Smoking Ceremony

 

First, I'd like to acknowledge the Darumbal peoples and their clans (in particular the Wopaburra mob) who are the traditional owners of the land and sea we are currently occupying. I pay my respect to the elders, past, present and emerging.

 

On Thursday we formalised the name change of our boat by conducting a smoking ceremony to cleanse the Palawa Dreaming of her past deeds and owners. Also to bless the attendees and the crew.

The name of our boat celebrates the Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples (the Palawa) and acknowledges the connections we have to Tasmania as our place of berth and our connection to the land of this beautiful island State.

We were fortunate to have four guests from Tasmania who were able to attend and take part in our ceremony, one of whom I grew up with in Burnie on the North-West Coast.

Next Thursday we begin our trip north up to the Torres Strait where we hope to meet up with friends we made whilst we were guests on their country.

 

New Cooktop in

 After a week or so of work I've finally finished installing our new gas cooktop that replaces our aging Force 10 cooktop/stove.

Still have a drawer to build that takes advantage of the space below the cooktop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cooktop is made by Gasland and cost $240 via ebay. We looked at retail suppliers, but the demand for appliances based on the recent housing and reno boom has made the cheapest one over $500.  The quality and finish on those under $700 was pretty poor as well.

Had her connected up yesterday and she works very well.  Cooked dinner on her last night.

Shower Sump Pump not working??

 So I'm anchored off Middle Island and halfway through a galley rebuild and my shower pumps stops working--damm!!

OK so lets pull the pump apart and see what's going on.

Mostly long human hair with the off bit of boat detritus.

All working well now.

Keep it Simple--Stupid

 A bit over a year ago I had some issues with my bilge pump setup.  The extra weight we have taken aboard has made the bilge pump hull drains to take on water as waves hit the side of the hull.  My first approach was to put one way valves near the drain then, to stop the water coming back down the pipe, I put another.  Smart, right?

Not really, although initially it worked, the accumulation of salt and bilge detritus allowed water to once again infiltrate the bilge. Really annoying as it only takes 4 litres of water to cause the shaft coupling to spread salt water around the engine bays.  In desperation, I added a ball valve which stopped the seawater ingress, but the bilge water had taken its toll on the one way valves and these now impeded the flow of water to nothing.  Blowing out the pipes worked for a bit, but the same old problem came back so today I bit the bullet and replaced the hoses and removed the one way valves.  Problem solved, now the water disappears and a very quick rate.
I did, however, need to keep the ball valves to stop water ingress while we are in a seaway.  Need to remember to monitor the bilges whilst underway and to open the valves up whilst at anchor/moored.

The moral of this story, keep it simple--much less to go wrong, particularly for a critical system like this one.

Old hoses with one of the one way valves

New green hose with ball valve

New Name and Decals

 0530hrs:  An early start to catch the top of the tide and go into Leeks Creek on Great Keppel Island to put the new livery on the boat.

A high tide of 3.5m is very marginal for getting up Leeks Creek to dry out and put the decals on.  At the very limit of early daylight I motored in over the very shallow bar and into the creek holding close to the mangroves for maximum depth.  I'd chosen a spot well up the creek to anchor and wait for the tide to recede. Nearly there, shallow as, and then, I come to a stop.  Reversing off does not work so it's down with the anchor and wait for the bottom of the tide.

Unfortunately, as the tide goes down the bow swings around until at right angles to the tide and there I stay.  The next tide is the same height so I'll need to get a bit clever to get off, particularly as it is around last light.

All but one decal done.  The other side turtle got stuck together in the wind and I had to throw it away.

1700hrs:  Tide is well on its way in and I have moved the bow anchor into the channel next to the mangroves and deployed a stern anchor 30 meters astern in the channel.

1730hrs: The sun is almost gone and the double kedging bow and stern has paid off as I inch her towards the small channel-- finally, off the sand as the tide slows and ebbs.  The wind keeps her heading up the creek right next to (touching) the mangroves.  A fellow cat owner, Dean, is fishing in the creek in his tender and comes over to say hi. I ask him if he would retrieve my stern anchor in  his dinghy which he did for me and this saved the possibility of fouling the rope/rode and having to come back in the morning to retrieve my anchor.  Thanks heaps Dean.

1745hrs:  It's nearly dark as I skim carefully over the shallow bottom of the creek as the tide starts to retreat. A relatively successful day and a beautiful red sunset over Chocolate Rocks.