After what seemed like forever we have got out sailing again. The parents and Killian (brother) visited in February and we had a few great days on the boat. Did a 3 day trip up to Sydney, one night alongside at the CYCA, another anchored under the Zoo in Athol Bay and another up Middle harbour in Bantry Bay. We took the visitors on a full tour of the harbour and even had Dave Cullen (guy I know from College) onboard for a day. Not everything went to plan, the newly fitted tacktick speed and depth was a royal pain in the arse, we had no depth for most of the trip. Its sorted now, turns out the brand spanking new tri-ducer was faulty. Spent another night over in Bundina, lovely evening, Mum and Ray got a bit damp when they took the dinghy ashore and an unsuspecting wave caught them :) Laani and I have even got out for a few short trips out from Cronulla. I suppose its about time now to get back into some work. The plan as it stands is to move on to the boat around June/July. We checked out our 'new home' in Cameray, looks good. So next hurdle, moving onto the boat.........
Well after over a month of looking like an itinerant gypsy's boat complete with big blue tarpaulin Kadoona is now looking better than ever and (touch wood) no longer leaking like a good thing through the pilot house windows! What a drama those windows were. Suffice to say I'd be quite happy to never, ever, have to do that job again. The elements didn't exactly help the situation throwing everything from wind and rain to dust storms at us for the duration but now they are in it has all been worth it. Plans were afoot to have a nice stainless frame made for each window but after much running around and promisses from a metal manufacturer I had enough of waiting on other people and broken promisses and decided to go ahead and put the windows in using the black sika-flex and not worry about the aesthetics of it, after all the boat is made to sail across oceans not to be a fashion accessory. As luck would have it the windows actually look very good in their black frames, now for the rest of the pilot house followed by ohhhh everything else.... While the windows were out we tackled the inside of the pilot house which is around the galley/nav table area. Man what a difference a bit of sanding and a few coats of paint make, only drama now is that the rest of the interior looks in poor condition compared to the shiny white new paint. Oh well, here we go again.
Its November and Kadoona is still without windows, well thats not technically correct. She has windows they are just sitting in the aft cabin. I tried to get some stainless frames made up so the windows would look better when in place as I need to use black sika-flex to install them. All looked good for a while, found a place that claimed they could knock them up for a reasonable price but after two weeks I had to go and collect my windows without the frames, turned out it was a more difficult job than they originally thought, something about radius of curves on the edges. So the long and short of it, the windows are going in with the black sika-flex and I'll just have to get used to the look of them I guess. The frames are painted and ready, next job will be to put the windows in place......
September was fantastic, sunshine and blue skies. I had a few days off towards the end of the month and thought it would be a great opportunity to take the coachroof windows, which are fairly badly cracked, grazed and leaking, out and replace them. I knew getting the old bolts that hold the windows in place out would be difficult but man what a job that turned out to be. I'm now the proud owner of an impact driver and a dab hand with it too, suffice to say I'm in no rush to repeat that job.
So there I was all happy with myself thinking I had got the main part of the job boxed off. How wrong could I have been. I thought my chipping and painting days were a thing of the past but I've found that owing a steel boat has given me the opportunity to put those skills I spent many hours as a cadet perfecting into practice once again. At least I have Laani there to lend a hand too. As if the job wasn't bad enough (and expensive, turns out the windows are polycarbonate not perspex) then the weather gods decided they would have a go too. Bring on the worst dust storm Sydney has seen in living memory followed by a couple of weeks of gale force winds rounded off by a return to winter tempatures and bucketing down rain storms. Ahh all in all perfect conditions for getting a bit of work done. So the boat is covered in a tarp that is doing a comendable job of keeping most of the elements out. Nothing could have kept out this weeks 60 knot driving rain but apart from some water kadoona survived intact. Now if only the warm weather and sunshine would return so I can crack on with the important business of putting the new windows back in place. Well having owned Kadoona for over a year now it has only been in the last few weeks that I feel like we realy got out on her to go sailing. I could try to pass this poor performance off on any number of factors, I was busy studying for my compass adjusters licence, we were saving, big trip home for 5 weeks, the rigging wasn't completly renewed. Well that are valid excuses but never the less excuses, the truth of the matter was that we spent more time fixing and working that enjoying the boat, that had all changed over the past few weeks then it was time to remove the coachroof windows. What a nightmare. Suffice to say they are now out, and a big blue tarp is draped over Kadoona trying valiantly to keep out the elements which annoyingly have decided to kick up big time ever since removing the feckin windows. I mean realy, dust storms? gales? hailstone? bring on the fire and brimstone why don't you? Getting the windows back in is going to be another story and I'll keep that for another day. For now another chapter opens in the Kadoona story, a website/blog which all going well should be full of exciting tales of Pacific Islands and amazing sailing, well hopefully................
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AuthorKnown to most of the world simply as "Hef". Full name Ian Heffernan, Ian to his parents, girlfriend and oddly enough most Australians, strange as they have a tendency to give most things a nickname? Master Mariner, MED III, Compass Adjuster, Sailing Instructor, Antarctic Hero (rtd), all round nice guy :) Archives
March 2010
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