during the day – which was a pain.

There was a lot of masking up the area as there was a lot sanding to be done.

The ceiling got a sand and repaint and the side areas that store our clothes received a major overhaul.

We sealed up the old front opening doors as it was too hard to access them with the new larger pocket spring mattresses.

It meant cutting the top of the area to make 3 access hatches and then to put the partitioning in.

It took ages to do both sides and then finally paint the whole area.

Under the bed was a big task as we had to remove the steering quadrants to service them and the rubber post seals. While they were out, we tackled the minor rust around the base and gave the area and entire repaint – which included the side lockers which store our travel bags, sewing equipment and a his and hers shoe locker.

It involved 4 different types of primer and paint so it took a while.

As we were going into colder climates, we decided to insulate the steel hull under the bed. Previously it had never been done.

It took Paul ages to cut all the insulation foam for an exact fit into each space between the hull frames. As it’s the back of the boat, they all taper in towards the stern so nothing was square or straight.

On the back wall and lower side walls we lined it with leather for a more homely look.

We brought a large amount of clothes storage containers (around 50 - 25 each) to put both inside the new storage area and stacked on top too.

The result is a lot more clothes storage and tidier setup – which will be necessary as we head into the ice and snow regions.

We installed new lights, new fans, new wiring and switch panels and a new smart TV. To have Netflix on a boat is a very modern luxury that we are not really used too.

We also brought new pillows, linen and marine themed doona covers.

As we were drawing closer to the splash date, we decided to leave the shower and desalinator room until we were back in the water. We did however treat all the steel under the floor when we did the bedroom/quadrant.

We also built a timber box with drainage to sit under the new washing machine.

The machine was 20mm larger than the opening hatch above to drop it in, so we had to completely disassemble it and drop it in in pieces (and very carefully bend the outer plastic casing in so it would fit) before reassembling it in a very tight area only 2 meters from where we disassembled it!!!! Crazy.

This is the third machine we have been through and had to do the same each time.
We keep hoping that each time we purchase one, there is another model that will fit and whilst there are heaps more now available for the caravan/RV market, the one we always get seems the best fit and most suitable for power and water usage. Sadly they just don’t last very long using desalinated water and a moving vessel.

We brought 2 new SW2540 membranes for the watermaker but they will get installed once we are cruising. 

The last area was the lazerette which is the storage area at the back of Lorelei and is accessed from a hatch on the rear deck.
It is like a garage storage area and at the end of the last trip, it was stuffed full of things.
We wanted to completely revamp it and do a spring clean.
It was completely stripped out, the steel treated and repainted, new insulation on the hull, new flat floor and a complete rewire and plumbing with a new bilge pump system, switch panel and lighting.
It is now much cleaner and less cluttered with much better access to things.

At the same time Paul took our scuba tanks and LPG gas bottles into the local hydro test station to get serviced.
It was a way out of town but fortunately John the owner was doing some pressure testing work at the local sugar mill (which was close to us) so we simply dropped them at the mill.

Occasionally, a large bulk carrier comes into the small river and heads down to the sugar loading terminal to load cargo. It's a great sight to see from the marina or hardstand area.

As it headed towards spring and the warmer months, the storms started rolling in again, but fortunately most of them either split and went around us or went south to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

We did get a few afternoons of rain, but not many.

With 4 weeks before splash date – it was frantic with last minute things to do. 

Colin Quin came from the sunshine coast with the part for our new furler along with new covers for our masts, renovated sail bags and our 3 new sails - being main sail, mizzen sail and the new intermediate head sail.

We had the new outboards arrive and we tested them on the tender on the ground before putting them up onto the rack using a forklift and the help from Tyson who works for the marina.

For the night of our 30th wedding anniversary, we decided to go to a new Indian Restaurant in town that had only been opened for 2 weeks.

Ricky and his family had been there the night before for a family function and put a FB post up recommending the place, and in an interest to promote the local businesses, take your restaurant receipt to him to get 10% of your next job from him.

