Well it's been several days since I was committed, and things got all kind of busy. The short version is that the sign over had to wait for the funds transfer (Curse you, inconvenient time zones!) but then went ahead without a hitch. I met the now-former owner and had a bit of a chat, but nothing that was particularly revealing, except that he is a former navy pilot, and the boat was named after the World War 2 vintage navy fighter of the same name. He seems a nice enough chap and asked me to email him the outcomes of the 'big trip'.
So we handed over our various bits of paper, and the broker handed me the key. Metaphorically, anyway, as the main hatch is actually secured with a combination lock. I had already booked our hotel accommodation through to the next day, which is just as well as it turns out that they wouldn't let us move in until I could provide evidence of insurance.
Now insurance is all well and good, and I had fully intended to get it. But it turns out that marinas over here don't just want to you to have insurance, they want to see evidence that the marina itself is included on the policy as 'co-insured'. Just what this means is a bit of mystery, but it's done. I'm still struggling with the idea that if you change marinas, the next one has to be individually added to your insurance policy. What if you were cruising through several? Seems a tad silly to me, but at least it didn't add anything to the cost.
So, we moved aboard on Thursday, 23rd February, shortly before lunch. (Local time.) Since then I have been running up and down the boat (not literally, of course) trying to get things working or replaced. At the same time I've started the process of getting the Australian Ship registration in place. I've purchased an autopilot, and a chart-plotter, a new anchor, and a pair of binoculars. To see things with, obviously.
What's that? Did I say 'we'? Why yes. I may or may not (I can't remember) have mentioned that my younger son has joined me for the project. So "I" should actually be read as "we" from now on, unless it's about doing something really clever, in which case it's just me.
So, items done ... replaced the macerator (the 'poo pump' I talked about last time); managed to get the old and rusted in place navigation lights off both bow and stern and will get the new ones on tomorrow; flushed out the water tank with Chlorox several times so that it now seems drinkable as against the water being a weird green-brown colour with lumps in it as it was, (seems drinkable to me anyway, I think James still has reservations about, but I'm still walking around so I guess it's OK.) and ... stuff.
Weather has been delightful. Clear, sunny days mostly, though pretty cool at night. Not as cold as Canberra, but otherwise similar.
So, that'll do for now. James and I are sharing a single wireless broadband account here, so we do have connectivity for the next several weeks. I'll try to be a bit more forthcoming about the progress.
W.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Committed
Well the survey and rigging check went OK. There were some things pointed out as needing attention, but overall the surveyor seemed very impressed with the boat. In fact at one stage I thought he was going to make an offer on it.
Most of the things needing attention are simply to clean up and apply lubricants to moving parts that haven't been used for a couple of years. A couple of minor fuel leaks at the pump and filter, the anchor chain needs renewing, the anchor windlass is seized, and the macerator is inoperative. What's that you ask? What's a macerator? Well, it's ... umm ... part of the ... waste treatment and pumping system. It ... err ... chews up and pumps out ... umm ... 'solid waste' from the toilet. Well, you asked! So anyway, it needs to be repaired or replaced. They aren't a very expensive unit, so I'll probably just replace it. Which is a bit of a relief, as I wasn't looking forward to disassembling a very used poo pump to find out what's wrong with it. Removing it will be bad enough, thank you very much.
The rigging inspection report was a bit ambivalent. It's apparently all quite sound, but getting on a bit in years. So the rigger said that if the boat was going to be used locally he'd say it was fine for another 3-5 years, but if he was taking it on an ocean voyage then he'd replace the shrouds, which will cost me at least a couple of thousand dollars. So now I need to decide if the rigger was just being professional and/or perfectionist, or if he just felt the need to report that something needs doing, or if I think I need to replace the 'fine for 3 - 5 years' rigging at a budget blowing cost. I'll be having some further dialogue with him on this before I decide if it's 'necessary' or 'precautionary'.
The big relief though is that the survey reported that the structural elements and hull are all in good condition. No blisters, no de-lamination, no significant corrosion. On that basis I spoke to the broker and said "Would the vendor be willing to contribute to any of these items, particularly the macerator and windlass, as these were listed on the original advert, without mentioning that they weren't in working order. The broker was clearly a bit reluctant. He indicated that to do so would constitute a 'reduced offer' on my part, which the vendor was likely to reject as another prospective buyer had appeared on the scene and made an offer on the advertised price without haggling. I have my doubts about this, but in the end I just went ahead and said that I was confirming the offer 'as it stands', rather than getting into a game of bluff. That was late yesterday.
