TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

Halyards are rattling and clanging all around and yes, you guessed right – we are still in the marina. The forecast changed from gale forece to storm force winds today (Tuesday) and we thought it would be way preferable to be in the marina and not on anchor with the wind trying to tug us off our anchor… who knows…. tomorrow…. or the day after??

The time has come…. Tomorrow morning we plan to head out early so that we can get through the Denison channel on a rising tide (around 14.00hr) and make it around the corner to North Bay where we will wait out the big blow that is expected on Tuesday. Then we will hop up the coast. Hopefully we will have some internet reception so will keep you posted.

Its gone – the car! On hearing that these people were driving through with the money Ian quickly went to collect the genoa which had to be restitched because the Tassie sun had attacked the stitching, and I went to the supermarket for a last shop for heavy stuff. From now on it will be lug everything by hand or on our little trolley. So once the weather is right we will be leaving Hobart.

Another week has buzzed by. Ian has been pre-occupied with all the paperwork needed for his permanent visa application, but did find time to hand stitch the used fireman’s hose around the dinghy cover, which acts as scuff shield and would have been impossible to sew with a domestic sewing machine. The cover is now on and looks wonderful in my eyes… The machine went back on the auction on Friday and I have yet to find if I got my money back or not. Selling the car is going to take a little longer…. I was mis-informed as to the cut-off date for the Saturday paper, so it will only go in this coming Saturday and as yet we have not had one call re today’s add….. These things are always easier to buy than sell! I am getting itchy feet and want to visit all the places friends have told us are not to be missed, such as Deal Island, which is more or less in the middle of Bass Straights. Soon, soon, soon.

One week floating gently in a lovely berth in a lovely part of the world…. Pressurized by the list of things to do – with ‘Dinghy cover’ at the top of the list! The logistics of making a permanent canvas cover to put over the now tacky fabric of our 10 year old rubber duck were as follows: Search internet (I looove the internet) for knowhow on making a dinghy cover and find out the right name is the very odd ‘dinghy chaps’; get up at crack of dawn before wind picks up and pull rubber duck out of water onto narrow walkon and drape white newsprint all over rubber duck and tape paper to make paper pattern, making sure you do not step back into water by mistake; use wonky plastic table in marina laundry to transfer initial paper pattern to proper paper pattern; lay out pattern on carpet of motel room to measure how much canvas is needed; fantasize about an industrial machine that purrs over four+ layers of canvas without a hitch; cope with depression of realizing there ain’t no industrial machines waiting to be borrowed, rented or bought: check auction ads for sewing machines and spy a Brother sewing machine and just KNOW it will yours (even tho it is in job lot with six knives in a wooden block); beat back other bidders to triumphantly emerge lugging el ole Brother and load it into car (with knives); ask yacht club for room and table to step up machine; sew, sew, sew for three days, each day in a different room and day three in corner of dining room (empty of people thank goodness). The poor machine had to cope with thick thread and a beeg needle, and;from time to time four layers of canvas. It protested and stopped (jammed???) now and then in total distress and had to be hand coaxed back to clunking along. It was a great buy as at the end when normal cotton was used it purred along and am sure will treat its next owner well.

Needless to say, the overall look of the cover is unlikely to give the professional canvas people much to worry about, with the cover unlikely to be loved by anyone other than she who made it, and believe, me, she who made it with now dem sore thumbs and pin pricks in many a finger loves looking at it and is mighty proud of it, even if her mother and domestic science teach would be horrified at the tension and general appearance!

Many other things have been ticked off the list over the past week and departure date is getting closer and closer with the Clyde, the car, likely to be up for sale in this Saturday’s paper. Today we hoisted the storm sails just to check them…. Hoping we never have to use them!