We had a great meal and got the receipt as a joke.

The next day we presented it to him demanding the 10% off our bill - which would save us thousands!!!!!
It was a big joke that played out for months....

Ricky finished the new brackets that sit over the kayak and that gave us a place to store and secure the SUPs and Lisa’s 9’0” longboard.

We brought a new series of larger harken blocks and sheet ropes for the sails and installed them too.

We put the new sails up in the early morning when there was no wind. 

There were a few trips up the mast to install wind instruments and double check the new sails fitted properly.

There was some final modifications to the covers which meant a few trips to Craig’s house to get them sewed up.

When the weather was cooler, we tackled fixing up the Tinny.

We cleaned it up, tested the new outboards and Ricky modified the speargun rack to make it wider to accommodate the larger 4stroke outboards.

We also order some new heavier duty rube strakes for the side gunwales and we bolted them on.

The last 2 weeks was working on the John Deere engine.

Paul had previously repainted the entire engine bay so then Gary Dann the local marine Diesel Mechanic could come in and do his thing.

We took the injectors out and sent them away for testing.

In the meantime, we slide the prop shaft out and installed a new seal system which is different from the older one we had.

We also had to do a re-align of the shaft to the gearbox once it was back in place.

Gary took the engine cover of to inspect the valves, springs, etc and do a valve clearance reset.

Paul had the not so nice job of descaling the heat exchanger system and saltwater intake strainer.

It meant having 2 buckets of hydrochloric acid and sitting the units in one and pouring acid over it from the other – then swapping over when the bucket was full.

It was not a nice job….

Then it was the fun job of reassembling the engine, putting in new filters, oil, coolant and adding 40 litres of new fuel into the header tank before hooking up some fresh water and giving it a test run.

The motor ran great – but the exhaust hose had hundreds of tiny holes in it which the water dripped out. It was expensive Lloyds approved 4” exhaust hose and Gary said he has never seen that happen before.

It was a quick call to the hose specialists in Brisbane for a new one to be sent up overnight.

That was a $1000 exercise… but piece of mind to have a brand new one installed.

It was a mission to get it in and installed though. But we all had a laugh doing it.

 Paul also replaced the fire-proof foam insulation on the engine room door and a few areas inside the room that had deteriorated.

With 2 weeks to go we brought 10 litres of tie-coat and 40 litres of Antifoul from Tony who painted Lorelei and spent a long weekend masking up Lorelei’s hull and rolling on the new paint.

It was a very tiring job as the paint is very thick and heavy and makes rolling up high and overhead very hard on your arms. We did have a scissor lift available but it was too time consuming to move it around.

By Sunday evening we pulled the tape off and were totally stuffed but happy that job was ticked off the list.

The next day Paul cleaned and applied Propspeed to the propellor.

Paul and Gary also changed the pitch slightly in forward so it would give us a slightly more boat speed.

In the final week Tim the refrigeration mechanic came to service and test both the fridge and freezer.
Both needed new fans which Paul installed but they still weren't running just right.
Tim had the gauges and gas hooked up to the fridge for 4 days to get it stable.
The fridge needed a new drier and thermostat, but the freezer simply needed a bit of gas as a top up.

With just 4 days to go, we tidied up around the ground around Lorelei and sold anything we didn’t want to take onboard.

Ricky fortunately took the trestles while Tyson & Lloyd brought our old washing machine and outboards.

Frank from Bundy Signs turned up with our new name stickers for Lorelei.

The only problem was they were way bigger than we expected.

Paul stuffed up and gave Frank the width length as the height length by mistake and when they arrived, they were 1.3m high by almost 2m long.

After a lot of procrastinating and the thought of reprinting them, Lisa suggested we dummy stick them up anyway just to see how they actually fit.

They were big and we did have to move them forward slightly as it was a taller area, but they did actually fit – just.

So Frank installed them – and we think they look awesome.

You will see us coming from a mile away – literally!!!

There were also two for the stern (also a little bit too big) with our Aust. Rego details.

