We're well into another year already.  Shepherd Moons has apparently survived another cyclone on her mooring, although luckily it crossed the coast well to our north.  She is still heavy with weed, and I am still broke.  Not a good combination for a small yacht and her owner.

I am waiting for the weather to settle and for the slipway to be available.  I need to have about 8 inches removed from the transom and the motor moved to that position instead of hanging about a metre from the cockpit seat.  As it is, it is far too dangerous for me, and twice I've lost the use of my legs for a while after reaching back to adjust it.

Pacemaker is sitting quietly here on her trailer.  Some very heavy rain means I've tracked down most of the leaks now, and have to start removing, sealing and replacing fittings.  The pop top is now very quick, and more importantly, easy to raise and lower.  There is room allocated for the internal ballast, which will be mostly batteries and water.

Other projects include the replacement of the gunwhale rubbing strip, the building of a permanent shade cover with room for solar panels and support for the mast when it is lowered.

Most important fittings were provided by Pete and include a full set of LED nav lights and essentials like bilge pump etc.

Two boats needing attention.   It's sort of like having a wife AND a mistress!

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Hi  GoG 
Been trying to reply to you  but Blogger won;t let me reply to comments, or add a comment here. But this edit should make it.

I've read your blog.  It covers stuff I am interested in. 
Comment again if you are interested in email discussions and I'll leave contact info here once the comment is passed to me.

August already and I am still waiting for the slipway to build a cradle so Shepherd Moons can be returned to sailing condition.  Once, not so long ago, we would simply haul our boats up against careening piles and hack off the offending coral and barnacles.  These days the powers that be think that barnacles, coral and small crustaceans are somehow alien and pose a threat to the foreshores.

So we wait..  And wait..  And we watch this beautiful crisp winter weather going to waste.

Sunny Winters

Sunny Winters sounds like a good name for an acress.  It is dry season here.  Clear blue skies, twenty three degree days and seventeen degree nights.  Occasional rain but no floods.  It is probably the best time of year for sailing in The Whitsundays and I am still boatless.

Shepherd Moons is still sitting on her mooring waiting for a cradle to be built to enable slipping, cleaning and antifouling.  Pacemaker is still waiting to come home for much needed work.

I am still not sure whether to finish returning pacemaker to sailing condition, or to make her a motor boat.  After all, we do a hell of a lot of motoring each season up here.  With my health the way it is now, it might be simpler to have a 24 foot live aboard power cruiser.  Pacemaker has standing head room, plenty of cockpit space that can be covered for relaxing at anchor, and lots of internal room for sleeping and cooking.  Storage is adequate for short trips to places like Cid Harbour.

At the moment the trailer needs new rollers and the gunwhale rubbing strips need to be replaced.  The inside needs to be cleaned and painted and the bunk cushions need replacement.  She would need another outboard bracket so an auxilliary can be carried, but a few horsepower will move her at a pinch.

That's about it for the moment.  Lots of ideas - but no action.

Pacemaker joins the family.

Shepherd Moons is about to be joined by Pacemaker, an RL24 trailer sailed. Sheppy will still be the live aboard cruiser, but Pacemaker will allow me back into all those places I can't go with a big lump of keel hanging off the bottom of the boat.

Pacemaker is an old boat and needs a lot of tidying up before she can be let loose in the Whitsundays.  She has some of the restrictions that Enya had, but has more room inside and a good sized cockpit.  She also has a long pop top, which will make life in warm weather a bit nicer.

Once the wrinkles,are ironed out it will be nice to spend time poking around in places like Hill Inlet and Saba Bay again.

No luck with getting Shepherd Moons off her mooring.  The slipway had an urgent project, and has a piece of equipment to repair, so my friend decided to go back to Melbourne and commitments there. 

Not before we managed to get some cleaning done though.  And we got the motor working again and cleaned about half a metre of growth off the prop.

Now it is back to waiting for the right combination of tides and equipment.  Pity careening is now illegal in most areas..  I've been tempted to head over to an island and take my chances with laying her on her side at low tide.

The up side was that Sheppy is relatively clean and a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be aboard is removed.

I hope now she can be slipped in June or July.

Finally, after more than a year and a half Shepherd Moons might leave her mooring again.  A friend is arriving next week to help me clean and antifoul her, before hopefully, taking her for a week or so around the Whitsundays again.  It is hard being so close to the islands that it feels I could touch them, but being unable to actually get there again.

Preparing Sheppy will be like the first time aboard.  So long without maintenance means there is a backlog of things that need to be done.  Parts that can fail, things that can break.

Already we know that not being able to start the motor has caused problems.  The good old super reliable Yamaha 4-stroke now has salt build up and will probably overheat and seize the first time we try to use it.  The running rigging will probably have to be replaced before we even think of sailing.  That house batteries are rather sad and the start battery might need a boost.  Oddly, the battery that suffers the most abuse and is about three years old is the fridge battery and that seemed fine last month.

It will be an adventure getting her seaworthy again, but it will be a great feeling to be heading out of Shute Harbour again and across to Cid Harbour and beyond.

Another month in a new year and I am still unable to return to my beautiful islands.  With any luck though that will change soon.  A friend has decided to come up and help me gt Shepherd Moons ready to sail and take her (and me) out for a trip.  Close to two years has taken a toll on my little yach and on me, but once she is cleaned and a few things fixed, even with my health and disability issues I should be able to get her to sea again.

In the mean time I have been amusing myself turning some of my photographs into prints and tee shirts and other odd things like coffee mugs  Something to remind me there is a life outside all this medical stuff

It is the third week of March.  I hope to be sailing again around the end of April.  .