Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Tuesday, September 28, 2010,
In :
Airlie Days
Ever get one of those
feelings that sits in your gut a little heavy….signalling something’s not quite
right…. but you dismiss it…. Instead you assume it’s last night’s dinner,
exhaustion, complacency or perhaps just your own inexperience causing you to
doubt your intuition? But you realise at the end of it all, with inevitable
muttering of “I knew it” that your intuition is not to be messed with in any
way! Lesson learned I tell you.
Having been joined for the
weekend by one ... Continue reading ...
A day out in the Whitsundays
Posted by Penny Goldfinch on Sunday, September 19, 2010,
In :
Airlie Days
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... Continue reading ...
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... Continue reading ...
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... Continue reading ...
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... Continue reading ...
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... Continue reading ...
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. Continue reading ...
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... Continue reading ...
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!... Continue reading ...
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... Continue reading ...
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About Penny
Penny |
Have Boat - Can Travel |
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About Ralph
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