Journal Entries

February 2007

8 February - This month brings the close of a fairly large chapter in my life. I have decided to wind up my practice here in Brisbane and pursue happiness. I am one step closer to casting off the docklines permanently and going voyaging.

Let me run you through what has been a typical day for me. I awake at 6am go take my shower, iron my shirt for the day, make some breakfast and then head off to work at around 7am in a business suit. By this time it's about 29 degrees celcius and extremely humid. I walk about 100 metres and I am sweating profusely.

I get to my office which costs me thousands of dollars per month to maintain (and fortunately is air conditioned). It appears to me that most of the people who work in my building have a sense of quite desperation about them. They like to talk about how much money they are making and what enormous and fascinating case they are working on and how intelligent they are. One fellow is in his fifties and quite a wealthy (financially) man. However he is constantly complaining about people not paying his bills and how he needs the money for various reasons. He has health problems and regualry drinks way too much. I recall asking him one day when we were having lunch if he would be retiring soon. His response was, "God no, I still have 15 years of mortgages."

Something about all of this just doesn't make sense to me. I sat there looking at this man thinking, is this going to be me 20 years? As I looked around the restaurant I saw men in suits drinking expensive wine and eating over priced, fatty food. After lunch they would be returning to their offices to work so that they could continue living the life they are living. To what end?

This is why I had to pull the plug. It seems like a constant struggle to achieve something which ultimately will never fulfil me or even excite me.

In contrast to this, when I walk home to my little yacht sitting in her berth, rocking back and forth anxiously awaiting my arrival, like a dog excitedly wagging its tail waiting for its masters return, tugging gently at her docklines, I get butterflies in my stomach. I picture myself sailing across oceans, living in different places. Adventure. I truly get excited.

So by the end of this month I will hopefully have wound most things up. I still expect that I will be in Brisbane for at least the winter as I need to finish some projects on the boat and continue to do some work.

15 February - I have been slowly making progress on the interior of the boat. I plan to give the interior a complete re-varnish in the coming month or two. I had the original seating arrangement changed. Below is a photo with the original big table removed. I wanted a permanent sea berth along the port side similar to that on the starboard side. So the plan is to put a piece in from fore to aft.

Below is the new berth. I now have a nice big storage space underneath this area which was never used and will have a berth. Once I varnish it everything should match perfectly and it will look original.

Below is a photo of the starboard side with a coat of varnish on the new rosewood panels. You can see the new table in the background.

This new table folds in half and will sit on the port side in the new "U" shaped seating area. It is made of rosewood and will match the panelling in the background once I get a few coats of varnish on it.

These 2 supports slide out from underneath to support the table when it is opened up.

and below, the open table.

I'm very happy with the way the new seating arrangement has turned out and the table. I prefer to have a smaller table which I can remove and take out into the cockpit when on anchor. The smaller table gives a much more open feel to the cabin and the new berth will get used when voyaging in the future.

17 February - A couple of weeks ago I came back to the marina to find a beautiful gaff rigged Alden schooner tied to the dock. She looked like an old perfectly restored classic. I got talking to the owner who had actually built the boat and she informed me that it was only a few years old. This boat was perfection in every way right down to the custom cast bronze fittings. There was nothing modern or fancy about the boat and everything was of old fashioned quality. The owner declined my offer to swap boats. Bummer.

18 February - I found out last week that the marina here is closing. My decision to close my office and finish up here in Brisbane seems to have been timely. I need a break from my current work and hope to explore some other options which I will find more enjoyable.