Still old, fat, perhaps a little less hopeful, sometimes more. I've got pretty good at the kayak, I spent some time out on the water working out what will tip it, not much really so I'm pretty comfortable to go to the pontoon and get off or to drag it up the ramp, love it.
We went sailing on Sunday but it was fairly choppy and not much fun, Tibbers (cat) got sea sick again, but liked the comfy new carpet in the cockpit to snuggle up near her daddy.
It's good to do that though, not the sick or snuggling stuff the choppy sailing, find new places for everything that went flying or rolling around the cabin.
I really think this would be such a fun life without a job, but it wouldn't because there'd be no money to keep the boat afloat. Planning for the future should have been sorted before the future was almost the present.
I love the boat with storage and clear decks, but it's been a few days since saying something, so the crap is creeping back on deck, that will stop. It's not because I'm a little particular about cleanliness and clear spaces, it's boat safety; I know right, that is so perfect for me.
We're back to two cats, I miss Jinx but my cat is pretty happy now, I hope she wants to be a pirate, pretty sure Jinx did, meaaarrrhhhow.
I now have to  leave for work, it's a bit rainy and that means wet weather gear etc, but really that no hassle it's just that I don't really want to leave the boat. It's so relaxing here, even working is nicer here, just caught up with some stuff that was getting very behind, now to go there and get work on my mind, not what I want/need to do here.

So aboard 3 months n still alive and together, barely but that's smokes not life aboard. We have some storage and plans for more, it's happenng. It's way better now that things have a place to go, and every time we go out we work out what works and what gets thrown around the boat, we're learning, the cats are just cowering waiting for shit to go everywhere.

In my head we would finish work, have showers at the club and sit around enjoying the sunset and relaxing with a few drinks. WELL, the club has no screens so that idea sucks, the food is flash but too expensive for regular eating, and it seems that doesn't make we want to drink, just go the fark home.


We have to go ashore for water things,  move the boat to fill tanks all the time, carry 20 litre containers n fill up tanks OR get a desalinator, so looks like that could happen, and a small 12 volt washing machine, it will be good when it happens, we will actually learn to live on the boat. We still have to work so no cabin fever to deal with, but hopefully we learn how to do all the life stuff in this small space. We never have Mormons or Jahovas at the door anymore either!

I love my kayak, it's such a great way to get to shore, sometimes I don't even go ashore I just paddle around enjoying the scenery and quiet time, doesn't feel like exercise because it's so pleasant and relaxing, I think it could be my new hobby.

Time I paddled my bad self to work, can't just stay here dreaming of being a real yachtie  forever.

Mo

I've been away, very cute new adition to the family, time with delightful miss 2 and mummy. That is the nicest holiday, it would be so much nicer if we lived in the same place, but they are still in Darwin, well back in Darwin and that is just too hard for me. Although I love to be near family and friends, and to drive to the local shop at 80 to 100 ks, it's just too hot, sticky and dry at the same time as it's way humid.
 It was wonderful staying in a brand new place, lots of air con, a gym, a pool I didn't actually use. It was wonderful having all the runing water I want, the loud extraction fan, cos it was also handy having a washer and dryer, right where you live, many mod cons.

I'm home now, and it's good to have my windy weather sounds of rope and rigging and things banging away. The boat moves a bit more, it's very peaceful and it's home.
Initially I had some difficulty with looking at really flash boats and accepting that I don't have a really flash boat, but it's a working managable boat to live on.
I like the mangrove too, it may seem an odd thing to like, but during the day it's bug free and at night so beautiful, with water and the moon, lovely. We have a wonderful thing for keeping bugs away, it keeps them outside, so we don't push our luck and try to sit out there at night and see how it goes. It's pretty good that the later it gets, the cooler it gets n bugs disappear, then i'st lovely, quiet and still, with reflexions and ripples and the moon, it's pretty nice for right in the industrial area.

