Journal Entries

March/April 2009

Since being away from work in February I have been so busy trying to catch up with the backlog I returned to. I haven't had much of a chance to keep the log up to date, but finally I got around to updating it tonight.

Thanks to the people who emailed me asking what was going on and if I was ok. It's really nice to know people are out there who share the same interest as me and keep me motivated. It's always nice to get some feedback and to know that I'm heading in the right direction.

I've consolidated March & April into this one log entry, so again my apologies for not keeping it up to date.

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15 March - Today was the bi annual boaties market which I look forward to each time its on. It's a good opportunity to have a clean out of junk from the yacht and also to pick up some bargains. I actually really just enjoy hanging out amongst all the boat stuff and like minded people.

I recently bought myself a big old diesel landcruiser. That's it in the photo below. I have been considering getting a car for a while now but was really keen to do without a car since it's just more expense and "stuff" to look after. I've been making do with my big bicycle and renting a car when I needed, but this one came up and it fulfilled all my requirements. It's a big old diesel which can run on vegetable oil so it wont cost the earth to run. It's absolutely reliable and should run for at least 800,000 - 1000,000 kms (that's not an exageration these things are legendary) and it's also big enough for me to sleep in the back and keep loads of gear. That way I can camp in the back when the boats on the slip and also store stuff when sailing. Using a mix of veggie oil and diesel cuts the fuel costs down to around 30 - 50 cents per litre.

So here it is with Cutty in the back setup for selling my boat junk. I drove out to Victoria Point the night before and slept in the back of the truck. I managed to sell quite a bit of stuff and made a bit of a profit on most of it. So it was a good day.

I really love this old truck. It's a1983 HJ47 Toyota Landcruiser (also known as a Troopy) and it hasn't got a spot of rust on it which is impressive for a 25 year old car. It only cost me a few thousand dollars and I think it's the perfect vehicle for my needs at the moment. The original owner really looked after it by coating the underside from new with an antirust treatment. It has spotlights, bullbar, 2 extra long range fuel tanks, heavy duty tow bar and 2 inches of suspension lift with upgraded suspension. It's also registered to carry 11 people. All way too fancy for my simple needs but, hey for the price I wasn't going to argue. I'm planning to fit it out as a bit of an expedition camper so that I can get away for quick trips on the weekend. I can even fit my RIB dinghy in the back, which I did a few weeks ago to get some repairs made to it. Also being 4wd I can get to places I normally couldn't in a regular car.

Just to get an idea of how enormous it is, and if you are familiar with giant Hummers, below is a photo of it next to a big Hummer. The difference is of course that my old Troopy only cost me a few thousand dollars instead of $100,000 and runs on veggie oil. In many ways it's like a Westsail. It's seriously over built like a tank, is simple without all the fancy gadgets that modern vehicles have and once it gets up to speed it just chugs along happily all day using a mix of vegetable oil and diesel. Also mounted on the front is a winch rated to 9 tonne. I could just about winch the Westsail out of the water for an antifoul with this. I'm sure I'll find a use for a 9 tonne winch one day.

Well, enough about the Troopy and back to the boat.

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5 April -

I've been neglecting my old Perkins diesel motor on the Westsail and I figured I had better do some maintenance. I gave it a full oil change, changed the internal zincs and changed the raw water impeller. Below is the old impeller. You can see the housing is a bit crusty from the salt water build up.

I removed the impeller, gave the housing a good clean up, greased the new impeller with lanolin grease

and just like a new one. Ok, well a 30 year old new one. The difference in the volume of water coming out of the exhaust was very noticeable.

I also recently bought a new (used) Racor diesel filter. The current setup is a twin spin on Racor system. I don't like the spin on filters as they are not only extremely expensive at around $60 each, but the quality of housing is inferior to the one below which is a 500ma. I plan to install it in the coming months and replace the spin on filters. As a matter of interest, the filter elements for the new one are only $25 and last much longer.

Easter is around the corner and I've locked in an extra couple of days holiday. I plan to take off for a sail and will leave on Friday.

