Journal Entries

November 2006

6 November - I've been pretty busy this month with work and haven't had a chance to get out sailing. I have been using the evenings to work on the boat and the wind generator pole is now mounted on the back, although there are still a few things I need to do to complete the installation. Below is a picture of the pole mounted in position. It is 3 metres high and is a very solid structure. I can safely climb the pole to service the wind generator if I need to.

I also plan to install 2 solar panels on top of the bimini which together with the wind generator should solve all my power issues. On the advice of some cruising yachties I experimented with a small petrol generator recently and I'm now convinced that I'm better using solar and wind. I don't know how they put up with the noise and I certainly don't use that much power on my own.

I have also been doing some work to the interior this month and as I was walking through a weekend market in Brisbane a small oval piece of timber caught my eye. When I took a closer look it was a very rough, small plaque with the words "Crew's Quarters" carved into it with an anchor. Perfect! After paying the store owner the princely sum of $2.00 I took it home and went to work sanding, detailing and staining the plaque. I found the perfect place for it at the foot of my bunk in between the anchor locker doors.

This is the view from my bunk or should I say "Crew's Quarters".

13 November - I was walking along the boardwalk to the marina tonight and I noticed something sitting on the edge of the dock next to my boat. As I got closer I realised it was a very large snake. A 2.5 metre python had decided to pay the marina a visit.

I'm not a fan of snakes and the thought of this slippery fellow deciding to curl up next to me in bed one night influenced my decision to find another home for him. I called a couple of snake handlers from the phone book and they told me that pythons are harmless and I should just leave it as it will make the marina it's new home. I explained that I didn't want it to get onto my boat and they seemed surprised and tried to convince me that it would be a good thing to have a snake on my boat because they would eat any rats and of course rats chew through wires and damage boats.

I assured the snake handler that I currently had no rats on my boat and further, I didn't want a snake either. Finally I gave up on the snake handler who thought it was very odd that I didn't want a snake on my boat and decided to try and move the snake myself.

I enlisted a couple of other people from the marina who were equally motivated to avoid having a snake end up on their boat and between us we managed to convince the snake to slither into a sail bag. I then took the bag up to the botanical gardens and released it into a more suitable environment.

As soon as I tipped it out of the bag it went straight to a tree where I hope it stays.