Journal Entries

January 2005

10 January - Well it was back to work this week and back to the reality that I have a few more years of this before I can set off permanently. My Christmas trip has really inspired me and I am approaching work with renewed enthusiasm. At least working for myself I know that the harder I work the sooner I can cut the dock lines. Can you guess what I'm thinking here?......."I'd rather be sailing".

I have arranged to have my yacht slipped in February to finally get the work done I wanted, both on the interior and the exterior. This includes all the timber work in the head (bathroom), fore berth(bedroom) and galley(kitchen). I will also have some smaller jobs completed in the salon as I found my books were not particularly well secured in rough weather and the book shelves need modification.

On the exterior I am having the colour changed on the hull and the mast will be removed, overhauled and painted ivory to match the hull. The teak decks will be checked for problems and re caulked. The shipwright who is going to carry out the work was introduced to me by Todd the mechanic and after having met with him I have total confidence that all will go well. The photo below is what I hope the new exterior colour will look like.

I spoke with Todd about the engine and it will be removed while the yacht is on the hard and have a minor overhaul. All of this work will be a costly exercise but having met the right people I trust I will get good value for money and the job will be done well.

I hope to document all of the work and post it on my site. So if you own a W32, check back after February to get some tips on how to do particular jobs.

12 January - A couple of weeks before Christmas I arranged to have new curtains made for my yacht. The woman came out and measured up and we agreed on fabric and colours etc. After three attempts at the curtains they were still a disaster. They didn't fit and they were nothing like what we had agreed upon. She finally conceded that she had got it wrong and we ended up calling it quits. Now I have to find someone who has some idea of what they are doing. Unbelievable.

15 January - I had a really pleasant surprise today, as Jason & Linda from "as you wish" (see November '04 entry) came back to Brisbane. They are currently in Hervey Bay and flew down as Linda was getting a flight out of Brisbane tomorrow. Jason will fly back and bring their boat back and stay in the marina for a while. We all went out for dinner in China town and heard all about their trip North. They had some pretty funny stories to tell and they are having an amazing time cruising.

21 January - Back to shade issues (see 5 December '04 entry). After I spoke to Brian about the design of the boom tent I realised that it was going to take up too much space when packed away. His original design involved aluminium spars running across the beam of the boat. This meant about 10 x 3metre long poles which needed to be stored up on deck when packed away. Below is a picture of the original design on another yacht which Brian found for me. You can see the spars running across for support. I really like this design but it is not practical for a smaller yacht where storage is an issue.

The alternative now is to have the awning supported purely by a series of ropes which would allow it to be stored more conveniently when sailing. The photo below is an example of what it will look like. He will come out to the boat this weekend to measure up. It is going to make a huge difference to the temperature of the boat and will be so nice when on anchor to be able to walk around on deck completely shaded.

It is the Australia Day holiday on the 26th of this month. I would like to take the Wednesday through to Sunday off work and go sailing but I'm not sure if I can at this stage, as I'm still trying to get through the backlog of work left over from last year. I'll post an update if I go.

I am also working on my video and hope to post it soon.

26 January - The weather has been pretty bad the last couple of days and the forecast for the next week is worse. Just as well I hadn't planned on going away.

It is 10.30pm and I am laying in my hammock up on deck. The city is silent and the only sounds are the water lapping around the side of the boat and the distant traffic on the story bridge. As I lay back looking up at the city lights and watch the storm clouds drifting above the high rise office buildings, I catch an occasional glimpse of the stars. Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is playing in the background, my boat is rocking gently as if keeping time to the music and there is a cool breeze floating on the night air.

I can't describe how wonderful my life is right now. This city is truly beautiful and although I would like to be out on my anchor or voyaging to some distant land, where I am right now is a pretty good compromise. I can't imagine living in an apartment or house again and my yacht is now truly my home, wherever that may be. When I decided to take the step of getting a yacht and sailing her from Sydney to Brisbane, not having sailed a yacht before, my friends and family said I was crazy, but I didn't listen. I have been living this adventure now for 7 months and each day I become more excited about what the future holds.

