One day - maybe two - to go

Haydee in her cabin this morning

All the hard work is done and aside from some essentials - food, fuel and water - we're ready to head off tomorrow, or maybe Monday if farewell brunch with Shane's family tomorrow is a little too long and lazy. The house is empty and after two open homes and one false start we've found a tenant who's promised to look after it for us for 6 months, God bless him. It took us the best part of a week to sort the house into four piles - boat, storage, Salvos or bin. We brought removalists in to help move our ridiculous amounts of "stuff" to storage - they were great - and we outsourced cleaning as well - also fantastic, thanks Kiama. The kids have been great too; we've fed the poor things more take-away than anyone could reasonably bear in the last few days and they've not only put up with it but have also been amazingly helpful (Cameron was super-helpful in the garage and see Haydee's house-boat blog for an update on her special fridge-cleaning talent...)

We're working on stowing the boat now and in doing I have found all sorts of hiding places under floor boards, beds, seats and in cupboards that Shane always knew was there. I was worried all the stuff we packed to bring on board would sink the boat but so far we're staying afloat. Amusingly, we have too few sheets and way too many towels for some reason - we have about 7 towels each; I really don't know how that happened. One of the other marina occupants laughed at us and said we looked like a caravan as we each towed a small wagon full of boxes and bags from the car to the boat yesterday.

I've got through the last few days thinking about the peace, quiet and relaxation that would engulf me once we're underway but sadly the kids start school next Tuesday. The kids are looking forward to seeing marine animals and what-not; I'm looking forward to getting into a routine.

Finally, sincere thanks to everyone who has helped us out with our adventure - the Bushells, the whole Nicoll clan, Dave T (his name is Harold Holden, please look after him!) and our lovely neighbours in Brisbane. And a special mention to Bella Guthrie who will be a wonderful big sister when her little sister arrives in six weeks or so.

Clean Bum

Freshly anti-fouled

We got a phone call yesterday confirming that Seasprint's antifoul was complete. Cameron and I, assisted by Pete and Barry as crew, met at Manly this morning to sail her back to Scarborough. All that had to be done was paint the bottom of the keel and where the fore and aft stilts were, once she was back in the sling of the travelift. The blokes at East Coast Marina again took great care, and Seasprint was carefully put back in the water; good for another 12 months (or more ...).

Sailing with a parachute

One of the things we wanted to do on the sail back was test the parachute as a head sail. I have a 23ft parachute, thanks to Pete's brother, Steve. We were surprised how easy it was to launch and recover, but that may have had something to do with the wind only being 10-15 kts. The end result was, it pulled us along at about 4kts. While Seasprint could easily handle a parachute of 30ft diameter, I am happy to stick with this one. I will use the spinnaker (which is a much bigger surface area and can be used up to 60 degrees either side of downwind) in winds up to 20kts, and pull out the parachute when running in stronger winds. It was good fun, and the only tweak we deemed necessary is a 20ft line between the two shackles so the parachute maintains it's shape a bit better.

We move on to the boat next week, and still plan to depart on Sunday 10th July.

2 weeks left

Seasprint being slipped this week for anti-fouling

We're making progress... We have booked a place to store all our stuff while we're away and booked a removal for late next week. We've continued to cull things we no longer need and have started packing in earnest. One of the more amusing finds was a steel cup decorated with "I wish I was in 103" and "OC 103 rocks" - nice work Nerdvak. It took me 5 years or so, but I found it.

The boat is out of the water having her bottom cleaned this week. On the way to the lift we passed a group of 10-year old-ish kids learning how to sail small boats in the marina and were amused to hear their take on avoiding collisions at sea - "Look out!", "No, you look out!".

Rebuttal

Heather wanted a bloody freezer! Ice for my scotch and being able to keep ice cream are simply bonuses...

3 weeks (or so?) to go

Reeling a lure back in; Fish 1, Nicolls Nil.

The closer we get to departing, the more we realise we still have to do and the more "fluid" our departure date is becoming. We have a good resolution to the kids' schooling arrangements - thanks, Mr Clark - and I spent time over the weekend investigating Year 4 and Year 6 curricula. Year 6 English isn't blowing me away, I must say (I blame the NSW Education Department of the 80s), but I'm kind of looking forward to revisiting Year 4 maths with Cam.

We had some success with a stall at local markets on the weekend. We managed to re-home a lot of clutter we've collected over the years - the garage was half-full, it is now only one-quarter full of things we don't want anymore -  and made a few hundred dollars that will help offset the cost of the ice-maker (freezer) Shane recently installed on the boat. And the solar panels we had to install to generate enough power to run the ice-maker so Shane has ice for his scotch...

This week will be arranging the removal to storage, parent-teacher interviews a.k.a. "the handover", and working out how itinerants like us get mail delivered to them.

Preparations continue

It's been another busy week. I spent a day learning about diesel engines - how they work, maintenance and fault-finding. We pulled one apart and got it back together again. Enjoyable and useful. We bought a couple of laptops, the three motors on board were serviced and Shane has been arranging to have her lifted out of the water again for anti-fouling. The kids have got 2 weeks left at school this term. Their schooling arrangements for the rest of the year are still up in the air a bit; unfortunately this is one aspect of the plan that hasn't been as straight forward as we hoped. And I've got 2 weeks left at work meaning it is just 2 weeks before the work begins to relocate everything we own to the boat, storage, the Salvos or the bin. A list of things we're hoping to re-home temporarily is below, please get in touch if you'd be interested in baby-sitting anything for us for 6 months!

- House, Mitsubishi Lancer, Holden Commodore with towball, Box trailer (rigged to carry 2 kayaks), 2 kayaks, Kawasaki GPX 250 (if it doesn't sell), ...

Birthday on the Bay

Scarborough to Manly, June 2011

Shane and his brother took their parents out on the bay for a joint birthday celebration last week. After rescheduling a few times, they settled on the same day as State of Origin I. The original plan of an overnight trip to Tangalooma was modified to include a stopover at Manly, allowing them the chance to pop into the Yacht Club and watch the game. A good trip, by all accounts.