Q & A

What are the slips?

R: the slips are somebody that fixes boats.
C: the things with the things with the top thing with the lights, that's the slips.

Why is the boat on the slips?

C: coz Daddy's working on it, putting the lips on.

Where are we going on our boat?

R: to Sydney, I think.
C: no, to Melbourne.

Where do you keep your toys?

R: um, in the cupboard next to Cookie's bed.
C: in the front room.

What are you looking forward to the most?

R: um, going and sailing to make new friends, going to Wiggle World, um, and I really want to go to Sydney so I can go live in an apartment.
C: Sailing. Riding on a horsey with a stick, last day.

What does the windmill on the top do?

R: charges the um electricity up from the lights
C: spin around.

What's the head?

R: the front cabin.
C: um, the windmill.

What's the galley?

R: um, the kitchen, I think.
C: it's the fence.

What's the best thing about the boat?

R: my top cabin bed. Bunk.
C: Teddys. Dinner. Water.

(Still on slips, hoping to get the last 2 coats of paint on - and cured - before the rain sets in. ...)

Slipping.

In the sling, being lifting out of the water. Breath holding stuff...


Not too bad considering 18 months in the drink.


A friend recently stated 'have they given up already?' - and judging by recent posts, perhaps it was a fair call.

We're having a short stay on terra firma, whilst Awaitea gets her belly cleaned & painted. Routine work involving antifoul and anodes, and whilst it does feel luxurious to have carpet underfoot, central heating, and a flushing toilet, I AM missing the boat & the harbour - the gentle sway of the current, the whirring of the wind gen (seriously), and the clinking of the stays on the mast.....

I gave Cookie a giant koala bear hug last night, and she was wearing her pj's from the boat. She smelt like the boat, she had a hint of diesel, and as peculiar as it sounds, she smelt like home.

The problem with poo.

We don't have a poo tank. Yet. We will have. But just not yet.

Our current harbour living, means that if one needs to poo, one must high tail it to the nearby amenties. Now that is all very well if one is a 'grown up', and can hold on. Unfortunately, this isn't often the case when you're 3. (or 4, or even from time to time, 40).

Wee is fine in the boat toilet, poo is not. There are currently only a couple of people living aboard boats here, so if a poo floats by, it's really not much of a secret whose it is.

Now, we've told the kids, NOT to poo in the toilet.

Under NO circumstances, are they to poo in the toilet.
To poo, is taboo.

Roo gets this.

Unfortunately, (but not surprisingly), a certain young lady doesn't. Or doesn't want to get it more to the point.

She knows that it's taboo, so doesn't actually tell me when she has. This means, that when I go to the toilet, way too often, I discover an illicit poo.

At this point, I am faced with 2 choices: 1. pretend I haven't noticed it, and wait for Xave to discover it 'first'. or 2. Deal with it.
Dealing with it means, picking it up, popping it in a bag, and taking it to a public loo to dispose of. GROSS. I know this, because this is what I generally end up doing.

I think a bit of subliminal learning is in order here, so tonight, when she's asleep, I think I'm going to whisper, ever so quietly and insistently : to poo, is taboo. to poo, is taboo. to poo, is taboo.....

Overboard Tally.

1. Dizzy (smartly retrieved in manner of scruff of the neck haulage)
2. Cup (deliberately flung overboard by Miss Cooks).

I will continue to tally the overboard happenings throughout our trip.

I am looking however for a widget which is updatable to keep on my homepage, but can't seem to find / create one.
Anyone out there far more clever than I?

Captain Cookie celebrates 3 years!

Putting her makeup on for her big day!



Red balloons adorn Awaitea.



Friends at the Queenscliff playspace.



Art and birthday cards decorate the saloon.




Captain Cooks has celebrated her 3rd birthday (albeit a day early, weather tmw is forecast to be rubbish) aboard Awaitea.

The upside of being delayed, is that she got to celebrate with all her (our) beautiful family and friends. Thanks everyone for a great morning. x

B.O.A.T

Blow Off Another Thousand

Ban Objects And Things

Bang On About Trouble

(Bring On Another Tequila)

Bad Odour Around Toilet

Behold Our Aching Thighs/Torsos/Tendons (etc)

Being Oddly Argumentative Today




When thinking up these phrases, I noticed a distinct pattern emerging....
hmmmm, perhaps a little negative?


