Living Contentedly

"New Bedford" 19' dory ketch Capt . Thomas Crapo (1841-1899)

Lately, ive been musing over whether to sell my property and go full on into sailing. But, dragging me back is the fact that life here is not only peaceful, its cheap and devoid of human interference. I am no grid  literally and figuratively speaking. The same reasons I go sail cruising.  This morning i took my dog and myself for a slow stroll to the east of the property, to see the sun come across the hills. It was beautiful, the soft pastel salmon hue of the skies south feed my soul. I followed a wallaby trail down off the ridge, starting to head back. Little well worn trails, passed along from marsupial to marsupial, occasionally echidna diggings revealed the presence of red ant colonies. It was too cold for the remaining ants to come out this morning though.  Pretty soon after a large tree got my attention. There were lantana branches making the detour less attractive, but this tree was sending a strong call. I call these guys Old Man Trees, they're probably hundreds...

Bilge Pump : a manual bilge pump with 100l/min capacity with dia.32mm suction and delivery hoses was fitted in the port aft berth. AIS:  a small receiver fitted requires connection to VHF antenna via splitter and tablet for visual transmission.  Sea Chair:   a "gamers chair" fitted to port of the companionway. Galley Water: a manual pump accessing supply in a jerrycan fitted in galley. Small stainless bowl fitted to be discharged manually to cockpit. Heads/Gash Bucket : due to interference with the Sea Chair, the previous head was removed and replaced with a green lidded 10l bucket.  Gimballed Stove: a home-made gimballed Trangia metho stove fitted to galley, but remains portable.  Cabin Stowage:  secure lines fitted to outboard of cabin frames. Hanging nets fitted to stowage and hanging.  Elastic Sail Ties : approx 8 orange elasticated sail ties were fitted for stowing main and mizzen sails. AIS receiver.  Below: Burke coast...

This morning, having only done weights and a 4k routine jog, I felt pressure to go large . A ride was off the books due to a stiff SWly wind, no fun riding into that. Nor is it possible really to settle into a steady grind as the gusts buffer and interrupt momentum. So a jog it was. Since starting jogging I have been more or less doing the same hilly 4k return up the road I live on. Going longer would mean doubling this or walking a steeper section further down. I wanted to settle in to a steady grind and up my mileage.  As it was cold and windy I wore tracky sacks and two top layers and a a hat to keep warmth in. Starting from the fire atation, my imagined route was to the Tin Bridge, back and across to another dead end road. This, I guessed would be 6k, a modest improvement. But as I nearedy turn around point, I wasnt feeling modest , I wanted bigger . I kept on over the river to Vacy, on a fast but not very highly driven road. Surprisingly, all the cars gave me a respectful wide...

So, of i haven't actually said it loud i am in the process of preparing Clancy  my NIS18 ketch for coastal sailing. So yesterday i bought bits for galley sink, a high volume manual bilge pump, a gimballed cup holder (that i had an idea might be used for a trangia stove), am AIS receiver (not in stock) and checked out foul weather gear.  Today i went off to the hardware store for 38mm hose and was able to complete plumbing my bilge pump. It's funny with a flat bottomed boat without ac bilge per se, the auction lashed on the cabin floor. Anyway it's a neat fit and will give peace of mind to know if I get ac wave through the hatch, i can clear it at 100 litres per minute. I also bought a "gash bucket", that's a slope bucket come heads. This will hold sawdust and so on. It's sorted below the cockpit and runs clear of the Sea Seat, which fouled the old heads. In the galley, I fitted a small hand pump tap and cute little stainless steel bowl. 

Phote credit:Small Craft Magazine. Sometimes I idly muse; is Clancy a ketch or a yawl?  I have it on authority of Google AI, that with a mizzen mast forward of rudder post, she be a wee ketch.  Further, without foresails, jibs, genoas, code zeroes and such, she qualifies as bring cat rigged. So, she is properly identified as a cat rigged ketch, or cat ketch.   Her masts are unstayed or  free standing, in that they have no standing rigging. Both masts are able to be lowered in their personal tabernacles.  Sail Area: Main 12.06 sq.m Mizzen 4.82 sq.m Reefing: Clancy has two slab reefs in her mainsail, and one on her mizzen.  Under mizzen alone she is designed to make slow way directly towards the wind.