Getting Back to the Blog!

Firstly, big apologies for the LONG delay in blog entries.

For the past 15 months we have been based in Portarlington, Port Philip Bay in Victoria, Australia.

 

Dan has been working with a couple helping them along with their project of a 17m G-Force catamaran, designed by Jeff Schionning, the kids have been to school for the first time since 2009 and we even lived in a house for 7 months, leaving Division II on a mooring for the winter months.

Highlights of our time in Portarlington:

All the great friendships and connections we made

 

Visits from Family and Friends

Extracurricular Activities; Girl Guides, AFL, Soccer, Craft, Cards, Sailing

Lowlights of our time in Portarlington:

Weather

Anchoring Options

Realising our CQR anchor really doesn’t like holding in shifting sands in winds above 35 knots!

And now it is time for us to move on.  Rylee and Oliver have just finished  term one at the local primary school, in Grade Six and Paige has been back home schooling with me on the boat since the start of the year. We are currently in Williams Town, Melbourne having a cockpit cover made, as well as catching up on all the boat jobs that need doing that don’t get done when you are working up to 6 days a week.  Dan has been able to fit the generator start panel, replace spreader lights, noise insulating the generator, fitting new bed bases to go with our new mattress and will start making inroads to a few minor boat repairs that need attending to. 

The kids and I have been sorting and tidying bed spaces, food storage and living areas, in preparation for heading out into Bass Straight.

As well as all of this we have been exploring the local area, with a trip to Science Works, finding the local skate park, taking the boat up into Docklands, with a walk into Melbourne CBD and working out the best places to provision the boat from.

Our plans from here – to head North and find some place warm.  We have many options available to us and we will wait until we are further North before we make any firm decisions.  Firstly, get our cockpit cover finished, then finalise a few loose ties in the area and wait for the right weather to get out of the Rip at the entrance of Port Phillip Bay and head East towards Eden.  We may stop at Wilsons Promontory or Lakes Entrance but if the wind is going our way we will probably keep going while it is still comfortable.