Our October

Tomorrow marks 4 weeks since we left work and started the REALwork of getting Bass Voyager and ourselves ready to leave. What can I say... Michael is my hero - he has worked so hard over the last month with unending energy and (mostly!) unwavering good humour! Ive been a less valuable, less amicable side-kick, but even so I have worked harder physically in the last month than I ever have - and I have the bruises, scratches, broken fingernails and paint stains to prove it!
Here is a bit of a recap and some photos to catch up on where we are, and more importantly - what's next?!!!

We've achieved a lot in four weeks. Much of it is hidden, but there are big cosmetic changes too.

We have:
- welded extensions to the bench seats in the cockpit
- cut and welded a new deck plate for the anchor windlass
- ordered replacement cushions (due today, but wont be ready till Tuesday)
- repainted the cockpit (final coat on the back section tomorrow)
- hauled the boat out of the water
- scraped, sanded, primed and antifouled the hull (with help from friends!)
- replaced the bowroller
- replaced the anchor chain
- cut and epoxied racks for our scuba tanks (I jig-sawed them out all by myself!! :o)
- replaced the propeller shaft  coupling and packing seal (and I actually know what that means now!!)
- installed various electronics including Radar, GPS and fans
- replaced the old, worn and leaking canopy with a purdy new dark blue one
- installed a new ceiling in the cockpit
- sorted thru all the lockers and planned out the storage

There are many other tasks that Ive forgotten... probably on purpose. Traumatic!!

... Oh, and I even baked bread!!! And dropped a 10mm steel plate on my left middle-finger. Ouch...

We also bought some new charts to get us from here to Tasmania. Actually we have bought so many things over the last four weeks it scares me to think how much money we've spent. Im pretty sure we're single-handedly keeping the North Haven Marine shop in business.

So what's next??? Well, we are seaworthy. We could potentially leave right away, but we still have a short list of "must-do's" and a long list of "like-to-do's" before we go. I have a feeling the "like-to-do's" may end up being "things to do on the way"!

On the must-do list this week:
- make some changes to our bedroom cabin to make it safe and comfortable for the voyage
- go see our doctor to help put together a medical kit for the trip
- permanently secure various items such as the freezer, the dingy
- service the engine
- install sea-rails on the stove
- check all our safety gear
- buy a rode for our para-anchor
- replace countless pieces of wooden trim and varnish new wood panels
- buy all our provisions and store them!

The plan is that at the end of next week we will head off on a short "shakedown trip" over to Kangaroo Island and potentially Wedge Island to test all the new equipment, practice some safety drills, and generally make sure BV-  and we - are ready to go. Then we'll hop back to Rapid Bay where friends and family that want to can come and see us off!

OK, enough text - here is the pictorial account of the last month.

This was the state of the bench seats when we bought BV. Flakey paint and lots of surface rust...

After I scraped back all the paint...

Michael then welded in the 20cm extensions to make the seats much wider - they are now wide enough to sleep on, upgrading BV from a 4-berth to a 6-berth boat. Clever boy.

After rust treatment and two coats of paint.

Crazy Ben climbing the mast WITHOUT a harness. Yup - crazy. Well he did just get back from climbing in South America, so I guess that must make it ok... 8-/

Ben and Michael welding in the deckplate for the windlass - no more rust!

Shiny new boat bling - ahem bow-roller. Check out the cute shark design on the side. Who needs a naked mermaid!? ;o)

Newly welded deck plate and installed windlass.

Dragging out the new anchor chain to measure and paint...
Now I know these photos make it look like Michael does all the hard work, but its only because he doesn't take photos!! Who am I kidding? - he does do all the hard work....

Now here's proof that I did do some of the work...! Painted markings on the anchor chain every 20 metres.

Heading up the slip and onto "the hard"...

You would think that after 4 days climbing up this ladder 10 times a day I would have dropped a few kilos. But sadly, no! ;o)


The first day Michael, Ben and I scraped all the old flaking paint off the hull. Hell of a job.


Ben with his mates Paulo and Val - one day after they arrived in Adelaide we put them to work sanding and then painting primer on the hull! Backpackers.... slave labour of the Western world... ;o)
Seriously though, we are SOOO very grateful for everyone's help - particularly Ben who worked like a trooper for two full days. They saved us at least 1 full day on the hard, which is very expensive.

Thanks so much to our new yachtie friend Patrick who suggested we weld on a wire between the hull and the rudder to act as a deflector should (god forbid!) we run over some fishing nets or line - it will stop it getting wrapped around the prop.


Day three Michael and I finished the job by rollering on two coats of antifoul paint. Here we are rewarding our efforts with a beer...

Back in the water... Michael installing the new radar...

And finally, first pictures of our new canvass, complete with mosquito netting...

I'll check in next week from the road. I mean - ocean!

The first day of the rest of our lives

Yesterday was my last day at work, today is the first day of our new life!
It hasnt started quite as planned though: its blowing 30 knots and there are 2 metre waves between us and the Royal Yacht Squadron where we planned to move Bass Voyager this morning. We have 10 days of hard work ahead as we haul BV out of the water and do the final maintenance and prep work.
Oh well, this is likely to be the story of our new life - either too much wind or not enough!! Better get used to it. :-P
The beauty is we now have no deadlines, no pressure, no rules except those we put on ourselves. So coffee and pancakes for breakfast it is, and we'll reassess the conditions later today!

Up the mast!

This afternoon Michael went up the mast for the first time, and he swears it wasn't as scary as he thought it would be... imagine doing it on a rough and rolly ocean though...

