Sorry Guys - Not Ignoring You

I just came back to this poor, neglected blog and noticed a bunch of messages. Sorry everyone, I've been a bit slack/distracted lately. I promise to reply to everyone's messages tomorrow when I get home (except for the one from 'Anonymous', which I accidentally deleted - sorry dude, but thanks anyway).

If you want pop over to my other blog (about my yacht restoration), you'll be able to see what I've been up to. At least I have actually been making some progress somewhere. Its pretty surprising actually, given that my time and money is more non-existent than usual.

Anyway, I'm almost at the point now where I can leave yacht alone to dry out properly, and finally return my focus to the canoe. I still need to get a proper career going again, but there's still a heap of stuff I could be getting on with cheaply.

It'd be nice to finally get the canoe finished and in the water. I can't remember the last time I was on the water for pleasure. This is no way to live!

And, I'm Back

Well, its been a while. I have made a little bit more progress, but nothing spectacular. In my defence, it has been a pretty hectic year & a half. 

In that time, I tried to get a business off the ground. Unfortunately, after much activity and positive initial indications, it didn't really get going. At least we weren't yet very heavily committed financially, so it didn't destroy us. 

My next big step was taking a voluntary redundancy from my job in Sydney. A pretty big step, but I was just so sick of the long hours and full-on commute. Plus I was ready for a change. I figured I'd be able to pick up another job reasonably quick, but I guess I underestimated the global financial shenanigans we've been enjoying lately. In the end, I was out of work for about ten months. I've now picked up a local job, and have been loving the concept of only living 20 minutes away form work. Its 'chimp' work, the pay is crap, and I've been working six days a week for the last few months but at least its work. It'll do until I can figure out where my next career steps will take me. 

 You would think with so much time on my hands that the canoe would be finished by now. Baaaahahaha, the naivety. No, I had many distractions along the way (as usual). As I said before, I did manage to get a bit done on the canoe. I finished and installed my dreaded inner gunnels, and planed the rail edges nice and fair. I made up breast-hooks for the bow and stern, to reinforce these points. I even got my bulkheads finished and ready for installation (all they need now are inspection ports and bungs). I tried to update this blog with my activity, but it wouldn't let me access/post anything for ages. They seem to have upgraded the system now, which is a relief. Hopefully it will all work ok now. 

Anyway, here's a couple of quick piccies.....

Pretty paltry progress I know, but as I said, I did have other distractions. Apart from full time job-searching, I also went out and bought a brand new motorbike (Yamaha XT660Z Tenere). Of course, there were a few little forays out into the bush too, just to get to know each other.....

Oh, and then there was a three month family holiday around Europe (London, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Bern, back to London for Christmas - hire van and visit old friends in Cheshire, whilst driving around Wales, Lakes District and up to Edinburgh). What a blast. Trip of a lifetime. The wife and kids got a couple weeks in the US too, but the American government wouldn't let me into the country, so I missed out on that bit (mongrels). 

Anyway, as soon as we got back last January (considerably fatter and poorer), I got a call about a certain small yacht that I've been lusting after for years (Contessa 26). Long story short, this particular boat was mine if I wanted it. All I had to do was come get it from Sydney Harbour. The timing couldn't have been worse. Given our financial predicament, I would have to be an imbecile to take them up on the offer. It was going to cost about $5000 just to get it ready, transport it here and set it up on stands. With me on financial fumes and no prospects for employment on the horizon, it was a ridiculous notion. Can't be done. 

So, of course, I went for it.....

She's an absolute mess, and EVERYTHING needs repairing/replacing, but she is beautiful. Its going to take me ages and loads of cash to get her back to operational condition, but at least she's mine. As you know, I've finally got a job now, and I've been spending my one day off each week (weather and family commitments permitting) working on getting her cleaned out and ready for the big structural items (osmosis, reinforcing, renewing, etc). At least the cleaning out doesn't cost me money. 

The plan is to get back onto the canoe once the cleaning out stage is completed on the yacht (maybe another month or two). Then I will focus on getting it (the canoe) finished and launched before resuming work on the yacht again. 

IF, of course, life settles down a bit now and doesn't throw me any more curve balls for a while.