New year, new direction

[Oldsquizzy]

More important,,,Where the fish biting.

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by haiqu

So, it's low tide and blowing 50 kt right on dusk and I'm out on in the cockpit ready to fend off any of three yachts that look like crashing into me ... then I see this guy.

The picture's a bit fuzzy, but he's sitting on a blow-up chair fishing, and he has huge flippers on for propulsion. Yeah, I had to laugh.

I love it.

[haiqu]

Looks like my woes are finally over. The commercial building went to auction last week and sold for ... naah, I can't tell you that. Anyhow, I am no longer poor.

[Auzzee]

Yay....By the way, I am seeking donations to the Poor Children's Father's Beer Fund : And unlike many charities recently in the news, I guarantee 100% of all donations will be used to benefit the intended recipient.

I hope the windfall changes your life for the better.

Just imagine if you were a working stiff, you'd be up for chuckin'a sickie.

[steve_h]

Originally Posted by haiqu

Looks like my woes are finally over. The commercial building went to auction last week and sold for ... naah, I can't tell you that. Anyhow, I am no longer poor.

Good news !

Hopefully your sailing plans can proceed a bit quicker and with less stress

[haiqu]

I can't imagine that it could make my life any worse.

Between that and my new venture (still not divulging that, too early) life isn't looking too bad at all right now. Not a millionaire yet but there is a distinct possibility I just may be eventually.

[haiqu]

I'm famous! See The Coastal Passage issue #77.

The Coastal Passage Home Page

[redbopeep]

Can I have your autograph?

[haiqu]

Interesting piece of family history ...

Tasman James Spaulding (1880-1939) of Dunalley, Tasmania went to Antarctica in 1903 to rescue Scott on the Terra Nova. He should have received a Polar Medal for his efforts but due to administrative errors it was never awarded. Related to my maternal grandfather Bertram James Spaulding (1893-1987) who came from this area.

http://eprints.utas.edu.au/13283/1/2...ntarctic_2.pdf

[redbopeep]

Not cool that he didn't get the medal but wow, cool.

[haiqu]

I haven't mentioned the yachts lately because I've been taking an extended shore leave at my brother's place. I only intended to come up here for a week but he wanted me to mind the house and feed his pets when he went off for a week on a houseboat, then this week he had a minor operation and required a driver to and from the hospital. I'll be back aboard Shenoa next Tuesday after the long weekend.

This has given me the opportunity to have a long think about where I'm going. My main concern has been, "Do I have enough time and energy left to achieve my sailing goals, now that finances are no longer the major issue?" I mulled over other options like selling everything up and buying a house (in Australia), or traveling the world by other means, or even moving overseas permanently. In the end I decided that despite my lack of experience as a skipper the lifestyle is definitely worthwhile, and this was reinforced by a decided lack of affordable housing in any place I'd actually want to live.

In a few weeks I should have the first payment from the commercial building. I'll be taking a short run down the coast to the Boat Works in Coomera at that stage and starting work on the hull. If - at the end of three months - the work isn't completed, it will mean I'm just too old and tired for this. But if I don't try it I'll never know. Hey, what else do I have to do for the rest of the year anyhow ...

[redbopeep]

A favorite quote:

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. " Henry David Thoreau

All we have is time and a general direction to progress towards. Don't give yourself a hard deadline of a few months--that can roll by very quickly. I suggest that instead, evaluate if you're getting somewhere even if it is glacial progress inch-by-inch. Only you will know if you're making your way along. David and I do hope that you get aboard and sail your own boat, indeed, because it is a most rewarding thing to do.

Best of luck,
Brenda

[haiqu]

Good advice Brenda, however I wonder how old Thoreau was when he wrote that. Time does run out eventually, and my awareness of that is sharpened by the loss of several friends in the past fortnight, some of whom were much younger than me. Another isn't expected to last until the end of May.

Then again Webb Chiles left Opua today on his latest journey at the age of 74 so I may be able to do it yet. It would certainly be easier if I had started earlier and had some of his experience anyhow. He'll be landing at Bundaberg and I'm seriously tempted to drive up there just to say hi.