Don't worry Mum, he was attached to the main halyard and had a professional-grade tether and a bosun's chair keeping him safe. Plus me on the winch, tying him off tightly and and keeping a close eye on things.

The job today was replacing the decklights and the anchor light with long lasting, high intensity LED globes, and checking out the set-up at the top of the mast so we can can plan the install of our new wind instruments.

Monkey boy....

And, the view from the top!!!

 

 

Seeds of inspiration

While on the train the other day I was thinking: we are at the end of journey which really started back in January 2007 when we went on a diving holiday in Far North Queensland and Michael came across a job in the newspaper for a coxswain on remote Orpheus Island. The job didnt pan out but ever since then we weve been determined to do something different, adventurous and a little bit crazy.

 Caitlin, Michael (background) and Potato Cod, The Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef, January 2007

With a serious case of itchy feet, in April that year we went up to Cooktown and very nearly bought a business there - we rethought that wacky plan at the last minute, but our desire to escape the mundane didnt subside.

Main St, Cooktown, QLD, April 2007

Then in September 2007 we went on a 2 week diving trip to Vanuatu where we admired the cruising yachts  anchored out the front of our resort. One was home to a French couple with two brown-skinned blond-haired little boys who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years years old, but were whizzing around on their tender on their own while their parents picked up supplies from the village. The confidence, independence and freedom of those kids really inspired us. There's no doubt that that little seed of inspiration has helped lead us here, four years later.

Yachts off the Beachfront Resort, Espititu Santo, Vanuatu, September 2007 

Despite getting distracted by careers in Melbourne (pesky things, careers...) we managed to buy a little Farr 6000 sailing boat Indian Summer and learned to sail in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes. Our time on Indian Summer confirmed our dream of owning a bigger boat and travelling by sail. Indian Summer now has a new home in Mission Beach QLD and we hope to see her again when we make it up that way.

Indian Summer, Gippsland Lakes, New Years Eve, 2009

 

Last year we tested our resolve by chartering a boat in the Whitsundays with our friends Su and David and their son Sasha. Despite being really sick with colds for the whole trip we had an amazing time and confirmed that yes, we really do want to do this!  Within three months the house was sold, and within four we had bought Bass Voyager...

Sasha and Michael aboard Christine, Hunter 39, Airlie Beach, August 2010

Whitsunday Islands, August/September 2010

This is where we want to be...!

I can hardly believe we've almost managed to pull it off. We're at the end of a journey - the dreaming-, planning-, wishing- journey - and almost at the beginning of the next one - the reality!!

Lets just hope that we can muster up the nerve to actually push away from the dock!!!

Video tour for Isabella

Hi Isabella, I thought you might like to have a little tour of our new Marina, so here is a video!

Playing catch-up

We've been really lazy about posting to our blog over the last few months, so this is a bit of a catch-up post. We've been settling into life aboard with all its joys and frustrations, going to work each day and getting boat projects done bit by bit. We've done major renovations to the roof of the boat, moved to a gorgeous new marina, and had major engine troubles, which threatened to derail (sink?) our plans but are thankfully resolved.

Here are some photos to give you a flavour of the last few months.

Stormy weather
Back in May we had a really big storm in Adelaide with nearly 50 knot winds - over 85 kph. That's called a "full gale" in meteorological-speak, or Force 10 on the Beaufort wind scale. No rain, but the wind was ferocious! We ran around the marina helping other residents secure neighbouring boats. One of our fellow marina-dwellers was frantically securing lines and fenders while swearing "Damn these weekend sailors! They never prepare their boats for conditions like this!!!"

I dont remember ever being outside in that kind of wind before, let alone while by the water. It was actually really exciting. Made me think of what it would be to be faced with that kind of wind while on the ocean - yikes!

Once we had doubled up our lines and done what we could for the neighbouring boats we camped out on our day bed below watching Master and Commander as the boat rolled and the wind roared around us - very atmospheric!

The photos don't do it justice, but remember, its usually a millpond inside the marina! The waves are all due to the wind - there was no swell at all.




BV's new hat
When we bought Bass Voyager we knew that some pretty major work would need to be done to fix the rust which had accumulated under the solar panels on the roof. Back in May we took her around to the Royal SA Yacht Squadron which has excellent maintenance facilities and spent a few days stripping, cutting, welding and then painting her new roof. Graham (family friend of the Harris's) helped out with the welding, training Michael as he went. We've since bought our own portable welder which has already proved very handy making the gas locker for our shiny new oven.







And me doing my bit with the power tools... This curved length of wood replaces the rotted beam that runs across between the steel roof and the canvas canopy. I was quite proud of my efforts here - I dont have much experience with power tools.


Michael's new hat
Michael playing silly buggers...



Adventure Cat
Kitty is settling in to our new digs at the beautiful new Crown Marina. Its very quiet as the marina has only been open for a few months, although we have seen about 10 new boats arrive since we moved in. The marina manager is fabulous, and takes a great deal of pride in the presentation of the marina. Im going to post a video tour shortly so you can see how it looks.






Engine troubles
Michael might post more detail about this soon, but for now, here is Kitty helping him diagnose the problem which turned out to be the water pump. The starter motor has also been replaced by a new one from the US. There's also evidence below of the disasterous afternoon when Michael's mobile phone accidentally became aquainted with the depths of the oily bilge.... yuck!





The offending water pump. We learned that the Volvo Penta engine in BV is older than she is - much older in fact - late 1970's, while BV was built in 1989. Makes getting replacement parts ... well ... interesting.


New outboard
We also decided to upgrade our outboard engine for our tender - here is Michael testing it out. So proud...




That's it for now. I have lots more to tell, and more photos, so I will try to post more regularly from here on in!