So last night I initiated the transfer of the balance of the sale price, and today I went back to the broker to sign the confirmation of final offer. While I was there the broker mentioned that the second prospective buyer had asked him to communicate to me that the second buyer would pay me $2000 to walk away so he could buy the boat. I still have doubts about the existence of this second buyer, but it made for a good story.
There we have it. I am now irrevocably committed. Give me a couple of weeks to do the preparations and some familiarisation sailing, and I'll be off.
On to the next stage!
Most of the things needing attention are simply to clean up and apply lubricants to moving parts that haven't been used for a couple of years. A couple of minor fuel leaks at the pump and filter, the anchor chain needs renewing, the anchor windlass is seized, and the macerator is inoperative. What's that you ask? What's a macerator? Well, it's ... umm ... part of the ... waste treatment and pumping system. It ... err ... chews up and pumps out ... umm ... 'solid waste' from the toilet. Well, you asked! So anyway, it needs to be repaired or replaced. They aren't a very expensive unit, so I'll probably just replace it. Which is a bit of a relief, as I wasn't looking forward to disassembling a very used poo pump to find out what's wrong with it. Removing it will be bad enough, thank you very much.
The rigging inspection report was a bit ambivalent. It's apparently all quite sound, but getting on a bit in years. So the rigger said that if the boat was going to be used locally he'd say it was fine for another 3-5 years, but if he was taking it on an ocean voyage then he'd replace the shrouds, which will cost me at least a couple of thousand dollars. So now I need to decide if the rigger was just being professional and/or perfectionist, or if he just felt the need to report that something needs doing, or if I think I need to replace the 'fine for 3 - 5 years' rigging at a budget blowing cost. I'll be having some further dialogue with him on this before I decide if it's 'necessary' or 'precautionary'.
The big relief though is that the survey reported that the structural elements and hull are all in good condition. No blisters, no de-lamination, no significant corrosion. On that basis I spoke to the broker and said "Would the vendor be willing to contribute to any of these items, particularly the macerator and windlass, as these were listed on the original advert, without mentioning that they weren't in working order. The broker was clearly a bit reluctant. He indicated that to do so would constitute a 'reduced offer' on my part, which the vendor was likely to reject as another prospective buyer had appeared on the scene and made an offer on the advertised price without haggling. I have my doubts about this, but in the end I just went ahead and said that I was confirming the offer 'as it stands', rather than getting into a game of bluff. That was late yesterday.
So last night I initiated the transfer of the balance of the sale price, and today I went back to the broker to sign the confirmation of final offer. While I was there the broker mentioned that the second prospective buyer had asked him to communicate to me that the second buyer would pay me $2000 to walk away so he could buy the boat. I still have doubts about the existence of this second buyer, but it made for a good story.
There we have it. I am now irrevocably committed. Give me a couple of weeks to do the preparations and some familiarisation sailing, and I'll be off.
On to the next stage!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Hurry up and wait, again
Deposit is paid. Survey and sea trials happen on Thursday.
I was also given name of a rigging specialist who will check the standing rigging to make sure that the stuff that holds the mast up will, ... well, hold the mast up. It turns out that he's an Australian. I'm not sure if that means that I have to trust him, or buy him a beer.
Is it Thursday yet?
I was also given name of a rigging specialist who will check the standing rigging to make sure that the stuff that holds the mast up will, ... well, hold the mast up. It turns out that he's an Australian. I'm not sure if that means that I have to trust him, or buy him a beer.
Is it Thursday yet?
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Big step forward
Well, I'm gonna skip the rest of the arrival and meeting with brokers stuff. Why? Because I've found a boat, and agreed a price. In US terms, that is about the same as buying it. I have to present the deposit by Monday, which allows me to arrange for a survey (an inspection and report by a marine engineer) and a sea trial.(We go sailing for a couple of hours and I get to see if it stays afloat.) If I'm not happy with the outcomes of those, my deposit is refunded. If I am happy, I sign the contract and the deal is done.
Allow me to introduce 'Hellcat'. It's a 38 ft Catalina Sloop, built in 1983.
It has some creature comforts, like, umm, hot and cold water, a shower, and a double sink.
and really plush upholstery on the lounge cushions ... which match the carpet!
So, for those nautical types reading, here is a summary of the specs:
Later all.
W.
Allow me to introduce 'Hellcat'. It's a 38 ft Catalina Sloop, built in 1983.
It has some creature comforts, like, umm, hot and cold water, a shower, and a double sink.
and really plush upholstery on the lounge cushions ... which match the carpet!
So, for those nautical types reading, here is a summary of the specs:
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Later all.
W.
Friday, February 10, 2012
So there we were, just me and the donkey ...