Give me your best 'B.O.A.T' & comment below.

Water woes.

I am thinking about water a lot. Not only because we're floating on it, or the fact that it has been seriously falling from the sky, but mostly because we've got to remove one of the bloody water tanks A G A I N !!!!!!

Last week Xave tentatively filled the tanks for the first time in a long time.

Sure enough, there were several leaks to address. Nothing major, just hose fittings, a couple of seals and the like.

Well that's what we thought...

24 hrs later, we found water in the bottom of the bilge. Xave scruffed around in the engine room (his favourite pastime) and found the culprit - a pin hole in the BOTTOM of the only removable water tank. Now being removable one would think would be a GOOD thing. I guess it would be, if it was sitting politely and lightly just under one of the floor panels.

Of course this wasn't the case.

To remove the water tank, one has to first get to the water tank which is buried beneath and behind the water heater and the batteries. This requires disconnecting and removing the batteries and the battery trays, then 'unwiring' and 'unhosing' the water heater, and removing that, draining & 'unhosing' the holy tank, uncomfortably removing the seriously heavy & awkwardly shaped stainless steel tank (which requires the strength of two hefty blokes) and then carting it off to the welder to fix. Then the entire process is obviously reversed. This takes all day.

So they did this, whilst the kids and I were banished for the day due to no floor, & no power.

and guess what?

today. Xave. found. another. HOOOOOOOOOOOOLE. (Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo)

So tomorrow, instead of putting sails up as planned, the kids & I will again be banished, as Xave squeezes himself into too tight spots to repeat the harrowing process.

and tonight, before I sleep, I'm going to have a FIRM word with Mother Nature, to ask her to stop her incessant blowing, and let the waters be still tomorrow so that at least Xave won't feel sick in the engine room.

I am NOT A PATIENT WOMAN. this is doing my head in.

Custard apple.

If we shaved our heads, we'd look like a custard apple.



As we get used to our new surroundings, we are accumulating so many bumps and bruises. We've got bumps on our bruises and bruises on our bumps. The companionway is the worst offender.... that gets me at least twice a day. It could be worse, I could be tall, in which case, I'd have bumps on my bumps on my bumps.

If you come and visit us, don't let me hold your baby. Last time I was so busy telling my friend to watch her head, that I managed to bump her baby's head on the companionway. (What a stoic young lad he turned out to be!).

Hopefully we'll get used to our new surroundings sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we'll spoil.

'My New York Jacket'

Those that know me know all about 'My New York Jacket'. My wonderful, cool, very much researched & long awaited jacket. So long awaited that I actually became a little obsessed about it. So obsessed about it that I started learning geographical features of it's birth place in anticipation of it's arrival.

I know, that IS a bit weird....

anyway, my jacket arrived.

...and I couldn't possibly do anything but LOVE my jacket, I was commited to it after all. But the truth is - and this is the first time I've said this out loud - it's not all that perfect. It rides up at the back, is really tight, has super long arms and a short torso, and has tags on the pocket zips, that when done up, sit perfectly atop my nipples.

Rather like pasties. (Xave reckons it's been designed by a bloke for a laugh).

Now what might you ask does 'My New York Jacket' have to do with a yacht? Well, today, (and yesterday, and maybe even the day before), the yacht felt very much like my jacket. TIGHT. AND. UNCOMFORTABLE.

My pride is at stake though, so I will continue to live aboard the yacht, and I will continue to wear my jacket. but perhaps, given the circumstances, I will henceforth cease to wear the jacket ON the yacht.

Clever friends....

Port and starboard watches. Like I said, clever friends!

Windmill thingamajiggy

Has anyone ever noticed those pretty little star shaped windmills on yachts? I have, and I reckon they're so pretty that I insisted that we need one.

Apparently they're wind generators, and they charge the batteries.

Xave then informed me that wind generators are good because, unlike solar panels, they are able to work overnight, and they take up much less space. (I am not informed enough to know which is more effective).

So, yesterday, Xave connected our pretty little star shaped thingamajiggy, & I ran around taking photos of it from every conceivable angle marvelling at the pure spunk of it.

... and last night, as the sun set, I watched it from the deck, and listened to it purringly charging the batteries in a fabulous & breezy manner, whilst inside our cabin, the vibrations roared like a freaking jet engine.

ALL NIGHT.

I'm a bit tired and thingy today..

Harbour Life. (a few new pics)