 That's right, it's summertime here - and we've
had our share of 40°C days.
But let me tell you - that 40° here on
Botany Bay with a nice sea breeze and sitting in the shaded cockpit of the yacht
- is a helluva lot more pleasant than 40&° in the dry paddock.
 And of course - it's not quite so far to go - if
you want to have a swim anytime to cool off even more. So it was on
a particularly last Saturday - that I decided it was an ideal time to combine -
having a swim - with cleaning off the bottom of the Pride runabout - that's sat
here in the water for the last 9 months slowly turning into a living, floating
reef.
There's so much spongy, weedy, shell growth on the
bottom of it - it's impossible for it go at any speed - and no chance of it
planing. It had lived all it's life on a trailer - and went into the
water here without any antifouling paint - so there's nothing to do but - - - -
start scraping.
So Penny & I (and neighbour yachtie Keith came
along for the run) took it around the point to a popular boating beach spot
- pulled up close to the shore - and I hoopped over the side.
Penny the expert - as always - supervised the
whole operation
watching everything very closely - and putting in
her 2¢ worth - at every opportunity.
   Well with Penny 'soaking up the rays' as usual - I
battled on alone - and with my long arms, eventually got most of the growth
scraped off the bottom - but let me tell you I was pretty well exhausted by the
time it was done - and needed to spend the rest of the day on the cushions
myself - - - - - - - - - - Penny however, didn't seem the slightest bit
tired.
 Even though the rest of the day was spent
'recovering' from the boat cleaning excursion - the following day (when we
should have still been resting) found us on the go again. With a
quiet Sunday in the boatyard - and a fairly flat calm bay - it was the best time
to do a 'water run' - and see if the new collapsible water
tank - I'd got at the Aldi Store - coud be put together (un-collapsed) placed in
the 'newly cleaned' runabout - and taken to shore - filled with water - to top
up the water tanks of the yacht.
You will recall that I have previously taken the
yacht across to the Motor Boat Club and put fresh water in the tanks - and of
course this is still available. But it is just as easy - or hard -
to make a couple of trips to the nearby dock with the runabout - fill up this
water tank - and bring it to the yacht - and pump it in - as it is to release
the mooring - run the main engine the couple of miles across and back - with the
added challenge of safely docking and re-mooring the yacht. The
cost in time and fuel - is probably the same whichever way we do
it.
I also wanted to see if the system worked
satisfactorily enough that we could also make some trips - for water - to fill
up some of the other yachts here (most of whom would only need one load each) -
and thus save each one of them the burden of carrying 20L water containers to
and from their yachts - every day of their lives.
It's a 2 man operation - so once again I enlisted
the aid of Keith off the nearby yacht.
We adults firstly had to assemble the 'plug
n play' - 'garden water storage container'
on the deck - without the aid
of a child to show us.
 Then it was in to the shipyard on the point - to
fill it up with a hose at the dock.
   As you can see - it's a pretty big water
container - and can hold 1000L.
We didn't fill it right up - only about ¾ -
because with the two of us as well
the runabout was starting to get a bit too low in
the water.
And then back to the yacht - where we tied
alongside - and used a 240v pump on deck to pump the water straight up from the
container and into the yacht's tanks. As I've
told you before - the yacht has the capacity to hold over 10,000L of water
but I have never put in more than 4,000L. The
water is really only used for hot (frugal) showering every day and for washing -
and we could use on average 800L per month.
 As you can see the wind and water on the bay
started to freshen up a bit too
so we only made the one trip - which was pretty
straightforward.
So all being well - the next time we have a quiet
day again
we will try and do a few more trips not only for
me - but for the others as well .
 So that was how we spent last weekend - and oh yes
- there was also another spectacular sunsset on Saturday night - one to really
'write home about' - so here it is . . . . . . . . . . .
 Pretty amazing eh? - and I've uploaded an
even better - larger version
which you really should have a look
at.
 So until next
time
bye for
now
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