What? Oh ... sorry, that's another story altogether.
So as I said ... finally got on the plane, and flew into LA. Had the good fortune to have an empty seat between myself and the window-side passenger, so it was surprisingly comfortable. I even managed to snooze for an hour or two.
Having queued for an hour and a half to do the formalities, which only took ten minutes once I made it to the head of the queues, I boarded a transfer bus to the car rental office. Seriously, the car rental offices (all of them) are so far from the terminal, that they provide buses. But they still charge the 'airport levy'. I guess it's to pay for the free bus. I had some misgivings as I approached the counter, which were realised when I provided the reservation number and the counter person (that doesn't sound right does it? She wasn't really countering being a person) said: "Oh, we cancelled that booking because you were more than 24 hours late". (26, to be precise.) "I provided a flight number on the booking, that is supposed to let you know the flight was cancelled, and sent you 2 emails." I replied in my brightest, not-bloody-Thrifty-again voice. Yup.Them again.
"Well we didn't get them so the booking but was cancelled", she beamed. "But it's OK, we can still provide you with a car." My joy failed to runneth over. "At the same rate?" I asked, not at all optimistically. "Oh err, let me see..." (Checks original booking. Goes a bit pale). ""I'll have to check with the supervisor." She comes back with a not very convincing smile of not very reassurance. "Yes, we can meet the same rental rate." I should have picked up on the stress of 'rental'. My $300 booking turned into $900 of rental plus insurance plus blah blah plus blah blah. "These 'extras' were all included in the original booking." I observed, just to see what would happen. "Oh no, that's just the rental. It doesn't include all these wonderful additional costs ... like tyre wear levy, and brake light cooling fees ... and..." I was tired, and about to become very cranky. "Fine". I took the car and silently vowed to swap it over to another not so Thrifty one ASAP. It took me a couple of days to do it, and wasn't as cheap as the original because I wasn't booking a month ahead, but I changed to another major company at one third less than the darlings at Thrifty. And they gave me a car upgrade. Don't think I'll go the Thrifty path again.
Then to the hotel. "Shouldn't be too hard. I have a map." The significance of the fact that it was a map provided by that car rental company failed to register. It's a map that you might use to cover a hole in the wall, or teach primary students what a map should show the user, by discussing what this one doesn't. But by gritting my teeth and using some rusty navigation skills (keep the sun over my right shoulder and I'm heading in more or less the right direction) I found the hotel. Twice actually. Found it, then lost it, then found it again. The hotel was, to my delight, expecting me, and made no fuss at all. And wasn't the rat and 'roach infested hell hole that I'm told some cheap LA hotels are. It's a little ...aged. Perhaps even jaded. Calling it 'shabby-chic' would be an unwarranted nicety. But it is clean and has been vermin free since I got here.
The drive to the hotel was in fact remarkably incident free. I only crossed onto the wrong side of the road a couple of times. I didn't fatally injure anyone. I didn't get 'honked' at at all. In fact in the week that I have been driving around, I have a) managed to have a pleasantly small number of close shaves with the grim reaper, and b) been equally pleasantly surprised at how patient and courteous LA drivers have been. On my two long trips on LA Freeways, I have been struck by the way that the drivers just make room for each other to merge or change lanes. No fuss, no shaking fists or flipping birds. Just .. 'yeah OK, I'll slow down for a couple of seconds and you can move into this lane'. Not at all what I was expecting. Can't imagine what Jerry Jeff Walker's problem was. (A country music ref. Don't panic if you don't get it.)
Well once again I've taken far too long to retell far too little of my progress. I have an early start tomorrow and should be asleep already. I'll try to get caught up ... soonish.
W.
So as I said ... finally got on the plane, and flew into LA. Had the good fortune to have an empty seat between myself and the window-side passenger, so it was surprisingly comfortable. I even managed to snooze for an hour or two.
Having queued for an hour and a half to do the formalities, which only took ten minutes once I made it to the head of the queues, I boarded a transfer bus to the car rental office. Seriously, the car rental offices (all of them) are so far from the terminal, that they provide buses. But they still charge the 'airport levy'. I guess it's to pay for the free bus. I had some misgivings as I approached the counter, which were realised when I provided the reservation number and the counter person (that doesn't sound right does it? She wasn't really countering being a person) said: "Oh, we cancelled that booking because you were more than 24 hours late". (26, to be precise.) "I provided a flight number on the booking, that is supposed to let you know the flight was cancelled, and sent you 2 emails." I replied in my brightest, not-bloody-Thrifty-again voice. Yup.Them again.
