on-the-move

Happy New Year 2012

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:31:08 +0100

Therese and I have moved aboard...yeh !! Still got plenty to do before we start our cruising retirement. This includes checking important systems. Had some problems with the fridge but now it is cycling beautifully. Went for 3 days without turning on the engine, powered by the wind generator alone....brilliant.

Man, doesn't that food look cold...not sure ..check out the thermometer.

. That's right, 2.8 degrees C....brrrrrr !

And of course, we have continued to be good consumers. Bought a you beaut epirb + gps. Air sea rescue can find us to 100m accuracy. Don't plan on using it any time soon.



We also bought a couple of Hutchwilco Inflatable Lifejackets. I think this is the only way to go. We found when we cruised last time that we tended not to put on our standard life jackets when we should have because they were uncomfortable. But with these inflatables I hardly know I have it on.
" That's because you don't have it on you idiot !" screams Therese.

We have been aboard a little over a week and we are just starting to get into some cruising routines.....




Therese relaxing at sundowners. There is plenty of space on the deck for a 'real" chair. Warning...don't get between a woman and her champagne.



Jim showering on the wind deck using our solar shower. Sure, it's a sight to frighten the children but the wing deck is stable, roomy and the water stays outside. I really like this setup. There is enough water in the bag for two showers. But on this occasion I had it all to myself ....ahhh, bliss.

Therese getting the most out of our oven with her signature meat dish. " What are you cooking, Therese ?" Jim asks as he points the camera intrusively into the galley.
Therese stares at me..." Meat !" she replies blankly.
Hmmm..plenty of protein but not a vegetable in sight.
Glad I'm not a vegetarian......as my heart skips a beat.

It is 2012. We are retired and living aboard. Life doesn't get any better than this.

Retiring 2012 ! Yeh

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:17:20 +0100

Therese and I will be hanging up the chalk sticks at the end of 2011 and moving aboard Aussie to do some cruising. For how long ?...... until Aussie finds a new owner...I guess.
I am really quite excited about the whole project. We will be moving out of our townhouse at Alexandra Headlands and are now busily storing and giving away much of the "stuff" we have accumulated.
Of course, there are a whole bunch of projects that I have earmarked for the boat.

Project One: Going Wireless !

I have ordered a new Lenovo Thinkpad x1 (13" laptop, gorilla glass, superbright screen) for the nav station. It should arrive in a week or so. can't wait to play with that. We will have to give up the work computer we have beed using.



    "For those who do". I think that says it all.....sigh.

                                                                       But a new computer is not enough to satisfy the consumer in me. I have also bought a wifi antenna with a usb adaptor, so I can pinch all that free and unguarded data out there in the wireless world.

               I can plug it straight into my new Lenovo X1 or using an active USB cable

hoist it into the rigging in marginal areas. So if you have an unguarded Wifi hotspot.... look out.

But that's not all....steak knives ?...no., not quite. I have also given my useless,overpriced Vodaphone sim card the flick and switched to Amaysim ( Optus network - would have gone for Telstra but too expensive). Amaysim really suits me. No plan (quit anytime), reasonable call and data charges and I kept my old number... easily. I am now buying a High gain 3G antenna to fix as high as possible on the boat. ( That's right, another antenna !) and an Optus Mini WiFi modem. This will allow me to maxinmize my connection to the nearest Optus access point and I can set up a little wifi hotspot on the boat - sit anywhere on the boat with my new Lenovo X1 and surf the net. The modem is locked to Optus network but will operate with Amaysim sim card because they are on the same network. Yeh ! Great deal at Big W, Dick Smith and Joyce Mayne (many others) at the moment. You buy an Optus Mini Wifi starter kit for $99 on a prepaid plan. You get 8 gb free for 6mths. That's about $80 worth of data. I am going to use up the free stuff from Optus and then stick an Amaysim Sim card in once the 8 gb is used up. They charge $9.99 for 1 gb/ month. They also charge in 1mb increments unlike Optus who charge in 10mb.....rip off. ! The great thing about Amaysim "pay as you go" is that if we find wifi hotspots easy to access. We can just stop buying the data packs from Amaysim ( no penalty). They give you 6 mths to use the service before they cancel.

So, there you go. Project " Going Wireless' underway.



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Aussie is still for sale but still sailing.

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:48:40 +0100

Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd start a blog. Aussie is for sale and looking excellent, if I do say so. She sails fabulously, is great to be aboard and we are out and about on her as much as possible. Anyone notice the sales pitch ? :) Sometimes we sail out from Mooloolaba for a couple of hours, heading for Noumea, New Caledonia- eating crousants and drinking wine. After a couple of hours we reluctantly "go about" and head back to the breakwater before we consume too much wine/ beer. Often the lee of the rock wall off the Mooloolaba beach is a pleasant picnic spot. We frequently finish work early on Friday afternoon, head down to Moreton Bay and spend a weekend behind the wrecks at Tangalooma. The sunset from the bar at the resort is something else. Therese likes to take photos using her new Galaxy S2 smartphone.

We are on holidays at the moment- Thank God ! And we have just returned from a week sailing up to and around Tin Can Bay and Fraser island. We left Mooloolaba midnight on Saturday after watching the Wallabies get beaten by the Irish in the Rugby World Cup....sigh. It's about a 9 hour sail to arrive a couple of hours before the high tide at the Wide Bay Bar. It is a great coast to sail along at night. But the wind dropped off early and we had to motor through he night and early morning. The bar crossing was flat, calm and just the way I like it.



We anchored off Elbow Point and commenced an excellent week in the Sandy Straits. Therese caught a sting ray, fishing in Kauri Creek. It really freaked me out -all I could think of was Steve Irwin. Therese calmly pulled it onto the boat, held it down with one hand, smartly pulled the hook out of its mouth with the other and slipped it back into the water. The Crocodile Hunter would have been proud.

We spent a day in Tin Can Bay township. Aussie ghosted down the inlet in a light nor-easterly and we had delicious steak sandwiches at the Tin Can Bay Yacht Club. They have the most refreshing, hot showers possible for only 2 bucks !

To Therese's disgust, I brought some paint with us on our holiday - so we could run Aussie up on a quiet beach and give her a coat of antifouling. With our shallow draft (about 75 cm) we were able to tuck behind Moonbeam Island further up the Straits and at high tide we gently bumped on the bottom at about 5.30 in the morning. Once we propped the floats up and supported the keel with some pieces of timber, we followed the tide down scrubbing and painting. We spent the rest of the day on the job and using a stiff broom found the hull cleaned easily with few barnacles. It was steady but not difficult work until I realised that Aussie was settling into the sand inspite of the timber support. I frantically excavated around the keel and just managed to remove enough sand to give the keel area a coat of paint.



We were totally exhausted at the end of the day but we had time to clean up, wash down in the warm shallow pools and sit back and enjoy a quiet beer or too before the tide overtook us.

We finished off our holiday in the Sandy Straits with a beautiful sail back to Mooloolaba, a 15 knot northerly escorting us home in very smart fashion. The icing on the cake was the show three sets of whales put on for us as we romped along the coast.

And we still have a week of our holidays left.....yeh ! What's next ?