Flowers for Kitty

So another job that my talented husband completed over the weekend was to prepare for the impending arrival of Admiral Kitty. These hatches will give her the run of the boat while we're not there, and as a bonus add extra ventilation. I was tempted to leave them as pretty flower shapes, which Im sure Kitty would have appreciated, but no, Michael had to make them all neat and practical. BORING!! ;o)

Home... well nearly... III

Tuesday 15/3 was a completely different scenario. 27C, sunny, 0.5m swell, 10-15 knot winds... could it be more perfect? we sailed out of North Haven at about midday, and tacked down the coast to the Grange jetty. It was glorious - BV did over 6 knots on a beam reach - pretty impressive for a 38ft steel girl. After about 2 hours we had lunch underway before watching Adelaide sea rescue do helicopter drills only 50m away, turned around and sailed comfortably downwind at around 4.5 knots all the way back to North Haven. What a great day. It could only be topped by an (almost!) perfect entry into the berth by yours truly (my first time steering BV in close quarters - yay me!)

Home... well nearly... II

So after all of the galley sink excitement (!) we decided we'd better go sailing on Sunday. The weather was warm (28C) but cloudy and gusting just over 20 knots.
We motored out of the marina without a hitch, and got the sails up - our first time sailing with just the two of us.
The swell was over 1.5m (photos dont do it justice) and we felt a few butterflies as BV bounced along under darkening skies...
Without having re-rigged the mainsail for reefing yet (noobs), we decided to head in before the winds freshened any further. We counter-balanced our slight "chickeny-ness" by performing a flawless entry into our berth with a strong tail-wind - such skill from Capitan Mikey :-)
 

Home... well nearly.

Last weekend we headed back to Adelaide for an unplanned break. Well, it was planned s'much as we had booked flights over with plans to sail BV back to Melbourne, but... well things have changed pretty dramatically in the last few weeks, as per Mike's previous post. We decided that rather than letting the flights go to waste we'd just pay for some flights home as well. So, we got 5 glorious, sunny, high-20C days in Adelaide to relax, do a few maintenance jobs, kitty-proof the boat, AND go sailing - twice!

Saturday 12/3 - we fitted my gorgeous new (Ikea, but don't tell anyone) full-ish size stainless steel sink!


Before (sorry for the crap photo):

During (Mikey doing the dirty work, Cait supervising/documenting):

And after (oooh, purdy!):

 

Plus (Ikea - sshhh...) accessories including dish drainer, chopping board and bucket...

Is it just me that finds galley appliances so damn exciting??

Famous!

Recognise the man in the photo below from the front page of the Jetstar website????

We have no idea how they got it!! Well, we can guess...

The photo was taken in 2007 by a diving instructor when we went diving on the Ribbon/Osprey Reefs on the Great Barrier Reef. Here's proof.... our original photo!

Edit: 12 April 2011:
It continues!!! Now on Virgin Blue!!!

Change of plan - Again.

OK. We decided to go back to Adelaide for various reasons.

I quit my job. Caitlin tried to quit hers but they wouldn't let her - she's now going to be working in Adelaide for the same mob but in a different location. Now I have to find a new job in Adelaide but that's cool. Feels like time to move on anyway. The job was too easy and comfortable. Good friends at work will be missed though.

Finally got the rego papers for Bass Voyager, seems a bit more real now. Looking forward to living on board and being able to make improvements to her daily. Also looking forward to being home after almost three years and reconnecting with family. Still lots to organise and do here in Melbourne but less pressure now that we have made the choice to go home.

Looks like we will try to have the cat on board for a trial. Not sure how that will go but it feels right at this point. Sad about leaving the dogs but what can you do?

Mike.