A non-exhaustive list of first world problems

There has been quite a lot of unpredictable wind lately which has made life tricky so since I’ve only really been whatsapping a bunch of fairly sensational pictures to various groups, this is my stab of dos and don’ts, likes and dislikes for a touch of balance.

First on the list for me is salt. In all one could say that as far as elements go it’s a crucial piece of this floating puzzle and you’d be on the money if you did. There’s even a book on the boat describing the full history of salt which I hear is fascinating. The main gripe with the stuff is that its quite adept at getting nearly everywhere and in my experience there’s little worse than grabbing the bit of bimini support beside the wheel to lean on only to find vast quantities of dried salt encrusting the perfect hand hold. However like most good stories this one has a happy ending so on the occasional fortnightly trip to a marina to fill up with water, the boat gets a good ol’ wash down and then for a few days afterwards when cruising the delightful scenery and you’re after a jolly good lean, you go to grab the bimini pole and just as captain brain braces for the horror of a crusty post you find a mercifully smooth and soothing welcome. Expanding slightly on the salt theme we can’t ignore the fact that stainless steel poles need constant cleaning and attention to remain stainless in the face of all this salty ridiculousness. Someone ought to revise that brochure.

Swell in bays.

We really haven’t had too much of this save for 1 event which was the worst night of my boating life. Not a wink of sleep and no real run for the shelter options either so that was less than ideal. Given balance, it definitely makes you fully appreciate a lovely calm and non-rolly spot with great sleep.

Rain

This isn’t really a gripe or a moan but we have had a very small splash of rain for about 3 hours since leaving NZ in May (we’ve had 1 or 2 actual clouds since that time) and as I understand it, if you're living in NZ you can exactly reverse that wee tidbit. But you know…. there’s something in there that says I wouldn’t mind maybe a very small bit of rain. Not today though, literally just washed the boat this morning, that would be an utter waste. Maybe in a week it can give us an hour. It won’t happen but it’s all about balance.

The lack of freezer

Go on, you go and have a rum and coke or a G&T without ice. Gash.

Lower back pain

Mainly due I think to bringing the outboard around I think. It’s brilliant and gets us places quickly now but fuck it’s heavy and getting it on and off with the current arrangement of lifting, pulling, going up stairs can only be described as a faff. Hopefully this will change though so watch this space. Can’t be to do with getting old of course.

Shit oven and no dishwasher

I’ll just leave that one there.

Renewable energy

We are getting a hydro generator in October but until then our solar just isn’t doing the job. We have a new controller coming tomorrow actually which I hope will fix that as the existing one isn’t specced for our batteries but until this is sorted it utterly shits me to have to run the engine to generate power. A goal of this was to have a minor carbon footprint so this space needs to be watched.

Boat harmony

At the start it was about a 95% totally amazing to 5% totally shit ratio, but the shit has definitely gained traction as missing friends (all of us), a stable platform and the unpredictable winds has kicked in. An adjustment to this life is definitely needed which has been harder than we anticipated. Being on a full-time holiday sure is tough - some sympathy tears appreciated but best to save a few here for world peace.

Anyway here’s some more pictures to truly show the sorry state we are in.

Peace out

Ant