Ian and I have worked like Trojans since leaving our Kings Pier Marina berth last Monday. We were taken out of the water on a cradle that runs up a ramp on railway type tracks. Then you blast the bottom of the boat with a hi pressure hose to get the barnacles and other sealife off the bottom. Then the net leg of the operation looks so daunting that you hire someone else to do the work for you!! Not so say there is more than enough for you to do. Ian re-inserted two tricky engine mount bolts and then serviced the seacocks, a job that is not yet finished. I acid-washed most of the outside of the boat (white bit) and then the past two days have been polishing it so it does not go yellow again.  With time against us we decided to polish the foot directly above the water line (still 95’ of surface…) and will do the rest when back in the water, using the rubber duck as a platform. Luckily the club has all the necessary equipment, such as scaffolding, ladders, long handled roller, etc. The Bilge Rats, plus Fergus the dog, have been wonderful as they have a wealth of knowledge and even if you do not employ them to do a stage of the work, they are happy to tell you how to do it.

Linda helped by bringing us a huge lasgne for dinner on Wednesday that we are going to feast on again tonight. We gave up on staying in the motel as we were literally using the room for showering and sleeping, which we can do here tho you very much feel like a poor white living in a parking lot! Access to Rebel is now up a ladder and the boat is filthy with grime and grease all over. Oh well, there is always next week to clean that! We are hoping to get back into the water tomorrow and will stay in a pen at the yacht club here for a week or so while we sort ourselves out and get ready to set off again. Must sell the car – it will be good to be keyless again.

Tuesday was Australia Day, a big holiday for the Aussies. In Sandy Bay there was a citizernship ceremony in the public park with around 90 people in Tasmania alone getting citizernship. Ian and I went on to Kingston Beach where all sorts of beach activities had been laid on for the kids,

On Thursday we went out on the Windeward Bound again as they needed extras for a TV enactment of the first burial in Tasmania 200 years ago. Ian had to help row the wooden boat with the corpse in it to the shore, so got his mugshot on the evening news! Fame and hopefully fortuen are around the corner!!In the evening we took advantage of the lovely weather to braai in a park with friends. Most parks here have either electric or gas barbeques that you simply use and leave clean for the next person. Very civilized and stops fires being light in the wrong place.

The Kings Pier Marina community is breaking up, with the various yachts going their separate ways. Kathleen and the twins from Motu flew back to New Zealand on Wednesday and Robert will sail the boat back when the weather is suitable. So that meant a farewell do on Tuesday night, and on Saturday night we had one aboard Rebel as we will not be coming back into the marina when we have finished on the slip. The last guests left a 1.30 in the morning and an entire batch of choc brownies was totally demolished – primarily by three guys….

Never was hot water and unlikely to ever be hot water from the water cylinder. Ian pulled it apart to find the element totally corroded and getting a replacement is proving near impossible as there was no name on it and the off the shelf products do not fit. Oh well, it was a nice thought but we will just have to continue using gas.

Windeward Bound, a brigantine that does three hour cruises for tourists, was short of crew yesterday so Ian and I went along to help. it has two two masts and twelve sails, making it both very interesting and very confusing. Apparently all the lines, sheets and ropes total four miles! They had Ian up on the yardarms handling the sails… after we had said to each other we would only go if we did not have to climb up the ladders and do just that! I stuck to galley and hostess duties for the day trippers. Ian enjoyed himself so much that he went off again today tho I cried off as I had a lot to do on Rebel.For more info go to www.windbound.com

To test Ian’s new walking shoes on Sunday morning we ventured out to Mt Wellington for a trial walk. Cloud half way down the mountain forced us to do the Fingerpost Track, which goes up to the half way station and gave us a good two and a half hour workout there and back. Then off to fill both gas bottles as we were clean out of gas (no early morning tea or coffee).

Monday was Dday for the installation of the new inverter. However, with temperatures of 36c expected, Mark the Spark (the electrician) left after an hour and a half to hose down his house as a fire preventative measure. Fortunately there were very few fire incidents in Tasmania. Tuesday saw Ian feeding cables through impossibly small spaces, digging up the floorboards to access cables, and generally crawling around like a monkey doing lacky work in preparation for Mark the Spark.  End of Wednesday we finally had 240V power direct from shorepower to the plug points. Bob came down on Thursday to help sort out the microwave problem and the hot water heater. So what was expected to be a two day exercise is going to end up a week exercise as the water heater is still tripping but we now have a far less complicated system, thanks to Bob who has spent hours with us and on our system.