Here's his tracker page for the Yellow Brick device: https://my.yb.tl/gannet

General progress is fine when you're not paying yard fees at $170pw plus materials. If I don't have a result in three months it will be a very telling experience.

I'm back aboard again today. Apart from an odd smell and the distinct lack of cockroaches - it seems I finally got them this time - all seems to be as it was. Now I have to work out how to travel 70km through narrow and shallow channels to the boatyard, with only a 6hp outboard and a hanked-on storm jib for propulsion. And since I have no lights, apart from a jury-rigged anchor light, it will have to be done in the daytime. Sure wish I'd made this trip before, I suspect there will be some serious currents to deal with.

[haiqu]

Here's the maze I need to get through to make it to The Boat Works in Coomera (bottom). On OpenCPN it's even scarier, the depths go down to 0.2 metres in places. Red rings show my location on the Brisbane River.

[steve_h]

That looks like an adventure
Should be some creeks where you can lay up and wait for the tide or daylight?

[haiqu]

Yes, there are a couple of spots if I can get to them in one day. Alan Lucas' "Cruising the Coral Coast" has been very useful there.

If only I had the depth gauge fitted already ...

[Auzzee]

You can fit the transducer for your depth sounder inside the hull. It means cutting a piece of say 100mm poly pipe (screw at one end..like dunny pipe), about 250mm long; and getting a screw cap. Drill a hole to take the shaft of the transducer in the cap. Find a good spot (not over the keel) to mount the pipe. Cut it so it fits the hull and sits upright. Epoxy it to the hull. Fill it with vegetable oil, fit the transducer to the cap, screw it onto the pipe and it will work. You can Google the whole process (fitting a depth sounder transducer inside the hull) and be rewarded with scores of responses.

[haiqu]

My Raymarine depth transducer also does boat speed so that won't work for me. I was aware of that technique but I believe it isn't recommended for ferro hulls anyhow, for the same reason that ultrasonic anifoul won't work in them. I'm planning to drill a 50mm hole in the hull when I get to Coomera. If I consider it necessary to have depth for the trip a transom mounted fishfinder would be quicker to implement and fairly cheap.

I found out what the odd smell was after about 6 hours of suffering. I had left some eggs aboard and a couple of them had cracked. Reminiscent of a dead animal, I couldn't believe it until I took them outside.

[haiqu]

Just found an ad for a pair of 12 metre berths for sale at a marina close to the centre of Brisbane last night. Big enough to take a 40' cat if you used both of them at once. At $65k it seemed like a pretty good deal until I made some enquiries.

- Maintenance fees are $950 a quarter and they're due to rise soon.
- No assigned parking or shore storage for marina tenants.
- Multiple reports of CitiCat ferries damaging yachts by creating wake turbulance.
- Leasehold, expires in 2034 (I won't need it after that, but wasted money).
- Liveaboard fee is $200pcm, for electricity and water mainly (reasonable).

They rent out for $700pcm each, but if business is slow it could be a costly mistake. There just aren't that many visiting yachts here.

But let's look at the cost of using one myself.

Annual depreciation of lease $1855.00 PER BERTH
Annual loss of interest at 10% $185.50
Annual liveaboard fee $2400.00
Annual maintenance fee $3800.00
Parking fees ????

That works out to $675.00 a month. Hell, I can rent a unit in Asia or South America for that sort of money.

[haiqu]

Funny the stuff people try to get away with. I was just looking at a 1.19ha (2.4 acre) block of land on the Mary River at Maryborough Qld for sale at $49,000 which seems cheap on the surface of it. It's advertised as residential so you'd expect to find electricity and phone available at least.

Nope.

Google Earth shows that it's only accessible by 4WD via a deeply rutted dirt track laughingly named Napier Street, and has no sign of power lines within 1km. But I was more worried about the neighbours. Spot the 10 metre croc in the river?

Oh, and in a 6 metre flood most of the property would be underwater, and that happens about every 5 years around this area. In fact the 2011 floods were 12 metres deep. Residential? Hahaha.