Well we finally did it. Laani has posted some photos and a run down on the move in the section: 2010, all aboard for life on board. Thats about the whole of it although I might disagree with her genius line. I remember a great line from a wise old(er) GA (General Assistant, read: mountaineer type layabout) when I wasdown South in Rothera. Well this guy was getting grief from the younger GA's about the amount of stuff he was preparing to take out on the sledge for a winter trip. The younger guys were serious mountain junkies, minimum stuff, travell fast, Old Man Routledge was packing everything except the kitchen sink. In one quick line he shot them all down and I've never forgotten that sage advice. "Any fuckin idiot can be uncomfortable". Hence the work and more work and yet more work. I'm not going to pretend its been easy, in fact some of it has been awful and the notion of jacking it all in and buying plane tickets has crossed our minds. Nothing goes to windward like a 747 but hey I'd like to see a 747 anchored in some tropical island. So onwards with the preparation. As Laani said, there is a good reason we moved on so early, if we had moved on a few weeks before sailing off into the sunset it would have been a nightmare and the dream may have remained just that. Hopefully this way we can spend the next 6 months preparing so that when we do go we can be comfy as could be. So just refrain from asking how its going, maybe we'll be ready to give you an answer in November!
Full steam ahead now...we had a massive garage sale on the weekend and sold pretty much everything we own. Amazing how much you can collect in 2 years. We are now sleeping on a mattress on the floor in a very empty and echoing house, with a borrowed TV (no point living without one just yet) and surfboards on the walls for decoration. There is no going back.
Made a recent trip to our favourite store Whitworths to purchase 'nesting' pots and pans, tiller extension, gimballed fan and some great safety gear that we will hopefully never have to use! Ian was even more excited because for once it wasn't him spending any money, it was my turn. Also - thanks to all the Heffernans who gave Ian vouchers which bought the much needed fan (very hot in the galley in summer!) and a red light for reading charts at night. Now Ian just needs to finish his dissertation so we can shift what's left of our stuff onto the boat and move Kadoona to her new 'city' home in Cammeray, Middle Harbour (Sydney). Very, very sad to leave Cronulla she has been so good to us. On to the next adventure......very exciting!!! Well not a whole lot has changed in a month but we have had a few good sails in. The chartplotter is up and running which means I can now show Laani exactly where we went and how good a course she was steering :) The downside is now Laani can see exactly how close to the reef that we were miles away from we really were........
Laani has, among other things, been mastering the art of goose-winging (one sail out one side, other sail out the other, in a kind of juggling act) and shouting at me not to stand anywhere near the boom while she does it. I think she is coming along nicely, especially the shouting. Not sure she is convinced on the notion yet but as we are going 'the wrong way' across the pacific I suppose she won't get to see much of it anyway! Most impressive purchase of the last few weeks was a set of very cool big mugs with built in coffee plunger/tea strainer. Gold, half price at Katmandu. I think its probably a good thing that I'm engaged in a bit of study at the moment, its been great for not spending money. Think I've only been to Whitworths once in the last 3 or 4 weeks and I can't remember the last time I went to Bunnings? I envisage a serious bout of spending once I hand this assignment in. Not to say Laani hasn't been doing a bit of work, under the winches all chipped and painted, lookin good. So into our last few weeks of living in a house, living in Cronulla, being able to walk across the road to go for a surf, mmmmmmmmm, better be worth it............. Thought I'd start the 2010 blog. For those of you with nothing else much to be doing there is actually a bit of 2010 in Blog 1 but mostly just the trip to Sydney and some sailing when my parernts and Killian visited.
So the plan is, all going well. We will move on to the boat some time in June/July. Exactly when hasn't been set in stone just yet. Hopefully the start of June but it depends on a few things, mainly on me getting this dissertation finished. Speaking of which I better make this short as I should be reading/writing about AIS and ships and stuff. If it wasn't for having to work I'd be laughing, feckin work, gets in the way ALL the time. As if that wasn't bad enough a whole load of OH&S training has reared its ugly head, think we'd get time off to do? Not a hope, have to come in on our time off to do it, only one word to describe it, bollox. Anyway, have to phone the marina in April to give them a date as to when we are expecting to move! Kind of exciting, kind of sad, we will both miss Cronulla. Nothing beats being able to throw on a pair of shorts and run across the road for a quick surf. Still, we need to move on, learn to live on the boat, save some extra cash and get the boat ready. All well and good but this feckin disertation........... Oh well, live and learn. Still at least we are getting a bit of sailing in and sure there will be plenty of time for all those small little jobs once we are living onboard :) |
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