After yet another whirlwind visit to Melbourne we arrived back in Opua last Friday. Bright Sea was sitting waiting patiently on her mooring where we left her, the local bird life had largely ignored her in favour of alternative pooping sites and her batteries had enjoyed a ten day break with no demands on them for recharging devices of any kind. But…
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The story continues! (at last…)
114 days ago we bought our dream home. 114 days ago we bought the boat that would become our home. 114 days ago we bought a second hand boat that needed some work. 114 days ago we bought a second hand boat that needed a lot of work. 114 days ago we bought a money pit. 114 days ago we…
Diplomacy triumphs over Doomsday
We arrived in Savusavu feeling really excited about the trip to Futuna, after our very sedate overnight sail here. Then Murphy’s Law struck; a quick check of engines before clearing out revealed milky oil in the port sail drive; a sure sign that it’s leaking water into the gear box, meaning a high risk of damaging the gear box beyond repair if…
The new normal
It’s picture-perfect postcard sailing conditions in the South Pacific Ocean. After another dawn start, we finished making our way around the top of Fiji (more headwinds) and finally made our way out just below Malakati Reef and then through the Makogai Channel. We’ve got a ten day extension on the cruising permit, which means we still have to get out…
We’re legal! (Almost…)
Back in Fiji after a whirlwind Melbourne visit, including my eldest son’s wedding (what a gorgeous couple they made), two conference presentations, packing up and renting out my unit and trying to organise moving our life onto a forty foot floating home. Strange that when we left Fiji, the boat didn’t quite feel like home. Yet, arriving back in Australia neither…
Well this feels weird…
Waiting at Nadi International airport to go… home? Back to Melbourne? Home is in a state of flux, I guess, like everything at the moment. We’re really comfortable on the boat, but after only two weeks, it’s not quite home yet. Melbourne is still home, I guess, but only for a very short time. Essentially we’re going back to pack…
On board at last
After a lengthy wait for the owner to finish offloading his personal gear last Saturday, we finally got on board around 5pm… just in time for sundowners! It could have been a frustrating day, but then a) we’re on Fiji time and b) what’s one more day when we’ve waited this long? Besides, not an unreasonable ask from the owner…
We’ve done it!
We’re officially Blue Nomads! (Or will be on Saturday). We were about to head to Spain to check out a boat there, but I thought I’d do one more, in-depth Google search. Rather than looking at the main boat sales websites, I went deeper, to the 4th page of the search, and found a boat, exactly the model we wanted,…
Time to shed an old skin and grow into a new one…
For the last I’m not sure how many years, I’ve been developing a skin condition, mainly on my finger tips. The skin dies and sheds down to deep layers on a cyclical basis, leaving raw skin which is so sensitive I can’t hold a cup of hot tea or run my hands under hot water. During the ‘dead’ phase (which is…
Stepping off for the last time…
The prediction of a year of changes is certainly proving true… Between us we’ve sold four properties, purchased, renovated and moved into another, rented out Richard’s unit, organised my super into a self-managed fund and…. sold the boat! I’m very pleased to announce that Ryan and Sarah, an adventurous kiwi couple, are the new proud owners of the Elliott 10.5…