Zofia is now on the hardstand and we were thrilled that the engine was serviced the same day she went up. That leaves the polishing and anti-fouling work. This year the antifouling work will be a bigger job since we have a bit of plaque near the waterline. It would be great if Rob can get that sorted on Monday/ Tuesday. We've already missed the lovely easterlies for this week and Easy Tiger left today for Bunbury in the wee hours to use the last of the easterly flow. The Bloke is getting very twitchy now with multiple daily Predictwind logins and wagging a finger accompanied with exclamations of "Oh! Look. Look!" in reference to the easterly wind pattern which we are missing. To be sure it will come again and hopefully we'll have got it all done and it will be our time to cast off and turn south.
The Bloke got inspired with the canvass renewal and thought 'in for a penny, in for a pound' forgetting of course that Zofia is a boat and there ain't no such thing as a penny when it comes to boats. So another thousand it will be. Anyway the girl is being dressed up and we now have pockets! The noodle on the stern life lines installed so that the Bloke can lean out in comfort is now encased and supports 2 nice pockets for our jib sheets. Since adding the inner forestay there has been an extra rope lying about since the winch can only hold one. A nice result as everything is now tucked away neatly allowing even for the comfort of a water bottle to be close to hand. Oddly, the French forgot cup/bottle/can/wineglass holders at the helm station! Our solution will do nicely. Anyway, the canvass winch top hat can sit more snugly too when we are in port (oops, another drinking reference!).
Now that Easy Tiger has left we feel that progress has stalled to a glacial pace but we do have the sails back now and the canvass parts are arriving element by element and stud by stud (why Danny the Dane doesn't have a pocket full of the things is a mystery. Seems inefficient to keep returning to the workshop just to return with 2 more!). The crew of Urchin face a much bigger task - replacing a motor!
On the upside we can have had a few more evenings at the Kardinya Hilton and a few more farewell wines or three...hic!
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| Does my bum look big in this tammy lift? |
The poor car has performed like a ute despite being a hatch and certainly couldn't be left as it was if we expected anyone to turn over the motor from time to time. Besides, if left as was, it would probably give us nasty flashbacks when we return for visits.
Mood swings? Did we mention the mood swings? Will we ever get all this stuff to a resolution and be gone? 6 weeks ago, of our fleet of 3 boats we would all have agreed that we alone could have left if we wanted as all was pretty much ship shape and ready, the Bloke's planning and efforts in preceding months a triumph of project management! Suddenly, the sails are down, the canvass off: naked really, and our lift delayed 10 days! Finding it hard to engage with the conversations that start with "Oh we thought you had gone already" or the "When exactly are you leaving?" Mmmmm. Can't wait to say "thanks for everything, goodbye and hope we don't need to see you again ....(for a while anyway)". .... meant in the nicest possible way of course. So we are looking forward to a flood of "Lasts" including last visit to the Chandler (sorry Andy), drives to Perth and back and most of all last drinks!
So on the verge of departure we have a few thanks, in particular:
- The Manager of the Kardinya Hilton for all the love, support, care and assistance in getting our dream to fruition even if it meant sacrificing a couple of hundred Mummy Monday's
- Viv, Emma, Lucas, Amy and the littlies for hopefully forgiving us for buggering off
- Roger and Jill for offering to store our "stuff". We are optimistic that the Floreat winebottle borer beetle might leave us a few nips to share when on shore leave
- Roger again for weather advice
- Keith for offering to sail The Bight with us when everyone else said they had to stay home and wash the cat
- Andy and Bek at Hardware for Boats Mandurah for always getting stuff in for us
- Big Dave at Diesel Marine Maintenance for keeping our Yanmar in good nick and for teaching us how to look after our Iron Donkey. His tips on his website are excellent too - see www.dieselmarinemandurah.com.au
- Noelene at the Mardurah Marina for being a great host/landlady for us and Zofia for 5 1/2 years
- Andrew and Carolyn Bellamy and the beautiful Revision II for inspiration and encouragement - our mentors! Same goes to Missie, Paul, Tim & Ben from Wendera
- Dale, Catherine and Oceana our best ever marina pen pals on Georgia
- Claire who took off in her winebago 2 years ago. A pathfinder!
- Scott Olney from Liquid Leisure who made sure we had all the right Musto kit to keep us dry, warm and comfortable. The Dubarry shoes are winners too BTW.
- All the jetty rats past and present for stories and dreaming times
- Lastly but not least, B1 and Maree from Urchin and Leanne and Steve from Easy Tiger for wanting to share this journey. OK guys, let's just do it!
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| Zofia said "aaaah" as she was eased back into the water. Note sun shades and pockets. Gotta love the bling! |
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