"Well we didn't get them so the booking but was cancelled", she beamed. "But it's OK, we can still provide you with a car." My joy failed to runneth over. "At the same rate?" I asked, not at all optimistically. "Oh err, let me see..." (Checks original booking. Goes a bit pale). ""I'll have to check with the supervisor." She comes back with a not very convincing smile of not very reassurance. "Yes, we can meet the same rental rate." I should have picked up on the stress of 'rental'. My $300 booking turned into $900 of rental plus insurance plus blah blah plus blah blah. "These 'extras' were all included in the original booking." I observed, just to see what would happen. "Oh no, that's just the rental. It doesn't include all these wonderful additional costs ... like tyre wear levy, and brake light cooling fees ... and..." I was tired, and about to become very cranky. "Fine". I took the car and silently vowed to swap it over to another not so Thrifty one ASAP. It took me a couple of days to do it, and wasn't as cheap as the original because I wasn't booking a month ahead, but I changed to another major company at one third less than the darlings at Thrifty. And they gave me a car upgrade. Don't think I'll go the Thrifty path again.
Then to the hotel. "Shouldn't be too hard. I have a map." The significance of the fact that it was a map provided by that car rental company failed to register. It's a map that you might use to cover a hole in the wall, or teach primary students what a map should show the user, by discussing what this one doesn't. But by gritting my teeth and using some rusty navigation skills (keep the sun over my right shoulder and I'm heading in more or less the right direction) I found the hotel. Twice actually. Found it, then lost it, then found it again. The hotel was, to my delight, expecting me, and made no fuss at all. And wasn't the rat and 'roach infested hell hole that I'm told some cheap LA hotels are. It's a little ...aged. Perhaps even jaded. Calling it 'shabby-chic' would be an unwarranted nicety. But it is clean and has been vermin free since I got here.
The drive to the hotel was in fact remarkably incident free. I only crossed onto the wrong side of the road a couple of times. I didn't fatally injure anyone. I didn't get 'honked' at at all. In fact in the week that I have been driving around, I have a) managed to have a pleasantly small number of close shaves with the grim reaper, and b) been equally pleasantly surprised at how patient and courteous LA drivers have been. On my two long trips on LA Freeways, I have been struck by the way that the drivers just make room for each other to merge or change lanes. No fuss, no shaking fists or flipping birds. Just .. 'yeah OK, I'll slow down for a couple of seconds and you can move into this lane'. Not at all what I was expecting. Can't imagine what Jerry Jeff Walker's problem was. (A country music ref. Don't panic if you don't get it.)
Well once again I've taken far too long to retell far too little of my progress. I have an early start tomorrow and should be asleep already. I'll try to get caught up ... soonish.
W.
Monday, February 6, 2012
So here I am. (Part 1)
Yes, I've arrived in LA. Sorry about the big gap, but it was a bit hectic for a while.
Where did I get to? Oh yes, I was heading off to collect the rental car to get to the airport.
The trip to Ballarat was about as exciting as most bus trips are. Then I walked to the rental outlet, having looked at a map and thought it was only two blocks away. Nuh uh, those are major roads, not streets, and I ended up walking about 6km. Won't do me any harm to have done that, but wasn't really expecting it and might just perhaps have worn better shoes for it if I had been. No matter. I get to the Thrifty shop, and the lass behind the counter says "Oh yes .. we have your reservation..." and we set about the paperwork. Easy peasy. Then we go out get the car. That's when the confusion starts. The car isn't there. It seems one of the staff wanted to go out for lunch. It's the only car they have available. "I beg your pardon?" I said, all polite and friendly. "Err ... we've called his phone and he's on the way back." Fine. Awkward pause ensues.
So, home again. Figure I need to depart by 6am the next day, so perhaps it's time to think about putting stuff in a suitcase. I have just the thing, a nice big hard-plastic job. Everything fits quite nicely without to much squashing. SNAP! One of the latches breaks off, leaving one end of the case gaping open. Crap. Out with the other suitcase; a soft-sided and quite a bit smaller job. Time to re-assess what I actually need to take with me. This time there is some squashing. Riiiip! A small section of the zip has torn away from the lid. Not enough to gape, but the actual ... whatever the little slide thing is called (a slide?) wont go past the torn section. Fortunately it's one of those with twin slides, and the other one is on the other side of the tear, so bringing them to each side of the tear makes a reasonable effort at closing the case. It's now 10.30pm, and I should be asleep. Crap, again. I decide it's not going to get any worse, and I'll replace the suitcase if I need to while I'm away.