7 April - A really useful addition to Viajero I made recently was a flexible water tank. Currently, Viajero has a water capacity of 210 litres in a hard plastic tank in the bilge. That is an adequate amount of water for about 2 weeks for just me & Cutty when we are away but when I'm in the Brisbane river I have no clean salt water for simple tasks like washing the decks down and my fresh water needs are more. The normal procedure for getting fresh water is taking the dinghy back and forth to the dock and filling a couple of 20 litre water containers and hauling them back. Then taking them down below and transferring the water to the main tank. It's a labourious and time consuming task. Then there is the problem of having to find a place to stow the jerry cans. My solution was to buy a 100 litre flexible tank as pictured below. (the photo below is from the "turtlepac" website and is obviously not on Viajero) see www.turtlepac.com

The tank is heavy duty and is actually rated for diesel or water and all of the fittings exceed marine grade quality. There is also no plastic taste or odour unlike some brands of tank.

Now I just pop the 100 litre tank into the dinghy and motor over to a tap, run a short hose into the flexible tank and within minutes I have 100 litres. Then I motor back beside the yacht and connect a long hose to the flexible tank outlet. Because the yacht's tank is below the waterline it's just a matter of syphoning the water into the onboard tank. Withing a few minutes the 100 litres has emptied into the yacht's tank and I can roll the flexible tank up and stow it in the bilge or just about anywhere since it rolls up to a very small package. The other use for it will be when I'm going on an extended trip I can place it in the bilge area and fill it with water. Due to its flexibility it will conform to the shape of the bilge and voila... i have an extra 100 litres onboard. Once I've used up the water from the flexible tank it doesn't take up any space. I'm very happy with this addition.

11 April - As it turns out after running my engine for a while I was losing fresh water. The small fitting from the water tank was leaking. I was not going to miss my sailing trip so the best solution I could come up with was to use some Emergency Tape (remember I bought this last year at the boat show). It worked a treat.

It sealed the leak up temporarily and I was able to get away across the bay.

Here is the old Westsail anchored off the beach. The weather wasn't the greatest but at least I had clear water and sandy beaches. My departure was delayed and I had to leave late last night right on midnight to catch the outgoing tide. Fortunately the conditions were perfect and I did the entire passage from Brisbane to Moreton Island in 5 hours with the Fleming windvane steering all the way. That was an average of 5.5 - 6 knots. This is not a slow boat!

Cutty was pleased to be away from the river and in clear water. I took her onto the beach and she went for a run & swim. She is so confident in the water now that she happily goes off on her own exploring. You can see her just checking out the scenery below. I suppose that's why they are called a water dog.

12 April - I was down below making breakfast this morning and when I stepped up on deck the sea around the boat was boiling with activity. There was a feeding frenzy happening and fish were jumping in all directions. I quickly went down below and grabbed my rod with a lure and threw it into the school of fish. Within seconds I hooked one and brought it in. This was the first time Cutty had seen me catch a fish. (I've been telling her for ages I could do it though).

I quickly put it out of its misery and sent the lure over for another try. Each time I brought the lure in, it was followed by hundreds of fish. All of which were on to me as they didn't bite the lure. My fishing fraud was over it seemed, however I thought perhaps it was my technique. So I simply dropped the lure over the side into the thick crowd of fish and despite my best efforts to zig and zag, the fish were not falling for it. I gave it one last big zig (actually it may have been a zag) and bammo! I hooked one. I pulled him in and to my surprise he came up tail first. I had actually just snagged one of the fish by the tail as I whipped the lure past him. I looked around at the other boats who had been watching the commotion and felt a bit embarrassed that I had caught a fish back to front. At least I had caught lunch! What would they be having?

Below is lunch, 4 lovely mackerel fillets.

Cutty had already finished off the heads by the time I had filleted the fish.

and of course I wasn't going to get away with all of that fish to myself. Here she is with one of the fillets.

She loves fish.

It was time to get the bbq fired up

and fire up it did. Three cooked mackerel fillets and they were good eating with some lemon juice. (I had come prepared for cooking fish this time).

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13 April - The weather was very average today. Rain, Rain and Rain. At least the yacht was getting a good wash down.

When it's raining outside, I find the best thing to do is read and ....bake.

