Thanks All . . . I'm Now Cruising!

[troymclure]

Howdy all, my name is Troymclure and you may remember me from such threads as which boat to buy? etc etc.

First of all, as per the title. Thank you all very much for any and all assistance rendered in getting me to where i am now! Ie Cruising.

I posted a few months back (think it would have been august) about getting advice on boats to buy to move aboard and go cruising on. So thanks to all the people who replied to those threads and especially Bangkaboat who pm'ed me with alot of helpful advice.

I'd also like to thank all the people who i met along the way, ie Big thanks, to the Brauns whom i bought the boat off. Holger flew over from Germany to finalise the sale and was great to talk to and extremely helpful explaining everything (and i'm still in contact with him via email). Also big thanks to Anita and Steve at Farine boat dealers who was the broker for the sale, they were both very helpful getting me organised, helping me get the boat in the water, sailing it over to dockside etc. Especially as I knew very little about boats (aside from what i had researched online) when I purchased the boat.

Thanks also to Peter the plumber (a top bloke) who did a great job on installing my saniloo (aussie lectrasan) as well as putting in a shower sump and drain for me.

Thanks to all the people on Row B at dockside marina, who gave me lots of very very useful boating advice and generally made it a great place to stay. Also thanks to barbara, who runs dockside. Definately recommended marina, handy to the shops, night life and i didn't find the ferries to be much of a bother, though definately put some dishclothes or bits of garden hose around your mooring lines to prevent chafe.

And while i'm thanking marinas, thanks to the people at scarborough marina where i kept the boat for a week after i bought it, as well as to the manager at Rivergate where i stopped for a night and who managed to find a couple of electricians to get my anchor windlass fixed so i could make it to Moreton island for christmas, wonderful xmas present. Oh and of course thanks to the two electricians who came down on the 23rd of december to get it all done and very quickly and reasonably at that. Holiday savers.

Not too mention the gentleman at rivergate marina who saw me having a bit of trouble docking and came over to lend a much needed hand. Also to the boat whom parked behind me at my current anchorage and provided a very very handy spot to tie the dinghy off too when my outboard stopped working, gave me a tow back to my boat and who were very understanding about the chip of paint i took off their bow with aforementioned outboard .

Also thanks to anyone i've missed, David who I bought the new batt charger off, the young lad who installed it. And of course my family for much assistance along the way!

And now to the story so far...

I'd been staying and living aboard the boat since purchasing her in september. Mostly just getting used to living aboard and getting my home office setup going. For the first few months it kinda felt like living in a small efficiency apartment with great waterfront views. I was slowly working my way towards getting the boat and myself ready to go cruising. My plan was 3 months or so on the boat, then 3 months or so in moreton bay and on the hook. After that, see what happens.

For the past month or so i've been focusing alot more on getting everything ready. Planned a quarterly menu (yep i've got nearly 3 months worth of food aboard right now and getting last lot of supplies in next week or two). Worked out electricity needs, made a few boat modificiations (interior living stuff only) and did as much reading about what i thought i needed to know as I could.

I decided to set sail and leave the umbilical cord of shore power on the 17th of december. Unfortuantely i missed the timetable because i didnt' quite get everything ready and wanted to go out in town one last weekend.

So then i decided the 22nd. Missed that one too. My mum bought down another bunch of supplies (i was ordering stuff online and sending it to her place) but we didn't get it all stowed in time. I did however make the 23rd. I left the berth in the afternoon(at high tide) with the plan too anchor in the river at Bulimba for the night. The sail up the river to Bulimba was wonderful, it was my first solo sail(or motor as was the case) and felt great. My first attempt at anchoring in the river... well. I pulled up near another yacht and dropped the anchor. Decided i needed to reanchor so flicked the anchor windlass to up. Then the anchor windlass jammed. Running forward to see what the matter was I saw a bunch of chain jammed between the windlass and the hold in the deck it was supposed to go down. That was when i remembed i have to be in the anchor locked moving the chain aside to prevent jams.

So after a momentary moment of panic, (and a few attempts to see wether there was enough scope out to anchor anyways) i decided to try to unjam it. after a bit of work it unjammed, but now the windlass just made a clicking noise.

