The 200nm leg to Broome was filled with marine life in the form what we saw and what we ate. With some help form Silver Fern’s own ‘fisherman extraordinaire and gourmet chef’ - Ken Dobler’ we were spoiled with blue fin tuna and Spanish mackerel.

On the passage we saw whales and sea snakes and a single turtle with a star fish in it’s jaw. As I enjoyed the afternoon sun, the engine room bilge alarm decided to spoil my fun. The high pitch alarm went off, as I rushed to the engine and opened the door to find a black hose pierced and spraying clear liquid under high pressure, in a fine mist, all over the engine room and over the running engine.

I tasted it and quickly diagnosed it was salt water (not fresh water or diesel). The water maker was running and the high pressure hose I had replaced 6 months ago, had burst. The contractor who fitted the new hose, had cable tied it against the pointy corner of a steel bracket and it had chafed through it. Annoyed, I shut the water maker down and with our tank only 30% full, we would now have issues getting to Broome, if we were unable to make water.

A quick call to Matt on Salt Lines with an update and he immediately offered 100 litres of emergency water in jerry cans for our use and to make more, when we needed it. I jumped online and found the only hydraulic hose company in Broome and sent them a plea for help, to get a new hose made during our 1-day stopover in Broome in 3 days time.

The keen fishermen and women an on both yachts took the opportunity to fish as we made our way to Broome, regularly swapping photo’s of our prized catches through Whats App. On the first day Salt Lines caught 2 fish and offered to share their spoils with Silver Fern along with 100 litres of water in exchange for a tin of coconut cream, a bottle of olive oil and 3 jerry cans of diesel.

We both agreed to drop head sails and go 20 degrees off wind on mainsail only, with speeds down to 2 knots. Then we launched the RIB off the side of Silver Fern, with Ken Thomas and I jetting across to Salt Lines to execute the contraband exchange with Navy Seal precision. We returned jubilant and slightly wet, in the sloppy seas and loaded our goodies back onboard.

The next challenged was to hook the genoa halyard on the RIB and lift it out with the engine attached, while rolling slowly in the sea state. The next day Silver Fern got back in the game, when Ken Dobler caught a large Spanish mackerel, his 4th or 5th big fish for the leg.