Journal Entries

September 2007

1 September - It's another Saturday night and that time of year in Brisbane when the city goes crazy. Riverfire is the annual city festival when hundreds of boats cram into a small space on the river and there is an enormous fireworks display, military helicopters and planes flying overhead. The big highlight of the night is the "Dump & Burn" which consists of two F1-11 jets flying through the centre of the city and along the river then doing a vertical turn dumping hundreds of litres of fuel and setting it alight to create a visual show.

Ok, maybe I'm getting old or turning into a cynic, but what's going on with this? Yes it's an impressive display but we are supposed to be more environmentally aware and the concept of "riverfire" is to celebrate the beauty and value of a natural resource, namely the river. How ridiculous is this? The website for Riverfire provides the following:-

Global warming is upon us, but has there been anything like this before? What can we learn from Queensland’s ancient and recent past? Can we picture the future? What can we do?

Are they that stupid? For starters how about not blanketing the city with smoke from a half hour fireworks display, don't terrify the wildlife which relies on the river for their survival and for a really easy one, you could refrain from an intentional act of environmental vandalism and not dump and burn huge amounts of jet fuel into the sky directly above the river. Sounds like a simple start to me. I'm no greenie but I do make an effort to do my part. I recycle, I try to leave a minimal environmental footprint, I'm conscious of water usage and I'm self sufficient when it comes to electricity by using solar panels. When I see a council encouraging something like this it kind of makes my efforts seem pretty pointless. While there is money to be made from it I suppose it will continue.

Enough with the negative rant.

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9 September - I was listening to the radio this afternoon and APEC has finally concluded and the city of Sydney looks like it will be able to get back to normal. The prime minister was making a post APEC speech and discussing the virtues of globalisation and creating wealth for individuals of the APEC nations. It reminded me of a story I once read in an email which follows:

An American businessman was at a pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied that it took only a little while.

The American then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time?

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. you would control the product, procesing and distribution.

You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York City where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then, senor?"

The American businessman laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would float your company, sell the stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions."

"Millions, senor? Then what?"

The American said, "Then you could retire. Move to a smal coastal village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your grandkids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you would sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

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12 September - The weather is really starting to heat up and I'm pretty disappointed that I am still in Brisbane and will be for the hottest part of the summer. I will be doing what I've done these past years, getting into a ridiculous suit and making my way to the office dripping with sweat. It will be worse this year since being on a mooring requires more physical effort to get back and forth. I just have to make sure Cutty has a nice cool shady spot and I will most likely give her a full trim for this summer.

A several months ago I bought an old mechanical Schatz, "Royal Mariner" ship's clock. I had wanted one for a long time as they are such great old things. Apart from looking very shippy they are actually quite practical as they have a sequence of chimes for watch duty and I managed to pick one up really cheap since it was in pretty average condition. Here is a photo when I got it.

As you can see from the photo the outer rim (which is hinged and opens to allow winding) is completely corroded. This rim is plated brass and the rest of the clock housing is solid brass. There are two winding holes. One is for the clock movement, the other for the chimes.

I took the clock to a clock maker for an overhaul and once the movement was removed I polished the solid brass housing and sent the corroded rim away to get re-plated.

Below is the housing polished to a mirror finish and lacquered.

I had the rim plated in copper instead of brass as I thought this might give it a more unique appearance. I am happy with the result and hope to get the overhauled movement back inside in the coming weeks. I'll post some photos of it mounted on the bulkhead.

17 September - Finally after waiting many months I finally got the stainless steel base finished for my saloon table. Here is the fixed part of the base installed after I drilled the cabin sole. The rest of the base attaches to this and the table can be removed to allow the saloon area to collapse to a double berth and can also be taken out to the cockpit for a little al fresco dining under the stars.

and here is the finished product. The table is in the open position and does fold to half this size which is useful for just one person. I was concerned at how stable it would be but now that it's done it's really quite solid.

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20 September - Last week I had to upgrade my web hosting package as this site is starting to get increased traffic. I'm really surprised at how many visitors I get. You can see the counter on the home page which I reset from the beginning of this month. So far this month the site has had almost 1300 unique visitors and my bandwidth which is 4gb is about to be exceeded again. It's really great to know so many people are following my site and it gives me some encouragement to not only keep the site updated but to actually get my butt into gear and do some proper voyaging. So sincere thanks for visiting and if you have any suggestions for improving the site please send me an email.

If you visit again toward the end of the month and the site is down check again at the beginning of the next month when my bandwidth is renewed. I've changed the video page so that my videos are now hosted through "youtube". This saves my bandwidth being used and I'll be able to put much better quality videos on the page in future.

25 September - I'm expecting to spend some time in a very cold climate next winter and although the trusty old Hi-Seas diesel heater works well I'm concerned that since it's over 30 years old it might fail mid winter. I also needed to replace the flu sections since they are starting to fall apart. I took the steps of avoiding that scenario by getting a new Dickinson "Alaska" heater. I'll post some more photos of the new one when I install it in the coming weeks. Below is the old Hi-Seas.

and gone. Wait until you see the new Dickinson installed. It's beautiful!

27 September - Cutty is getting bigger now and she went to the vet today to get her final vaccination shot. She now weighs in at 16kg with a perfect bill of health. I'm expecting her to be no more than 18kg fully grown. You can see how big she is now in the photo below. I'm taking her to get a full, very short haircut next week as it's starting to get too hot for her with the warmer weather.

Here she is again with her favourite meal. This time a trout. Head, scales and tail gone in 2 minutes flat.

Cutty is also quite useful onboard as a Portuguese floor rug. She lays like this in the narrow section at the bottom of the companion way. It's not very convenient but does keep the floor clean. I'm thinking about writing a book titled "101 uses onboard for a Portuguese Water Dog." The list so far includes:-

Floor Rug, Mop, Duster, Foot warmer, cushion ...

This pelican sits on the pile behind the boat during the day and keeps a close eye on Cutty.