February 2005

I normally have this link to the WSPA in my link page but due to the tsunami in Asia they are in need of funds to assist in the rescue of affected animals. If you can help with a donation to this excellent organisation then please click the link below.

3 February - Earlier this week I met some German backpackers (Dani & Nadja) who were walking past the marina looking at the boats. I got talking to them and they were running very short of money and were facing the prospect of fruit picking in Bundaberg. Their biggest expense was accommodation and since they seemed like nice girls Colin (my dock neighbour) offered for them to stay onboard his 35ft catamaran if they did a couple of days work at his automotive workshop. It was timely for all of them as Colin had an influx of work. We also arranged to take them out to Moreton Island for the weekend. The marina is in such a beautiful location right in the centre of the city and they jumped at the opportunity. Here are the girls feeling right at home on Colin's catamaran.

We left the dock at around 8.30pm to catch the outgoing tide. Colin wasn't keen to do the passage during the night, but I assured him it would be so much more beautiful to not only sail during the cool of the night but to awake to the amazing sight of the wrecks laying off Moreton. The passage over was incredible. We had around 10 knots of wind from the south and the water was like a lake. We arrived at around 1am and dropped anchor just near the wrecks. Below is a photo taken from Colin's boat of our anchorage the next morning.

4 February - Today was perfect. The sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze blowing which kept the temperature down. We could not have asked for better weather. Dani & Nadja could not believe how beautiful this place was and that it was so close to the city. We spent the day snorkeling on the wrecks with turtles, windsurfing and sunbaking. Does it get any better?

At the end of the day we sat around and watched the amazing colours of the sky. This is one of my favourite things about being out on a yacht and the semi submerged wrecks of Moreton Island really make for some beautiful photos.

In the evening we were all pretty tired and hungry. Since I love to cook I was appointed head chef and cooked up a Thai green curry with fresh prawns and rice, which went down well. Colin's boat is pretty comfortable and a catamaran certainly has more room for guests than my Westsail.

5 February - Saturday was hotter due to the absence of a breeze and we decided to move anchorage toward the Southern end of the island. We went ashore and the girls took some time out to explore the island. The island is approximately 35nm long and most of it totally deserted.

In the late afternoon Colin caught some fish for dinner and we all had another early night. Below is a picture of Colin's boat anchored off the southern part of the island at sunset. We were in 2-3 metres of water at this anchorage and could see the sandy bottom clearly.

6 February - The next morning was hot and we decided to move even further South along the Western side of the island. We dropped anchor in 2 metres of water and spent the day swimming and diving off the top of the yacht.

This part of the island was amazing. The water was crystal clear and the girls thought they were in paradise.

In the afternoon a pod of about 8 dolphins came past the boat. With all the excitement it was difficult to get a good photo. The girls jumped in the water hoping they would get a good view of the dolphins underwater but the dolphins just swam past. In the photo below you can just see a couple of the dolphins' fins in the background. Note how calm the water is here. Just amazing.

We had to leave the island at around midday to make the ingoing tide at the Brisbane River. Windsurfing, snorkeling, turtles, dolphins and perfect weather made it an incredible 3 days. Dani & Nadja said it was the highlight of their visit and they will stay around for another week on Colin's boat and then Dani will go to Tasmania and Nadja to Cairns. It was a nice change to have some female company onboard and we will miss the girls when they leave.

As we left the island there was no wind and we were forced to motor. Half way across to Brisbane the wind picked up and we sailed the rest of the way at around 6 - 8 knots. It was a perfect way to finish the trip. Fortunately I took my new binoculars with me which made picking up the main channel markers an easy task.

The photo below was taken as we entered the first reach of the Brisbane river. This is not the most attractive part of the river as it has heavy industry on both banks and a constant smell of sulphur in the air. Despite this, it is difficult not to see everything as beautiful when viewed from a yacht.

