Hafskip

Browsing Archive: August, 2010

Storage, Sewage and Salmon-tail catfish

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Sunday, August 29, 2010, In : Getting things sorted 

One of the basic realities of life on board a boat is a limit to storage….this impacts on our voyage scope and extends to everything…food supplies, fuel tanks, batteries, water capacity…and even the toilet has a limit! So one of our key tasks is to increase storage/capacity where ever it’s possible…or make sure we can ensure continuous supply! (NB: please exclude the toilet, continuous supply is assured here)  

In terms of fuel for the engine and gennie we bring diesel on board and...


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Careful placement of dominos

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Thursday, August 26, 2010, In : Getting things sorted 

Lucky the weather has been a tad lack lustre over the last couple of days…it’s helped getting some route planning done…. What does that mean?....research and more research is what it means. We’re up on hard stand next week for a about a week doin’ the tough stuff…but after that we really do need to be heading north to be sure we can position ourselves nicely for a coral sea crossing which would see us in Papua New Guinea by October.

Why October?.. Quite simple really….we want t...


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Competence is a relative thing

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Sunday, August 22, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

I have been pushed and prodded and now found competent to handle a recreational marine vessel thanks to 5 hours of intense tuition and scrutiny (not)….now isn’t that a fucking scary prospect… somehow I think there may well be a wee bit of difference between the ability to handle a 2 meter dingy and a 13.3 meter yacht with a 10 tonne displacement…but hey…who am I to argue with skipper Phil eh?... nonetheless I have my ticket to ride (aka. Licence to kill) …now it's time to put it t...


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Live and learn

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Thursday, August 19, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

Live and learn

August 20 2010

There’s a chinese proverb that goes something like… “Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand”....  and if you get all three you learn!

……………..

Well we’ve been out twice now…the first sail was a bit of a non-event…bugger all wind and lots of time spent fart-assing around with sails with little more than a breeze to fill them and a lost tender (recovered thank Christ)…. As per usual though th...


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Love me tender

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Friday, August 13, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

Getting to and from shore is a pretty important thing really…until yesterday I would have had absolutely no idea how to do it on my own! Yes that’s right I could have been stranded on Hafskip with no way to reach dry land aside from frantically waving my arms at passing dinghies or getting awful wet…..but thanks to yesterday’s lesson and some patient tutoring I now at least stand a reasonable chance of handling Houdini….even if I do seem to have a flair for missing neutral when I ap...


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But it’s not even close to Christmas

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Thursday, August 12, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

We’ve been makin’ a list an’ checkin’ it twice…

My word there’s allot to do before we’re blue water ready! Hafskip is a very seaworthy vessel but her original owner made quite a few alterations and enhancements that make her a tad complex to operate and understand. Not to mention the alterations we’ll need to make to ensure we can store and operate everything we’ll be needing….. Hmmm….I get the distinct impression that if Ralph wasn’t so technically minded we’d be s...


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Houdini

Posted by ralph kluge on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

Monday was a big swell day.. ever watched your rubber duck throw itself against the side of your bath when you move in the water…. Imagine being inside the duck!  

With Ralph playing in the bilge again, add diesel fumes to some pretty unpredictable swaying and bobbing the inevitable result is a pretty queasy stomach.

As fortune would have it I had an optometrist appointment so headed for shore for a couple of hours leaving Ralph in the fumes and swell. Luckily Ralph’s stomach appears be...


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The rhythm section

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

Water, tender, waves, fender, anchor chain….they all work together in a weird kind of symphony. Funny how music creates order out of chaos… Rocked to sleep last night amidst the disjointed but strangely compatible melody imposed by wind, wave and steel.


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Oil and water don't mix

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

OK…the generator and the inboard are in the same area of the boat, under the cockpit and they share the same bilge.

We learned 2 things today…the generator (known affectionately as ‘the gennie’) has a water leak….somewhere??? and the inboard engine has an oil leak (looks like a dipstick seal has died…somehow??.

So what does all this mean? Basically it means Ralph once again has had to get down and dirty with the bilge… there is a bilge pump of course, but there’s no point u...


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Maceration

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

Ahhh un-packing…. Bloody tough when you don’t have a place to put the boxes when you’re done… but slowly, slowly we can see the salon… Probably the most exciting and necessary task for today was watching Ralph wrestle with the macerator (more commonly known as a shit chopper)…great word ‘macerator…quite apt when you consider what it does….wonder if it can handle vegetables??

Well thanks to Ralph’s mechanical brilliance the macerator is now working…much relief all round!...


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Trailer Trash to Yachtie

Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, In : Airlie Days 

Well we’ve made it to Airlie Beach and have the keys to our boat…OMG! WE made it!!!

Now to get stuff on board...

That’s not quite as simple as you might think as we’re out on a mooring (about a 5 minute tender trip out from the marina) and at this stage we don’t have a fully inflated tender or fuel…hmmm. So after a wee bit of pumping and fuel transfer we have our independence (very handy if you’re more than a paddle out of the marina) and get ready to motor into the public p...


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Stuck in Newport

Posted by ralph on Sunday, August 1, 2010, In : life before the boat 

after leaving glenhope saturday lunch time, we caught up with Paul, Carmel and the grandkids.
Then on to the trip....made it all the way to Goulburn where we stayed the night.
Sunday into Balmain to pick-up the metho stove (done) and then onto Mona Vale to pick-up the life raft.
Got to the address ....oooopsie, no-one there, bugger. Got on line to see how much freight for the 37 kg life raft would cost vs. staying overnight locally. Well, freight $276, overnight stay at the Newport Arms $175....


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