Journal Entries

March 2008

1 March - Firstly my apologies for the absence of a February journal and thanks to those people who have written to me asking, "what's happened?".

Sadly I have been flat out and I have come to accept the fact that my voyaging plans are on hold for a while longer while I go back to full time work. At least I see it as short term solution and often wonder how people accept that this is what they will be doing for the next 30 - 40 years. I figure that if I keep very busy, the next year will pass quickly. I start my days at 4.30am by taking Cutty for a run and this allows me to get into the office by 6.00am which allows me to leave at about 5 - 5.30pm so I can take Cutty for another run.

Since my office is so close to the boat I take Cutty for a walk each lunch time and we sit in the park watching all the other workers savouring their hour lunch break. Sometimes she comes into the office with me but I think she prefers to be on the boat since she has visitors from other boats stop by for a chat with her and there is always something interesting going on.

Living onboard keeps my life very simple and it's a constant reminder about where I am headed. I think it could be easy to lose sight of that goal and get caught up in the money trap if I was living in an apartment in the city. I absolutely love living the simple life and it's an enormous contrast to the lives of the people working around me. Most of those people have an inflated sense of self importance are arrogant and obsessed with how much money they are making. What I find most puzzling is that there is an underlying sense of insecurity in these people. No matter how much money they make, they always live beyond their means.

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9 March - I have been looking forward to this weekend for some time now as the bi-annual "boaties market" held at Victoria Point was on again. Last October I went and sold a lot of stuff I had been accumulating onboard. I didn't get much time to look around then but today I did plenty of looking. Cutty and I arrived there at 5am to find some bargains.

Basically people just turn up with their cars and it's a giant boot sale of all things boating.

We came across this store with big shark jaws. I was trying to explain to Cutty that these were big fish in the water which she needed to avoid. She just responded with, "yeah, sure Dad".

the picture below is of a really nice collection of old maritime stuff. Everything from massive navy spotlights to ships telegraphs to old bottles.

I was after a few items but one I wasn't planning on was a BBQ for the boat. I went past a store which had an almost new magma marine gas bbq. They were asking $100.00. I walked around for a while and came back and offered $80.00. They accepted my offer and Viajero now has a lovely BBQ hanging off the aft rail. It is a nice idea for summer, not only for cooking fish etc. on but also as an outdoor oven so that the interior doesn't get hot.

I couldn't wait to try it out and although I generally don't eat meat other than fish I could only get sausages on short notice. So I cooked them up just to try it out. The BBQ works perfectly and Cutty had sausages for dinner.

Other than the BBQ I managed to pick up some great old cruising books for $2.50 each and an old Sestrel gimbaled compass in a massive heavy bronze housing. Not really sure what I'm going to do with that but I couldn't pass it up.

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13 March - The weeks are passing by quicker than ever nowadays since I'm working flat out. It's a good thing though since the time I have committed to staying here in Brisbane will pass quickly.

I have been having some good discussions with Bruce who is the owner of the 1950 Atkin designed Vixen moored close by. He is from Canada and a boat builder by trade. Onboard he had a bunch of old magazines from the 1940's - 1950's and generously decided to give them to me (together with about 20 "classic boat" magazines) since he figured I would get some enjoyment from them. Well I have to say that these old magazines and the classic boat magazines are my version of pornography. As I flick through those pages looking at the beauties inside, the soft curves, glistening bronze adornments and perfect varnish work..... I had better stop there. Here is a picture of one of the magazines from the 1940's. I was originally just looking at the pictures but then discovered that many of the articles within are actually written by legends like Hereschoff and Atkin. It's such a shame that these articles haven't been preserved as they are not only fascinating but still very relevant, even today. I am considering paying to have someone scan all the articles so that they can be preserved digitally. I'll let you know when I do.

An example of the type of quality illustrations within the old "Rudder" magazines.

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21 March - It's the long weekend and I'm taking a much needed break. Work has been pretty hectic and instead of taking the boat away over Easter I have decided to stay in Brisbane, relax and try to get some small jobs done onboard. I have to re seal all the hatches and the chimney outlet for the fireplace. I'm hoping it isn't going to rain too much.

Even with the opportunity to sleep in this morning I was still up before sunrise. I can't sleep past 4.30am these days and so I made the most of it. I took Cutty for a play in the park, gave her a shower and went to the bakery for hot cross buns. (Why don't people call them "cross buns" since they are cold when you buy them?)

