Well, not too much. I think it's time for a little update about what's going on with us and how things are going.
It's been two months since we bought Justine and I've just found some time to sit down and write post.
Time is the biggest problem here. He has accelerated very, very much recently and I do not know how it happened that we already have February.
Justine is still standing where we bought her. It is not yet ready to take it closer to Sydney, because we do not have time to prepare it for the cruise. Yeah - ta da !!!
And as it happens in old boats, something always comes out, something constantly breaks down, something still needs to be repaired. But we knew what we were doing. Nothing but my favorite saying should be mentioned here, which I sincerely hate when someone applies it to me: everyone gets what they deserve!
In sequence, what is our life like lately.
We have developed a routine - during the week: get up, work, home, dinner, sleep.
And at the weekend, shopping, travel, boat, repair, sleep, repair, return travel, home.
We have to travel to the boat about 2.5 hours one way, if there are no traffic jams. About 200 km. Justine is anchored on the mooring
with the picturesque name of Lemon Tree Passage. But only the name is so picturesque.
Lemon Tree is a woter channel with too shallow for our immersion, a channel where it is constantly blowing or raining. When we have wind from the ocean, which means almost always - even though the marina is hidden behind a vast peninsula - it is being createdan air corridor in which we can only pray not to be blown away.
And there's practically nothing you can do. Well, you will not raise the sail, because when it blows it will knock us over, and there such unexpected squalls descending from the nearby hills are very common.
After two months, I'm honestly starting to dislike this channel.
Plus, it's damn shallow. At the tide, feel the keel scrubbing the silt in the bottom. Sometimes we just stand in it. How do we recognize that?! When some motorboats passes by and leaves the wake behind it doesm't make any impression on our boat. It just stands still, nailed to the bottom.
So, in addition to hunting for the weather window, we also have to align everything with the ebb. Summer this year is terrible, rainy and windy. There had been two heat waves, but then it was almost impossible to stay under the deck longer than two minutes. And if you wanna catch the tide, you would have to start living according to the moon calendar.
Overall, we have recently specialized in complex operations. What does our weekend trip look like? First, we need to think about baggage logistics. Pack ourrselfs so that everything takes up as little space as possible. We still have to work on it ....
We keep backpacks and food to a minimum. This is because you have to get to the boat first. She does not stand by the pier like in Masuria Lakes (famous spot for polisch sailors), where you take a small step and you're on board. Ours is standing on the mooring in the middle of the canal.
So we have a little pontoon, called also a dinghy. This inflatable, 2.5-meter long "drunken hare" with the crazy power of the Mercury 3HP engine was supposed to be a temporary solution, but NOTE we do not have time to buy something bigger. A drunk hare (as we affectionately call it) is folded.
The engine, pontoon, oars, aluminum floor of the pontoon and the pump are our permanent luggage in the campervan. As you can imagine - it takes up a lot of space. But we are gettig better in unpacking and packing it. After preparation, we carry the pontoon to the edge of the canal and launch it. And then we pack gear: 3 canisters with water, a can of gasoline, our backpacks, food, bags with tools, recently a 30-kg battery, some spare parts, boards and who knows what else! A floating gypsy camp, we look like refugees from Papua New Guinea. Surprisingly, the coastguard has not yet taken an interest in us.
It's great when the tide is big. It is very bad when the tide flows away. Then we have to carry the hare 50 meters in the mud up to knees, while also be aware of leeches and large crabs that like to nipp. And rabid and brutal mosquitoes. Now add the downpour and the raging wind to it. Additionally, the dinghy has refused to obey us recently. We broke the handles from lifting (probably because the packed dinghy weighed 500 kg) and the spark in the engine died in the middle of the canal, so we had to row. Well, full option polish onion. I think that all the local residents already know us and they just have a big LOL of us. By Australian standards our actions are simply irrational to them. Normally, people pull such a boat ashore, renovate it and set sail.
