After reviewing the “to-do” list – you know the one, that never ending list of boating jobs that despite how many things you cross off, just keeps getting longer and longer, I have decided to categorise the items into two groups. First group is upgrades. These are items that previously didn’t exist on La Mouette and cover things such as the roller furling, stereo system, electric pump in the galley etc. The other category is the refurbs which cover existing…
Since the last blog, La Mouette has had a change of address. No longer a resident of Booker Bay, she is now happily berthed at Akuna Bay, a wee inlet off Coal and Candle Creek, one of the waterways that come off Cowan Creek. It’s a flash marina and one of the D’Albora family of marinas – a big change from the previous marina. It appears that La Mouette has had a few different homes in her past, Sydney Harbour,…
After months of not being able to take La Mouette out sailing, actually it’s been over a year, we spent Easter out on the waterways of the Hawkesbury and Cowan. As the title suggests there were a lot of firsts, however, everything pretty much went according to plan. Except for a lack of wind, so the motor got a real workout, but that was OK as it’s the first real run the motor has had since the rebuild. What added…
Sometimes it’s really tough to sit down and write another blog especially when there is a bit of a gap since the last one. You would think that over a period of time there would be more to write about, however, sometimes the boatwork isn’t all that interesting and trying to write a scintillating blog about how you fixed the sink plug isn’t something that you can write very much about. In this case, a lot has happened since the…
Spring is sprung The grass is riz I wonder where the birdie is The birdie is upon the wing No, that’s absurd The wing is on the little bird So goes the famous rhyme – and it’s certainly spring here in Australia. We have gone from winter to summer in just a few days, although the ski fields in the Snowy Mountains are still experiencing the best season in over a decade. Spring is sprung and the grass…
It’s already halfway through August and I am wondering where the best part of this year has gone. It didn’t even make a sound as it whizzed by! You would have thought that things whizzing would make a sound, but in the case of time, it doesn’t. Half a century has been and gone and not even a flutter or a rustle. The tide comes in and out, the length of skirts goes up and then back down. Hairstyles also…
It’s been a while since the last blog – sorry about that. Time has been doing what it’s best at, and that is slipping away. They say time stands still for no man, or is it time and tide wait for no man. Very appropriate for a sailor. Robert Frost had a version also, “Time and Tide wait for no man but always stands still for a woman of 30”. Someone should write down a list of those Murphy type…
One of the boating rules of thumb that I keep coming across in my travels around the internet and YouTube is that your maintenance bill generally works out as a percentage of the cost price of the vessel. For example, if you paid $50,000 for your yacht, then the maintenance bill, averaged out over a few years will work out as a percentage of that $50,000. Not too sure what the actual percentage is supposed to be, but I would…
As soon as one major project is finished, the next one is champing at the bit to get started, or recommenced, or finished, or something. We have known for some time that the batteries were just about dead. The main house battery hasn’t been holding a charge for some time and the smaller starting battery is probably near the end of its life also. The designations for which battery is the house and which is the starter are purely mine. …
It’s so easy to get carried away with technology and to enhance your lifestyle with whizz bang gimmickry. We are all suckers for the latest gadgets that promise to revolutionise our hobby/lifestyle, or at least take a little bit of the drudgery and hard work out of things. Yachts certainly fall into this category. Which is a good reason for not going to boat shows. Boat shows are definitely dangerous places for the unwary and you can get suckered into…