Buried treasure!

The weather was rotten in Sydney over the last few days -I've been pottering around the house rather than pottering on the boat. I'd heard rumours that there was some vintage sailing stuff buried in my dad's old workshop, so I decided to excavate. The workshop has been exposed and barely touched for about ten years, and at some stage suffered a white ant infestation, so most of the shelves collapsed - it's piled high with unloved tools, rotting timber and old papers and boxes. It wasn't a very encouraging sight.

My mum told me to look for a "bazooka", which I somewhat anxiously asked her to explain in a little more detail, because you never know.. it turned out what I was looking for was a large, home-made fiberglass chart case. Eventually I spotted the end of it sticking out of a pile of decaying planks and sheets of perspex. Shifting all that wasn't much fun, but it paid off - behind the "bazooka" and an old tea-chest full of broken autopilots, I found my dad's old sextant! It's a beautiful piece of work, and seems to be in good shape. The "bazooka" turned out to be full of the original designs for my parents' yacht Vambrace, which they built in Japan in the early '70s, which was also a bit of a treat.

Buried Treasure

PS Thanks, Karinne, for pointing out that I hadn't enabled comments. That should be fixed, now.

What next?

Well, I finally have my boat! I'm so glad I waited for Contessa II - I'd been ready to buy since January, but having seen her I was sure she was the boat for me, and was worth waiting 'till April for. Her previous owner, Steve Y., is a lovely guy and has given me loads of help setting up and learning her ropes. He and I have done quite a bit of messing around and sailing already, and we'll be doing more before I undertake the big sail to Townsville.

Contessa II has been slipped, surveyed, antifouled and insured - now it's time to plan and prep for the trip north. I'm aiming, probably overly optimistically, to be ready to go by the week of the 24th of May. With any luck Tony H. will be available to sail with me then. Euge C. will hopefully be joining me in Brisbane, around the 12th of June. That should see me arriving in Townsville around the end of June. I'm wary of fixing dates, even this vaguely, though - in the end it will all depend on the weather.

Listing all the things I need to do before I'm ready to go is a bit daunting - here goes (not exhaustive and in no particular order):

• Pick up copies of Alan Lucas' cruising guides (http://www.alanlucascruisingguides.com/)
• Lubricate the depth sounder.
• Get my marine radio license (urgently).
  
• Get a new marine radio! And install it.
• Wire up the solar panel and generally explore the electrics.
• Get a chart collection together - I ought to really list the charts I need, but basically, everything from Sydney to Cairns, no amount of detail would be too much!
• Get the dinghy on board and stowed.
• Fill up the water and get stores in.
• Rig lazyjacks (time allowing, I could manage without but they sure would help).
• Get a couple of decent life-jackets/harnesses, and jackstays.
• Get a proper toolkit together.
• Get a proper 1st aid kit together.
• Change the EPIRB registration.
  

Plenty to be going on with! It's going to be a busy couple of weeks. Well, by my standards.