With one day to go, Lorelei looked great and was sitting ready in the stand.

We were very proud of what we had achieved.

That night we celebrated with a joint celebration of launching, Lisa's birthday and a Christmas Party.

We went to Baltimore's (which is the restaurant at the marina) and had a seafood plater and drinks while overlooking the water and boats.

The launch day was pretty stressful for Paul and we asked Gary to come onboard to make sure the engine ran fine and to double check the new seal and alignment.

Despite Lloyd assuring as we didn’t have to remove the front furlers, the Travel lift didn’t come far enough to the rear so at the last minute we had to remove 2 of the 3 furlers to get it balanced.

Lisa and the boys were able to do a last minute antifoul paint job on the bits that were sitting on the supports.

The boys very kindly put plastic onto the lifting slings to protect the new paint job.

We had to stop the traffic as Lorelei was lifted across the road (in reverse) and onto the concrete pad and finally over out onto the water’s edge.

We were very high up looking down to the water before they started lowering us in.

Lloyd was very nice in letting us sit in the slings while we reconnected the furlers.

We had Llyod, Tyson, Garty and Paul all pulling and pushing to get them to line up and re-tension.

We were able to motor straight across to the fuel wharf and full up with diesel fuel before heading over to our pre-arranged 20m berth.
The biggest thing for Paul was to check how Lorelei sat in the water for trim.
We had changed the weights around on the boat so much with removing some things and adding more.
There is heavier chain, anchor and winch at the front along with a new 3rd furler, extra sail, 3 extra sups and the rope drum.

While at the back the 4-stroke outboards and generator system were extra added weight.

In the centre the new cockpit was much heavier, but we lost 300kg in batteries and too of a lot of old and excess stuff during the spring clean and refit.

It was going to be a guessing game.

Fortunately, she actually sat pretty well - and the right height on the antifoul line - so we weren't overloaded - too much.... hehe

Then we put 1000 litres of diesel in..... it was still fine.

We had booked a 20m berth for 10 days just to get cleaned and organised before taking off cruising.

It took 2 full days to washed the boat after being in the dusty and dirty hardstand area for over a year.

We used litres of truck wash and rust & stain remover to get the decks clean.

We were also able to now put new carpet right though the boat.

The big concrete dock was a lot better option to cut the carpet rather than the dirt area in the hardstand area.

The last 3 days involved reprovisioning with food, Christmas treats and unleaded fuel as they didn’t have unleaded on the fuel wharf.

It took 2 full days until midnight to shop and store the 6 trolly loads of food and supplied.

The 250 litres of unleaded fuel also had to be done in 2 stints as we didn’t have room in the car for the 12 jerry cans at once.

On Saturday 13^th December 2025 we finally set sail and departed Bundaberg Port Marina for Fraser Island.

We spent our first night over near Wathumba Creek at Fraser Island.

It had been 7 years since our last sail on Lorelei and we are so excited to be full time cruising again.

It had been years later than expected thanks to Covid, property purchased, relocating from east to west and the loss of many family members – including 3 parents.

The refit had been the largest, longest and by far the most expensive of the 5 refits we have undertaken with Lorelei – and the first one back in Australia since our last one in The Philippines.

 

It’s been a rollercoaster ride. Some tradies were absolutely fantastic while others were hopeless. Some very reasonable in price while others charged the earth.

But all in all, with us overseeing everything and trying to do most of it ourselves, it turned out ok.

But we are exhausted – totally drained.

Physically, emotionally and financially spent!

But we have a boat that we feel is capable of taking us to virtually any ocean on the planet.

So that’s it for this episode.

We are going to spend a month or two in the local area between Fraser Is. and Brisbane while we recover, relax, enjoy Christmas 2025, new year and still slowly work on the last things that need doing, running in the two new outboards and test out a lot of new equipment onboard.

Thanks for following and 2026 will be filled with a lot more adventurous blog posts as we start cruising towards Tasmania, NZ and beyond. 

Cheers for now. 

Paul and Lisa

Yacht Lorelei.