 I think it should be easy to get our old age sorted here, living should be so cheap. I know marine everything is expensive, and marine life fruitful and tenacious, but living is so cheap, no bills, and such a small fridge, no big shopping, nowhere to put anything, it is cheap.
I need to make the boat look nicer, I know the important stuff is in the maintainance and keeping it and everything dry, but I so badly need storage, I'm close to that point of losing it. I keep suggesting and reccomending, if we don't measure and organise some storage cubes n a place for brooms, mops n stuff there could be an implosion. As I'm the one who wants to be here, I'm being the patient one, it's killing me. Seriously killing me. I'm hoping I grow as a person, but shrink as a person, like grow as a person is kindness and wisdom, and shrink as in fat. I am still doing doctors n specialists for a while, feeling heaps better, that's good.
It's easier to do things and a little too easy to do too much, but I only work 20 hours, haven't studied all year, just taking it easy and getting on here.
Now I'm thinking shabby chic may be the way to go. Bohemian is easy but so me and not so Hoople, so although I'm pretty sure he's not a shabby chic kinda guy, he may surprise me, he so often does. I'll begin slowly and get a style happening that he likes and see how far I can go with it, it's a small space there is only so much I can do. Storage is the answer, ok I've gotta get to bunnings to beging the storage issues, and some spray paint for small jobs.

Paying bills with our mobile internet wifi, weird , I'm so used to having the main computer then all the lap tops n phones n tablets from the router, and having a printer/scanner set up, so strange.
It's also kind of hard having a little Engel fridge, well a big Engel but a small fridge, I miss my cold water and ice dispencer on the front. I'm hoping we find a unit in Port Douglas with room for our stuff, then we can begin feeling like things are coming togeather.
Free to air is shit tv too. It's kind of good, stops us, well me watching too much. Hoople is cleaning the bottom of the dingy now, he's still finding this a chore, but he's a pretty glass half empty kind of guy.
I'm getting sail bags to use for making the galley work, so far I can get meals togeather, but not my kind of meals, like laksa and curries, I don't have my herbs here yet, but things are slowly happening. I saw some fabulous cook boxes on Pinterest, them and bags should keep things we need at hand, without flying around when we're moving. Can also et up a good cmap kitchen somewhere on a nice beach, portable cook boxes.
We have so much to do in the way of maintanence and keeping it dry, I'm doing cosmetic stuff, but getting rid of mould isn't just cosmetic, moud is very bad for health. I think when we get shelves and broom cupboard sorted we can use the pointy end, get another cushion and make it all bed, Hoople can store stuff in those cupboards.
We've spent so much money just to get on here, we have fuck all left to get shit happening, and we still need a wind generator and batteries to go with it, and air con, living in the tropics is  nice on the ocean, but we're up the creek next to the mangrove, we can't sit or sleep outside at night.
Anyway I'm still enjoying it here though, just learning how to make it work and be totally comfortable without sending us to the poor house, it's having a go at that. It's so cheap to live here that we should get on to of things, just that I keep spending on family trips, babies birthdays christmas, they all need tohappen. It'll sort itself once we do have a unit for income and we;ve paid credit cards off.
Money money money, a real issue any time, but marins stuff is so expensive.
BUT, living on this mooring, will sae us heap in the end.