Although it was such a great weekend and the company of Nadja, Dani and Colin was excellent, I am the sort of person who prefers time on my own or just with that "special someone" and I hope to get over to Moreton Island more regularly on my yacht after she is slipped and the work finished. I really enjoy sailing solo and it is such a beautiful thing to be out on the ocean, just you and your yacht and the knowledge that you have absolute freedom. You make your own electricity from the sun and wind, your own fresh water from the sea water and your own destination from the breeze in your sails.

7 February - I'm back at work today and found out that my yacht will be slipped this Friday. So I have some preparation to do and will leave Thursday night to get to Cabbage Tree Creek which is about a 6 hour sail. Stay tuned for the updates on the work.

11 February - I left the marina at 3am this morning to catch the outgoing tide. I have been getting by on very limited sleep this week due to heavy work commitments and today was no exception. As I left, there was no breeze and I motored for an hour to the gateway bridge. The motor was just ticking over as the current was running out and was pushing me along at around 3 knots. When I got to the gateway bridge there was a nice breeze from the Southeast at only 5 knots and I took the opportunity to shut off the motor and sail. By the time I had reached the mouth of the river a strong wind warning was issued over the vhf radio predicting 30knot winds.

Once out on the bay the breeze picked up to around 15 - 20 knots and I was sailing very nicely at 5 knots with reefed genoa only. I arrived at the entrance to Cabbage Tree Creek at around 8.30am. Below is a picture of the channel leading into the creek.

Cabbage Tree Creek is an interesting little place. It feels like a real backwater, but it is alive with activity. There must be close to 100 trawlers based in the creek.

As I motored up the creek it became more shallow and more isolated and I started wondering if I had taken a wrong turn somewhere.

My Westsail draws 1.5 metres and I was getting pretty close to the bottom. My sounder told me at one stage I was in 1.3metres, but fortunately it is a little conservative and I know I have some latitude. But it was still getting close to bumping on the bottom.

The creek was a really odd place to be and just when I thought I was in the middle of nowhere, there was this big old deserted house with a neglected and overgrown tennis court. It reminded me of something in the backwaters of Mississippi and gave the whole place an interesting atmosphere. I almost expected to see alligators on the shoreline.

As I traveled up the creek I constantly came across some beautiful old classic timber boats. Peter, the man who owns the slipway where I am going is a timber boat specialist and I wondered if these were some of his customers.

As I finally rounded a bend in the creek I came across the slipway. It was surprising that this highly regarded slip was so far up this tiny little creek. The yacht in the right of the picture is a beautiful classic timber yacht which was sailed over from Canada. The amount of work involved in maintaining one of those classics would eat up most peoples cruising fund very quickly.

I pulled up to the jetty and had a chat with Peter about the slipping process. We needed to wait until slack tide to haul out and I was an hour early.

Soon enough I was motoring into the cradle and being hauled out. Peter said he wished all his boats came out of the water as clean as mine. The anti foul has been doing its job and probably due to the strong current in the river there has not been much build up. Below is a photo immediately after haul out.

The hull was quickly water blasted to remove the build up on the bottom and she came up like new. Check out this hull. Not a blister in sight. Not bad for a 30 year old glass yacht. The Westsails are well known for their resistance to osmosis. I was prepared for at least a few small blister repairs, but it was a pleasant surprise to see none were going to be needed.

It was my original intention to take all the anti foul off and sand right back to the gel coat. There is at least a ten year buildup currently. After speaking with Peter he suggested that it wasn't necessary and I will just sand back a few layers before reapplying the new anti foul. This time it will be red.

Here is a photo of my W32 sitting in the cradle from behind.