The trip to the airport went without a hitch, and so did checking in the rental. I joined the queue at the Virgin check-in counter with time to spare, registering a little bit of surprise that there is already a bit of a queue. Then a bit more surprise when I realise that the queue isn't moving. At all. Even by airline check-in standards. My eyes come to rest on the departure sign, and the horror arrives. "CANCELLED" is written next to my flight number. "Crap" doesn't quite cover what went through my mind. In the following 15 minutes the staff of Virgin swung into action. Actually, that's not quite true. It did take about 15 minutes, but what they swung into was chaos, confusion and incompetence.
Now let me stress that the front line staff on the counters were not to blame here. They were friendly, patient and apologetic. The next tier up in their management structure, however, were farcical to watch. Some of the passengers were swapped over to a QANTAS flight. (lucky buggers.) Then everything stopped again. The rope barrier forming the queue to the check in counter was re-arranged several times. I could almost feel the deck chairs being re-arranged to the strains of "Nearer My God to Thee." I over-heard some passengers being transferred to Brisbane to connect to another flight. (Not quite so lucky buggers.) Virgin then handed out letters of apology that we could use to verify the cancellation with our travel insurance providers should we suffer any loss because of the cancellation. By the time I got to the counter, I was told that I was being transferred to Sydney to catch a connection leaving early in the afternoon, so would I Please take this bit of paper over to the domestic check-in counter straight away. When we, about 200 of us, joined the domestic queue, there was more rope tricks, and a very real sense that I wasn't going to get to Sydney in time for dinner, never mind an afternoon flight. Sure enough, after lots more bustling around by supervisory types, when I get to the counter, I'm told that I wont get to Sydney in time, and Virgin are going to put me in a hotel overnight and I'll be on a direct flight from Melbourne tomorrow morning. Could I Please take this piece of paper over to the International check-in area? My patient smile had become a bit fixed at this point. Virgin arranged the rest of us into various hotel lists, and handed out letters of apology that we could use to verify the cancellation with our travel insurance providers should we blah blah blah.
So we were herded out to waiting buses to take us to the hotel, and Virgin handed out letters of apology that we ... oh for goodness sake! The four 'guests' on our 30 seat bus didn't exude much joy on the trip to the luxury awaiting us in Rydges. That's Rydges in Preston, I might add. Nice enough place, though it did lose some charm when I recognised it as a renovated hospital. Virgin had arranged for us to have $50 credited to our rooms for meals etc, which I spent pretty easily before returning to my room to find a voice-mail message on the phone advising me that Virgin had not arranged any transport to the airport for the morning (a shortage of 30 seat buses perhaps?) and we were to arrange our own taxis which Virgin would re-imburse us for. At the airport, Virgin staff discover that they don't have cash to do re-imbursements, and we'll all have to contact "Guest Services" ourselves to arrange that. A couple of canny 'guests' are straight onto the phone, only to be told that it can't be done over the phone, they'll have to write or email Virgin to get the money back. I haven't done so yet. Better to wait till I'm calm enough to be polite, no? You'll be pleased to know that once on the plane, all went well. Although the car rental company had cancelled my booking as a "no show" because I was over 24 hours late. But more about that later.
It's late, and I need to go to bed. You've been very patient reading this sorry tale. Take a break and I'll finish the story tomorrow.
After I look at a boat, that is.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Now I'm feeling it.
So with just over 24 hrs to go, I'm finally feeling a touch of
...nervousness? Excitement? Both? Is there a difference? Anyway, I'm
pleased to report that the 'burnout' feeling has passed. Perhaps because
I've realised how much preparation that I wanted to do didn't get done.
Ah well, say lah vee.
The parcel tracking service now says that my Sat phone arrived at a mail centre in Victoria last night. I guess this means that it will arrive here ... ooh, about the time the plane takes off tomorrow? Excellent. Any one want to buy a Sat phone? Mind you the tracking service also says it arrived at a mail centre in Eastern Victoria. Somewhere near Mt Hotham. What the ...? Anyway ... it isn't here.
Well I'm off to pick up a rental car to get me to the airport tomorrow. I have to pick it up in Ballarat, which is only 150km away. How very convenient.
Yup ... definitely a bit excited now.
The parcel tracking service now says that my Sat phone arrived at a mail centre in Victoria last night. I guess this means that it will arrive here ... ooh, about the time the plane takes off tomorrow? Excellent. Any one want to buy a Sat phone? Mind you the tracking service also says it arrived at a mail centre in Eastern Victoria. Somewhere near Mt Hotham. What the ...? Anyway ... it isn't here.
Well I'm off to pick up a rental car to get me to the airport tomorrow. I have to pick it up in Ballarat, which is only 150km away. How very convenient.
Yup ... definitely a bit excited now.
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