After that we went to take my weekly dvd's back and get a few new ones for the weekend.

I am constantly reminded how good my life is and how little I need to make me happy. Even though I have a reasonably good income my cost of living is well below average. The simple things really are the best. For example today I made a pot of espresso coffee, popped it into a thermos, got a book and took Cutty over to the river bank in the park. I sat there on the rivers edge, ate some buns, drank good coffee and read a book. Cutty rolled around in the grass and chewed a few sticks. We were both completely relaxed and content. What did it cost? The book I got from the boaties market for $2, the coffee probably 20cents, the buns a couple of dollars and the gardens are literally my backyard for which I pay $50.00 a week to live here.

For work which is in complete contrast to my life, I deal with people at war with others, fighting over money and ruled by their egos which results in them wasting years of their lives and turning into bitter, angry and unhappy people.

So the simple life of living on a yacht is pretty good.

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A couple of years ago I wrote about the importance of having quick access to a knife for sailors. Since that mishap I have made a point (no pun intended) of carrying a knife. Once again this lesson was reinforced to me when returning to the yacht last week the painter on my dinghy got caught around the outboard prop and stalled the motor. Since the rope was connected to the front of the dinghy and it ran under the length of the hull to the prop I couldn't raise the outboard to access the fouled prop and the tension on the rope wouldn't allow the front knot to be undone. So my only option (whilst drifting in the strong river current at night) was to reach underwater and cut the rope from the prop. Fortunately I did have my knife and while it probably wouldn't have been disastrous in Brisbane, if I were out in the middle of nowhere I could very well have been stranded.

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Living onboard I have become more aware of being energy efficient. I recall a couple of years ago I met a couple from a yacht who had sailed half way around the world and they had some great ideas for saving energy. For example whenever they boiled a kettle they would put the remainder of the hot water into a thermos for use later.

Sometime after that I saw a kettle called a "simplex" which was made from copper and had copper coils around it's base which was intended to decrease the time it took to boil. They were made in England and were about $150.00. Anyway last week I was checking out stuff on ebay and saw one listed for $20.00. I put a bid on it and nobody else ended up bidding against me. So here it is now sitting on my gas stove. It's especially nice because it complements my copper pots & pans.

Here is a photo of the base. You can see the little copper coils running around the lip on the side. I haven't timed it against a regular kettle but I'm very, very happy with it. (Is it strange to get excited about a kettle?)

On an equally exciting note, I thought I would take an opportunity to recommend a product which I have been extremely happy with. If you are constantly in or around the water and want some shoes which are built for that purpose "Keen" make some great shoes. I just bought another pair (the old pair is in the background and still very wearable) after having my last pair of Keens for over a year and wearing them everyday. These shoes get a hard beating from me daily. I run about 5kms a day in them, I shower in them, I have been swimming in them, Cutty has even tried eating them (and they survived), if I could ever manage to get a date, I'd probably wear them out to dinner (yes I'm all class....hmm maybe this is why I can't get a date?). They are comfortable, durable shoes and I thoroughly recommend them.

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23 March - It's Easter Sunday and my 4 day long weekend is rapidly approaching its end. I almost started a couple of jobs onboard today but it ended up raining in the middle of the day. I was actually feeling pretty lazy anyway and it was a good excuse not to do much. Cutty and I spent much of the day playing around in the park. I have over indulged in chocolate , buns and coffee and feel like a blimp. Cutty had a great day though and she is exhausted from running and wrestling with me in the park.

While I sat in the shade gorging myself, she ran around gathering big sticks and chewing them.

After a day of not doing very much at all we headed back to the boat. Cutty likes to rest on the front of the dinghy and make sure I'm going in the right direction.

Below you can see El Viajero on the right and on the left is "Daemon" another early Westsail which is here from NZ.

This is the early Westsail, actually known as a Kendall. These were the very first of the boats built with the Westsail hull using a flush deck. This lovely yacht is owned by Bruce & Jill from NZ who have sailed through the pacific and are in Brisbane for about 6 months. It's a really nice little community on the river here and Bruce & Jill are great neighbours.

I have never experienced a sense of community like the one here in Brisbane. Everyone looks out for each other and it's probably the fact that we are all like minded that everyone gets on so well. It has a real village atmosphere which is pretty unique.