I will come back tomorrow and start figuring out what I should do first. Peter will start his work on Monday on the interior and by the end of next week the mast should be off and the motor removed. This is going to be a stressful few weeks. I had arranged some alternative accommodation back in the city and I had planned to work on the boat during the day as much as possible and do my real work at night. I figure I could get at least 3 hours sleep per night for the next 3 weeks. The alternative accommodation has fallen through and now I'm not sure what I will do. It's going to make things awkward but I'm sure I can manage it and I know it will be worth it when my W32 is re launched as "El Viajero".

It's now 10.00pm and it's been a very long day since I've been going since 3am. I'm sitting in my office and having just posted my journal entry I will start on some real work to earn some money to pay for the work being done on my yacht. Goodnight.

13 February - I should have been doing some work either in the office or on the boat today, but it was such a nice day I thought I would spend it out and about. I went over to Southbank markets for a look and then decided to go to the Brisbane art gallery. I just love the serene atmosphere of art galleries. Nobody talking but just studying the artworks. I noticed from the works how significant ships were in the seventeenth century. There were so many works featuring ships either as a focal point of the work or in the background. Maybe I'm just more aware of it since I've become a sailor.

After the gallery I ventured over to the museum. There is a really interesting exhibit on whales and whaling. Moreton Island has an interesting (but somewhat disturbing) history of whaling as it was a whaling station in the 1950's. The exhibit has video footage of the whaling station on Moreton Island and features many old relics such as harpoons etc.. The statistics are pretty shocking considering the Tangalooma whaling station used to take up to 800 whales per season. That is a staggering figure when compared to the entire population of whales today. Those old whaling ships are serving a much better purpose now as an artificial reef. It's sad to think that these amazing creatures are still being hunted. I highly recommend a visit to the museum to see the exhibit, especially if you are going over to Moreton Island. Back to work tomorrow.

14 February - I started the day at 4am after getting a few hours sleep. The hull below the waterline was wetsanded today. I'm glad I wasn't doing that job as the guy doing it was covered in wet, blue antifoul paint. The photo below shows the hull partially sanded and you can see the previous layers of antifoul being removed.

I spent the day scraping old varnish off the timber up on deck. I'm changing all the timber work over to Cetol instead of varnish. I was really happy with the result of the cap railing and teak box on deck which were done in July and will stick with Cetol. It will never need scraping, but instead just a light sand.

15 February - Back at it again today. Below is a clearer shot of the entire boat out of the water. The W32 is a seriously stout little ship, weighing in at just under 11 tonne.

I concentrated on the butterfly hatch today which needed stripping. I removed the entire hatch and ended up dismantling it. I have ordered new 10mm reinforced glass to replace the old perspex which was cracking from UV exposure. It should look beautiful when finished and is such a nice feature above the salon. I'm thinking about having another butterfly hatch made to replace the flat forward hatch above the bedroom.

The zinc on the propeller has eroded away almost completely. From the picture below you can see the tiny piece left on the shaft just aft of the propeller. That is only 6 months and the marina in the river must be causing it to erode quickly. I figure it is better that it is eroding quickly as I know it is doing its job and would be concerned if it wasn't eroding at all.

Here is another view from the back.

I am not going to be able to work on the boat tomorrow as I have so much work to do in the office and have some deadlines to meet this week. The last few days have been such a nice change from being stuck in the office. Hopefully I'll be back at it on Thursday when the mast and engine are removed.

17 February - Today was the big day. The crane arrived at 11am ready to lift the mast off and the engine out. I had removed all the pins in the rigging except for a couple which I would take off once the crane took the load of the mast.

Just when the crane took the weight of the mast I tried removing the main pin which runs through the tabernacle. It is a stainless steel pin of about 1cm diameter. That pin runs through an aluminium tube. There was the problem. It wasn't going to budge. I had the crane sitting there ready but couldn't remove the pin. Due to the dissimilar metals it had corroded solid. Despite some heavy persuasion with a sledge hammer it still wouldn't move. I finally decided to remove the entire mast base. I was concerned that this would be seated with epoxy but after removing the bolts and levering the base up for around 15 minutes it finally lifted off the cabin top. The picture below is the entire mast and all the rigging attached going over the side of the boat.