We've been aboard for over a month now. I'm wondering if working really hard, then moving and working really hard, packing, shifting, sorting, storing taking, setting up, working still and on it goes. Then suddenly having a fairly relaxed lifestyle and you just nearly die really is a thing, I thin it might be, we're pretty farked.
Hoople has been in hospital with stafflicocus, they didn't know it was staff until he was home. Wow he was so miserable and uncomfortable it was horrible for him. Plus you've gotta spend hours in a chair with them, because leaving them to the horrors of hospital life would be a bit harsh.
I hurt my back, but I'm getting better at kayaking, well that part is easy and getting off at the ramp is easy, but getting off on a pontoon is way harder. If I can tie front and side and keep it still I can stand enough to get to the pontoon, but if it's mobile because of dingies tied there, it's really hard so I go to the ramp, then have to drag the kayak to a sign and lock it there. That's how I hurt my back, but I am getting fitter and more able.
Hopefully Hoople will be up for some stuff soon and we can go to out to look for whales. I don't know how long the mogration is.
I've realised I need to let people know we're not set up for people to stay over and we go out for a few days at a time. I'll let them know when we're ready for a day trip. Everyone wants to come out on your boat, that's probably a nice thing to do, but it means preperation and seats n food n drinks....
I like being out here on our own most of all.
I'm loving it but we haven't actually made the galley functional yet, it's ok to knock up a quick meal, and our oven/stove is beautiful, we just need to get settled and it will take longer here as there is so much work to do.
I'm so looking forward to getting to Port Douglas and settling there, but I need to keep working to pay for fixing cars and keeping stuff going, Hoople needs to buy stuff like, desalinator, wind generator, air con, new toilet system, ours is old and noisy and I hate the toilet. But it's happening, and Hoople has put his name down to race, so that will make it better for him.
Ok boat work to do.

So we've been aboard one week, not the easiest week but far from the hardest too. Of course we have packing and sorting and lots of stuff like that, but meals at the club are good, and I use the showers at the boat yard, pretty good water pressure and enough hot water. Lots of washing machines too.
The kayak paddles well, it's a little fishing kayak, i need to get it out of the water n stuff so i thought a little one would be best, true. It moves through the water beautifully and it's really easy to get it moving, getting on is doable, getting off on the other hand is just so embarrassing.
First day I row to the club marina, and go to the ramp, I thought i'd got to the concrete, all grey and flat, but it was silt, like quicksand, i sunk immediately, lost my shoes and fell on my bum on the concrete once i was out, champion.
Next it tried the kind of jetty thing the marina has for the boats,I'd like to roll off the kayak onto it like a walrus, but it's higher so i have to try to lift myself up, upper body strength is obviously my goal now. People saw me there tying the kayak up then trying to get up, I'm fat and have bad knees so standing is out so I need to kneel and balance to get onto the jetty, instead of just lifting my bum up with strong arms. I was sitting with my legs out in front of me and needed to get them under me to kneel without falling in, not so much fun, but after ten minutes of flailing about I got up and managed to get to work.
We now need to get washing and crap that needs to go to storage there, and stuff from there to here, and more organising, I'm enjoying it, H on the other hand is having a crap because he is pretty sure i'm going to die out here. He may be right, but better to die trying something I love than die in a nursing home bored shitless for most of my old age.
I think yoga and push ups are firmly on my agenda, I really need to walk too, but it's not as nice as the esplanade, maybe I'll drive to the esplanade and the red arrow, their adding yellow and green now too, cool. I've got the Vanilla Moz to sort the bugs too.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of tropical flavoured rum.

Still not aboard

Ahoy, or aaarrrr.

Well Hoople took 2 weeks off to get the boat ready to live on, a few thoughtful things. Jed was helping and looked like getting some work out of being at the ship yard, nothing much seems to be happening.

IT RAINED it seems that this year will be like last where it only rained at the start of the wet then rains for a long part of the dry season, which kind of stops it being a DRY season.

New davit, boarding platform and steps, space for the Engell fridge, until we get another one for that space, one that works this time.

I have a list of things to do to the boat already, the storage across from the bathroom is going to be ripped out and new better storage put in, the front cabin turned into a bed, with shelves and sliding doors put in.

Can't do the big cabin until we look into changing the rudder and stuff, but it's on the list. As for the bathroom........

So 2010 never having owned a yacht, "I don't want  project." so naive right?

Anyway soon we'll be living on it and have money for it instead of rent etc, so the project can continue, possibly forever.

How fantastic.