THE FIRST TIME IN THREE YEARS .........

Yes, it is the first time in three years that we have taken a slip in a marina ....... And only because the cold front that has found its way down to the BVIs has set up a swell that has made staying in the anchorage outside simply untenable ..... Normally no big deal, but the swell curls around the headland and the throughs and ridges are in line with the wind direction, and so with each roll there is a good chance you'll be thrown out of bed ............. Don't let these sunny photos fool you .......... It can get nasty ........ But it is so nice to be docked in peaceful surroundings and to be able to just walk to the boatyard each morning past bougainvillea and frangipanis that are all in full colour .... Colours so bright you need to put your 'shades' on .............



This then is the new boat "SOUTHERN COMFORT" ........ All of 62 feet long, with a draft of 5'6", a beam of 16ft. and a displacement of 26 tonnes .......... That may change, as we begin loading her with new stuff, although in the last ten days we have removed at least a tonne of 'stuff' in the process of cleaning ........ Oh, and that is not a left-over 'halloween' costume that Laurie is holding ..... No, she did not go disguised as a 'paper-clip' ......... No, that's an additional frame to be added to the davits to support the new solar panels ..... We have already begun bringing items ashore now that we are 'docked' in the VIRGIN GORDA YACHT HARBOUR ..... Everything comes with a price ........



Some things though, are simply "PRICELESS" .................



Like the 100-yard walk to the boatyard, with a glance over your right shoulder to see the Classic Schooner "The Spirit of Massachusetts" out on anchor, just beyond the reef with the island of TORTOLA in the background ....... For people who like to charter, there is no finer stretch of well-protected blue water than the VIRGIN ISLANDS .....



And from the top of the hill on Virgin Gorda, the view is spectacular and appropriately named ....... Still everything is relative ....... Million dollar views, but every item has to be imported and usually triple shipped, so there goes that first million if you want to build a large house here ......



We have opted for a larger boat so as not to have to buy a house when we finally reach Australia ........ A larger boat with accommodation to fit friends and family and the luxury of air-conditioners, a large generator and a washer/drier .... Tropical 'Southern Comfort' you might say ...... But we have a long way to go before we get there ...... One small step at a time, like "The Queen of Southern Comfort" hoisting a battery on board using the halyard winch, or the 'boatyard boys' using a plank as a lever to straighten-out the bent davit frame, that will hold the dinghy and the solar panels ...... The 'boatyard boys' are a mutually-beneficial admiration society made up of boat-owners 'living the dream'........



Now you shouldn't mess with a designer's plans ..... But, this design has difficulties in reversing or steering at low speed, so we have heard from others, thus a little tweaking here and there is worth doing ........ Like fill-in that space between keel and skeg ..... Stops catching fishing nets with the prop and will certainly improve linear flow over the rudder blade ...... And, change out the cut-less rubber bearing on the propeller shaft while she is still out of the water ......



Two more of the 'boatyard boys', Angel and Michael ........ And here's a huge 'improvement' the designer forgot about ........ Fit a bronze through-hull to drain the bilge ...... It is sheer unadulterated pleasure to be able to flush the hull and remove all the built-up 'crap' in the bilge ...... Thirty years of accumulated 'muck' that is in an impossible place to get to and is generally the cause of bilge pump failure ....... Those bolts holding the fitting are through-bolted ....... Held the nuts on a sticky '5200' finger, then pushed a wrench through the little hole and held it in place with string and a magnet ...... ' No 'Darwin' award, but worth something at least, when the bleeding finally stopped .......

This is Frank or better known as "KIWI" and one of the 'boatyard boys'.......... A man with an amazing memory of people, places and events ....... A powerhouse of knowledge nautical, who has spent his entire life 'messing with boats' ...... He has five of them sitting in a lagoon in the US Virgin Islands for no other reason than 'He loves his boats' ....... The biggest of them is a 78ft cutter-rigged sloop that he has sailed single-handed around the World ..... He has met and knows Dick McIlvride, the builder of "ARITA .... He has even met Bert Munroe, the owner of "The World's fastest Indian" that wonderful KIWI movie starring Anthony Hopkins ..... The list of characters and people he's met is endless ..... There are moments in life when you listen and become enthralled in other people's stories that make you wish you could share that with everyone ..... "KIWI" is the genuine article ....... A real adventurer/seaman/delivery skipper/old salt with a life well-lived ........ 'Goodonya mate' ........ Keep it going ...... "ARITA" is also a KIWI of course, having been built in New Zealand back in 1958 ......



Years ago the ABC TV channel in Australia featured a documentary about the spaghetti pickers in Victoria showing them standing on ladders carefully snipping and harvesting the noodles from the branches on the trees, and then carefully handing them to fellow workers who laid them in boxes ...... Anyway there was this huge outcry from the public long before serious 'punking' was invented ........ We are still undecided on the issue ........... And you can make up your own mind .......



But one thing is for sure ....... Chickens love spaghetti ..... They will sit under your chair just to get some ....... This mother hen and her brood of seven has joined us each day for lunch ..... Kids don't seem to mind at all ...... Now that's 'free range' ......