Finally, the day has come

[haiqu]

After a few months of anticipation living in Queensland at my brother's place, I'm now back in Sydney and finally about to begin work on Keppelena. I've been aboard and done a rudimentary inspection and there were a few surprises - both good and bad - and I'm confident this is a project I can complete.

For those who missed the earlier posts, I took a look from the shore to verify the boat's existence and then kept going back in late May/ early June. Sydney was raining hard and my father was ill further north, necessitating a rushed visit to simply deal with registration issues.

I was planning to continue on to Mackay for work but this didn't pan out. Instead I helped install some air conditioners in return for room and board in Ipswich. After my father's passing I stayed a little longer while waiting for some ebay purchases to arrive then returned to Sydney.

Surprises were as follows:

1. Fairly serious dry rot in the cabin plywood. I expected some, but this is fairly extensive. There's evidence of leakage into the galley but the rest seems to have stayed dry.

2. Bonus items not expected were a backstay antenna, a eutectic fridge and a brand new bilge pump that needs to be fitted. The head also contains a very desirable recirculating sump shower.

In all I'm still very happy I bought this yacht.

Unfortunately my inflatable dinghy vanished after 24 hours, so I'm bidding on a used 2.1m f/glass tender and should have it by the weekend. For now still living in the VW van. The dinghy may have been stolen, there were a lot of small vans bringing gear for a huge wedding at one of the $6M houses at the end of the road where I access the river. OTOH it may have just blown away in the hailstorm that happened the day after I went aboard. Either way it was going to be replaced and was a temporary measure, way too wobbly without a solid floor.

I've been using the extra time ashore checking out the location of showers, laudromats, cheap supermarkets and free internet services; and also doing some car maintenance and ordering stuff for the boat so it wasn't entirely a wasted week.

At this stage I'm going to be spending several months in Woolwich, cleaning and repairing stuff. If anyone in the area wants company for a casual sail please let me know, I'd love to get some exposure to that so the dream stays alive. Fortunately I no longer have to work, so this is now a full-time lifestyle.