So my first solo sail and first anchoring attempt were not going well. The current in the river was starting to flow again and i could only go back to docksie at night. Not a prospect i looked forward to. So i pulled the anchor up by hand (didn't realise how to use the cranking mechanism), tied it up to the bow and decided to try to moor at one of the mooring buoys i'd seen on the way to my present location. After a few attempts.. success!

Current was flowing a bit by then but i go the mooring rope attached to the bow and with just a bit of daylight remaining decided to call it a day and see what happened from there.

Well, i guess this is all getting a bit long now, so I'll cut the story short, too simply say that, I made it to rivergate marina the next day, the anchor windlass got fixed (blown fuse), with some help from the manager and some friendly neighbourhood electricians.

The day after, that would be xmas eve i motored out to moreton island. This time anchoring went just fine. And i'm currently writing this from Kooringal at moreton island where i've been since xmas eve. I've gone snorkelling or exploring every day since i've been here, i've seen a turtle, rays, starfish, fish, birds, crabs, life! and of course wonderful vistas. This is why I bought a boat, cruising is just wonderful so far, rain on the hull, wind in the rigging, I get to see horizons, sunsets over the water and more stars then i have in years living in the city.

So again, thank you all very much. Life is great.

ps:- Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

[MarkJ]

Yay for Troy!

Congratulations!

In your earlier posts you didn't mention much about the boat. What did you end up buying?

Its a great area to start cruising


All the best.


Mark

[Hud3]

Congratulations, Troy! Glad to see that you reached your goal, and it's good to hear that you found some valuable help here on CF. Thanks for bringing us up to date--it's always nice to hear what happened after reading the posts about the parts leading up to the purchase of the cruising boat.

[James S]

Congratulations!
Great post...thanks.
Ditto...what boat did you get.....how about some pictures?

[Ocean Girl]

Troy,
Fantastic post, so happy for you What boat did ya get?
Cheers, and happy cruising!!!
Erika

[swagman]

G'Day Troy and well done.

You'll look back on these experiences one day and remember how much fun you had finding your way. Enjoy - sail safe - and keep us all posted.

JOHN

[troymclure]

Cheers lads.

The boat i ended up getting was an Albion by Gilbert Caroff.

I was actually going to go for a 40" adams that was for sale in hervey bay, but it was in a state of major disrepair so i ended up going with this one. I didn't have the dosh or the time (due to work) to get a fixxer upper but i think it's all worked out very nicely and i must say i'm very happy with this eventual purchase. She's pretty well equipped and i like having a ketch for my first boat.

oh which this boat is btw, she's also steel and 35". Centre cockpit, 6" draft. I have to say I don't know much about how she sails (only been motoring so far and don't have alot of experience to say anyways) but she's very comfortable inside, has an enclosed bathroom, bedroom is seperated from main part of boat, a few hidey holes for the cats and lots of storage space. Which is handy considering i have nearly 3 months of food aboard ^^. I know I can resupply in the bay but i wanted to try stocking up now to get used to cruising food.


Theres a watermaker aboard which will be handy if i can get it working, just cleaned and replaced the filter today, gonna try flushing the system tommorrow. The previous owners cruised for five years aboard so it's obviously a good cruiser. Though i've converted the saloon into a home office which has increased my electrical needs a bit.


She was very comfortable motoring over into 15 knot winds, I'll be figuring out how to actually sail over the next three months.

I've been spending most of my time this past quarter focusing on work and getting the boat ready, but i'll be back lurking on the forums again and even though I don't know much about sailing just yet i'll definitely be contributing to any computer nerd threads i see.

ps:- The internet connection out here at Kooringal is pretty slow (need to get a signal antenna) but here's a couple of pictures I took on xmas day from the shore.

[susan kennedy]

wow

[troymclure]

G'day swagman and will do.

And @ sue ^^.

Good night all.

[Christian Van H]

Hi Troy! I remember you from such classics as "Towel snapping...You can put an eye out!" and "Mommy needs a little time to pull herself together..." Great shots of the boat and the locations. Congrats!

[jdoe71]

Really great to see someone come back and tell us how it all turned out. And hopefully stick around to share their experience with others. Nice to see you pulled it all together Troy, a lot of work getting a boat but so well worth it!