I put my silicone cake tin (I know it's not a tin, but what else do you call it) to work and made a nice banana and sultana bread. Hot banana bread with a little strawberry jam, a strong espresso and an old cruising book. Who cares about the rain now.

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14 April - Getting out of the dirty river gives me a chance to do some long overdue maintenance. My prop zinc was almost worn completely away. I scraped off what was left and cleaned the shaft ready for a new replacement.

Unfortunately the replacement was too long. I only found this out after almost drowning trying to fit it. I need to improve my breath holding technique.

So it was back inside to the workbench. Here is the zinc being shortened.

and the final mess of zinc filings. Having a workbench and good tools onboard is such a bonus. I don't know how people manage without it.

and all fitted up with a new zinc on the shaft.

15 April - I had to leave today to get back to work. I had shared the anchorage for the last couple of days with my old friend Colin and his lovely lady friend Kim. You might recall that Colin previously had the Westsail "Soya". Unfortunately Soya was lost in a storm in Airlie Beach during which Colin wasn't onboard. The boat was washed onto the rocks and smashed. Remarkably, however it has been fixed and I believe is currently for sale. Colin took his insurance and bought a beautiful Cape George 36ft cutter, pictured below. So if you ever see "White Swan" be sure to say hi to Colin & Kim.

I left the anchorage expecting bad weather. A gale warning had been issued so I put the small wind vane on the Fleming and a reef in the main. I was also hoping for some bad weather to test the vane and also practice heaving to with my new mainsail. Unfortunately the bad weather didn't eventuate.

the passage back home was pretty mild and there was only a small swell as seen at the bow of this passing container ship.

The Fleming did once again perform phenomenally. This wind vane is pure genius. I've read stories about sailors having to tweak their wind vanes for days on end. The Fleming just seems to be perfect straight out of the box. Here is the Fleming hard at work.

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18 April - One of the reasons I like having the Troopy is that I can get away on a weekend. Taking the boat away really requires a long weekend since it's at least a day just to get anywhere. So I can pack the truck up and head away for short adventures and it also allows me to carry supplies for the boat like parts and fuel and acts as mobile storage shed.

This weekend I wanted to take a kayaking trip. So I found a place that rents kayaks and drove out to the wetlands. Cutty was pretty excited about going for a little adventure and I like exposing her to knew experiences as I think it builds her character.

We arrived at the wetlands late on Saturday night and slept in the Troopy. I wanted to launch the kayak from a place up stream and catch the outgoing tide. My plan was to paddle the outgoing tide to the entrance of the creek and into the open water of the bay. Then follow the coastline along and back into one of the estuaries. It was about an 8-10km paddling trip all up.

19 April - We had to make an early start and be launched before 6am. Cutty sat in front of me on the kayak and we paddled (well I paddled and Cutty kept a lookout) downstream for about an hour. We needed to find a little track which led to another adjacent water way and below is a photo of that track.

I carried the kayak for a few hundred metres and reached the adjacent waterway where we re-launched.

After a couple of hours we were in open water and on the sand banks of the bay. Most of the water here was only about a foot deep and it was time for Cutty to start wading while I alternated between paddling (when there was enough water) and wading with the kayak.

It was a really enjoyable day and Cutty was completely exhausted from running, swimming and wading through the sandbanks.

I would have preferred to be out sailing, but this was a good way to spend a weekend and a nice change from being stuck in the city.

I'm planning to have plenty more short trips in the truck and eventually I'm looking forward to taking it down to Tasmania and doing some inland trips to the huge freshwater lakes which are inaccessible by boat.

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20 April - I've been developing a bit of a hobby over the past couple of years of collecting nautical antiques. It started simply by buying items to put onboard the Westsail but then I would see another, better item and replace the old one. I either hang on to the old item or sell it either on ebay or at the boaties market. Most of the time the items are neglected and require restoration of some kind and I really enjoy pulling them apart and restoring them. Things like old brass compasses, oil lamps and even clocks and barometers. Most of the time they just require a good strip down and polish but other times they may require more specialised work like the old Schatz Ship's clocks which I had serviced by a clockmaker and replated in copper.

I am considering making a section on the site to list some of the items I collect and restore. Maybe I could make some money on them and support my future cruising plans. Anyone want to buy a nicely restored ship's clock or compass?