Er, g'day

[haiqu]

Been 2 1/2 years since I logged in, can't believe it. This place used to be my second home.


I ran aground mid-2020. Had the old Hartley Tasman crushed and bought a house, and haven't thought much about yachts ever since. I now own a decommissioned Post Office in Bundarra NSW which is a long way from the ocean. With the flooding that has been occurring on the coast I'm sure it was the right decision, and with the isolation from the general populace - the town has only 400 people and not even a supermarket for 50 km - CoVid19 hasn't been an issue either.


It looks like I'm here to stay. Apart from the old VW Transporter that I had the day I first logged in back in 2011, and the Isuzu Elf 250 I bought to store my stuff in when storage became too expensive, I now own an Alfa 147 Ti, a Peugeot 207 CC, a Husqvarna ride-on mower and an 8' x 4' laser cutting machine. We sure do accumulate stuff when living ashore.


The Tasman was never a fixer. Yes, I could have patched up the hull cracks but Queensland Maritime required it to be signed off by a qualified boat builder, and NOBODY of that ilk is silly enough to sign off on a home built yacht (especially a ferro) unless they perform the work themselves. So the dream ended there, in a rundown boatyard in Beachmere, QLD after three years living on the hard. Bummer.


The old ferros did get me through those last ten years to retirement age, and a small legacy allowed me to buy a decent home, if a remote one. Then again, at 69 one's friends start to thin out - I've lost the best of them in the past 5 years - and socializing isn't nearly as important as it once was.


The yachting life is a worthwhile dream, and that one trip to NZ with Del will be etched upon my memory forever, but in all honestly I started far too late, and with too little in the way of funding. Like my older dreams of owning a Ferrari or traveling the world, it had to be tempered by reality. And looking at what passes for reality today, I'm fairly glad I'm in a remote location away from the world's issues.


I picked a great place to sit out the zombie apocalypse.

[Oldsquizzy]

Things and priorities change as we get older I suppose. We still have the yacht and wander around a bit. More based in Geraldton these days as bought an older cray boat to go back and forth to the islands a bit quicker. Luck has stayed with me and am still able to dive as much as ever. For some it changes for others it slightly modifies but just gets better and better. Was afforded the privilege to reach seventy with little difference to health. Just slower and now whilst diving see things i merely glanced at before.
Anyway if you get to read this you take care and live a comfortable life. Do miss your prattling on at times.