Below is a photo of the tabernacle base and the stainless pin which was supposed to be removed to allow the mast to be lifted. This was a pretty poorly designed setup and I will have to come up with a better solution before reinstalling the mast.

Below is a picture of the mast ready for all the rigging and fittings to be removed. It will be completely stripped, removing all the corrosion, acid etched then primed and painted an off white colour. Many of the fittings are surplus and just get in the way. I will remove all the mast steps as these have been so annoying. The only reason I have needed to go up the mast was to untangle the ropes from the mast steps. I really don't like those mast steps and will be glad to see them gone.

Peter (he owns the slipway) arranged for his long time friend Billy to check the rigging. Billy is apparently the rigging guru and after talking with him for a short time I believed it. He is an older man who has loads of sailing experience. He really knew his stuff and I was relieved when he told me that the wire rigging was fine and didn't need replacing.

Now it was time for the engine to come out. Todd had disconnected everything a couple of days ago and it was ready to be hauled out. The great thing about a Westsail is the ease of accessing the engine. It's such a simple job to just drop the crane in and lift it out. Here is the engine on its way out.

and this next part I was a little nervous about. I just hoped if it dropped it would miss the boat.

and it was that easy... there goes the engine ready to drop onto the back of Todd's truck.

Mr Perkins sitting on the back of Todd's truck ready for the trip to his workshop. Todd will change the seals, hoses and give the engine a minor overhaul then finally give it a nice new paint job to stop the corrosion. If you are particularly interested in the engine overhaul and method of removal I have documented the step by step process in my "Articles" section of this website.

Here is a photo of the engine room without Mr Perkins. Right up the back you can see the dripless propeller shaft. The two planks of wood on either side were used to lever the engine out. I'll get in here over the next few days and give it a thorough clean. Its going to be so nice to have a clean new engine and engine room.

The hull has now been completely sanded below the waterline and you can see in the photo below that the blue trim at the top of the hull is being sanded away in preparation of a new colour.

I am back in the office tonight uploading these photos and I am so tired having only slept 2 hours last night. I will have to spend tonight and tomorrow working in the office at my real job and I will try to get back out to the slipway on Saturday and Sunday to continue scraping the old varnish off and clean that engine room.

The time I am spending with these guys at the slipway is extremely valueable not only because I am learning so much from them but I have met some really genuine people who I am sure I will maintain contact with. We all sat around at lunch time talking about sailing and boats and it is so comforting to be amongst people who are truly passionate about something.

21 February - The masking up of the sides was done yesterday and the new colour (magnolia) went on today. I'm very pleased with the colour and it gives the yacht a much more classic timber appearance. The blue antifoul below the waterline is yet to be painted and will be a dark red colour.

The magnolia colour really highlights the teak rubrail and caprailing and the cabin top will also be sprayed using this colour. When all the old varnish is removed from the timber work up top and is treated with cetol it should have a very classic appearance.

Peter started work on the interior today and has cut the teak veneer for the forward bulkhead. He will fit this tomorrow and expects to get through most of the forward berth lining. Here is a picture of the forward berth before the work is commenced. The ceiling will be done using oak strips to match the existing timber throughout the boat and the hull linings will be teak strips. The anchor locker doors have been removed and new teak doors will be constructed.

25 February - The fore berth is nearly finished and what a difference it makes to the appearance of the whole interior. You can see from the picture below that all the teak has been fitted to the interior of the hull and the ceiling has been lined with oak. I will just need to oil this timber to match the existing colour.

Peter spent a lot of time on this and has done a beautiful job. What is not visible in the photos is a small panel in the ceiling which houses 2 computer fans to allow the ventilation from the deck cowls to flow through. The doors will be made next week and Peter hopes to start on the bathroom by Monday.