But we are from Poland (Polish onion max version).
Then you have to bring everything on board - my back has already crumpled from carrying it.
Only then, and it is usually around 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., you can start repairing something.
And there is a lot of it.
Maybe it will be faster if I write what has been done so far.
(NOTE, now there will be a lot of gibberish in a totally incomprehensible sailing dialect, which I still don"t understand. Do you know that only in Polish all these names are so complicated?).
Among the more important things, we took care of the mess inside, checked the capacity of the water tanks, retracted the mainsail (the big one) and replaced the mainsail halyard (the rope from the main sail). Due to the wind, we do not have time to pull the jib (such a smaller front sail). Once, together with my friend, we managed to pull Marcin onto the mast. OMG that was scary! There is a bit of work to do up there - the most urgent is to install navigation lights and secure a slightly cracked spreader (such a transverse part of the mast that spreads the cords, i.e. lines supporting the mast). Anyway, we straightened this mast, i.e. we loosened the tension on the backstay a little (such a thick steel rope that holds the mast from the stern), because we noticed that all units here have their masts terribly tilted back. We wonder if it is because there are SUCH strong winds here ...?
We started the engine, it is in good condition and after replacing the mount, it runs smoothly and doesn't shake the whole boat so much.
One weekend, when we got onto Justine we both got the impression that someone was on board during our absence. You know, sometimes there is a feeling that something is wrong. On the deck there was our knife (to open the padlock?). The lever for the gearbox was on the reverse (99% we would not have left it in this position), inside the toilet paper flew to the other side of the cabin, the cups were upside down and someone drank our coffee! I don't know if anyone slept in our crib ?!
Yes, it could be that we left boat in that state, because I remember how quickly we escaped from the deck because it was so hot that we were boiling alive there. Maybe in the confusion we left it all like this, but it is really really unlikely....
In fact, we would not even mind if someone would look at this boat from time to time, check if everything is ok (we suspect that it could have been the former owner - the young one), just let him tell us about it.
Especially since he was probably using a refrigerator and all the electrics were gone. The batteries were dead and everything needed to be replaced. And because the bilge pump must run all the time (the pump that automatically drains the water that collects at the lowest point of the boat - under the floor) electricity from solar panels must flows non-stop, otherwise:
But everything is ok now, Marcin repaired and replaced the batteries. We have a new super extra regulator, a new panel, a new radio - even two (or even three now) and lighting. And we replaced the padlock in the washboard (such an entrance door).
So we sit like this in all weekends evenings till Sunday mornings. And then you have to pack quickly again and go home before the evening traffic jams.
And let's make an appointment - Marcin does everything. Alone. Captain Self-sufficient. He is a brave and hardworking Captain. I just accompany him and try to make this works pleasent with some drink and a meal. But in the meantime, we baptized Justine and celebrated the Captain's birthday. We even had our first guests!
All work and no play (makes jack a dull boy)!
Because once we're on Justine, it's really cool. I rest there mentally so much. We can relax and regenerate so beautifully. We are surrounded by beautiful nature and a piece of the ocean. After two years we even finally saw wild koalas, because Lemon Tree Passage is also a reserve for wild koalas. We are often visited by black swans, probably hawks fly above us, in the evenings huge fish are throwing around the boat and a small herd of hunting dolphins sometimes come!
It is really beautiful there.
If it is not blowing and it is not pouring.
But when for the first time we set off the mooring to sail around a small island to check on the engine the joy was enormous!
Look, what an emotions after the first cruise! And forgive the quality of the video, but it was such experience!
That's all for now. Lot of thing happens. It will still be a long time before we set sail for the ocean. But we are closer than farther. And we already know where we will go on her maiden voyage! For start, not too far to avoid such situations:
But it's a secret for now!
Please keep your fingers crossed for us! Sorry for the lack of regular entries, but you do understand. I hope that today's post has rewarded you for such long silence.
Stay tuned and let's have fun!