Ready get set go!

After all the excitement of being back on Askari and afloat again we drew up a jobs list......

Our boat yard home for 2018

The Oxford Boat Yard had completed some cosmetic epoxy work on the keel, to finally remove all traces of Mustique.  We also had them undertake a rigging survey, take off all the old antifouling paint, apply 3 fresh coats, and polish the topsides. We have never been really happy with the finish of the small amount of non-skid paint on the deck so we had them update that with a lovely two pack awl-grip and paint the boom where a shackle had scratched off some of the coating - we now have a soft shackle. They were not the cheapest yard but gosh the attention to detail in their work was amazing, a real quality job. 

Now it was our turn and a box of goodies was waiting for us that had been shipped in from Oyster. The secondary alternator was actually the only really important thing that wasn't working , so when we found out that the pulley on the new one was wrong - that set us back. Master volt have been great at supporting their product but this is now our third alternator - the last one failed as the keyway disintegrated. We finally got the correct pulley fabricated in the UK and shipped out a week later - only a quick job to install that (with only a little swearing......)

We had been through our maintenance schedule and one task we hadn't been looking forward to was to check the exhuast mixing elbow for wear and tear. It looked all nice and snug neatly wrapped up in the side of the engine - unwrapping it felt like we were exposing it bare. As it turned out it was easy to remove and had little corrosion inside, so Andrew cleaned it up, replaced the gasket and wrapped it all up again nicely for another year or two - phew!

Custom mixing elbow - exposed

Just a little carbon build up - he was happy

The Boat yard alerted us to the fact that the end caps on our jib sheet cars had crumbled away due to the UV. We set about replacing them at a local chandlers but found out the small bits of plastic were over $40 each - wow! After locating a technician at Lewmar in the US he had replacements shipped to us that day free of charge - another fairly easy job was ticked off by Andrew.

Meanwhile there were other important jobs to be done - cushions!! Yes I am a little obsessed with cushions, bedding and soft furnishings in general. I grabbed some new covers when we were in Darwin but needed the accent colour block cushions to go with them - I found them on Esty but the shipping nearly delayed our departure. A famous cruising sailor (Beth) wrote there's no place for silk on a cruising boat - I totally disagree. You need things around you that make you happy and make a boat feel like home when you live aboard full time.

I'm pretty happy with our new look saloon

A few days into our work, there was a totally calm day so we set about putting the sails back on. Racers make a sail change in a few minutes, how come it took us nearly a whole day. We had run all our halyards on mouse-lines to protect them over the summer and the cars were at the top of the mast so a few trips up the mast were necessary but the main problem is that they are just really big and slippery suckers. We got the main on and it looked great but then we got the genoa half up and we just looked at it and them each other - WTF.......

What on earth is that???

Seriously...... I could have cried (she did a bit)

We quickly dropped the sail again for closer inspection and couldn't believe what we saw. We had left our sails with a sail loft in Annapolis for a service and storage. We had been invoiced for a small amount of stitching but there was no mention of this. To be fair to them when I called them and sent pictures they immediately refunded us. We called Dolphin Sails in the UK for advice and then confirmed the sail was fine and we just needed a small repair to our UV strip. I then spent a day carefully removing the white patch. Then we met Matt who worked from home and he repaired the UV perfectly in a day. He charged us so little them we actually demanded to pay 50% more and wrote him a great review.

That's better - you can't even see it installed - Matt lined up the stitching and got the same material

Some grotty and complicated jobs were next - rebuilding the guest heads and the manual bilge pump which was in the most inconvenient place. Andrew took both on with only a bit of grumpiness - ha ha! I was the packer and unpacker plus tool fetcher. 

Our lovely Kate at Oyster yachts had shipped everything we needed and left an English plug socket on her desk - oops! This has been a totally frustrating failure - the switch on the socket for our washing machine failed and try buying a socket for a foreign country is impossible, a thing that is about GBP5 meant we couldn't run the washing machine without half dissembling the boat and running a cable to another socket for the last 6 months. So when this simple thing was missing - noooo! We got it a week later and washing has resumed on Askari with ease - yay for solutions to first world problems!

We also had to provision - as well as a lot of wine, a trip to the Amish Market for organic meat I also needed new  glasses. Andrew was at Walmart and I challenged him to get me a cheap pair....

New glasses - $10 good job honey!

We thought we were about done and got ready to set sail. Andrew was doing some final checks, we got invited to the Boat Yard Halloween party, but the port nav light wasn't working...... Again a few calls to Europe and a new Lopolight LED was shipped under warranty- hurrah we can make the party as we have to wait a few more days!

Replacing the Nav light - no job on a boat is easy

It wasn't all work though as we were in the cute village of Oxford, I'd take morning runs, we learned the local pub had an English chef and his deserts are to die for. Michael a friend we last met in Charleston last year drove over to join us for dinner one night with our dock friend Dave too. Russ, Tina and Tim were also board their boat in Annapolis one weekend so we met for a cosy dinner half way one night. Sadly the Halloween party at the boat yard got cancelled due to bad weather and we set sail the next day.

It's along time since I had sticky toffee pudding

Out and about in Oxford - just some shots of this perfect Maryland village.

Our last job was to sell Jordy Jeep - we called in to the local car dealers and agreed a price - the deal we got meant we were way ahead of what it would have cost to hire a car. We just had a bit of admin to do and we were fancy free again. We took a day trip to Lewes, Delaware where we caught up with Richard and Kate and took a long walk on the beach,  and then finally we took Jordy on the ferry to St Michaels before we collected the cash.

Car sold now we are free again

28th October we finally left the boat yard and started out journey south - woo hoooo!

Time to get back on the water

We had a fabulous time back in Australia and spent time in Sydney, Fremantle and unexpectedly, Darwin. It was wonderful to be home for nearly a month a catch up with friends and our Sydney family. As always you can’t do everything but it was nice to have familiar sights around us for a change – although Sydney was completely under renovation everywhere you went it was a little odd.

Back in Sydney

Paul and Lizzie hosted us for the first few days we got back – with an action packed city adventure from their home in the Rocks. We went on long city walks, bought delicious fish from the fish markets and ate and drank everything Australian. Then it was off to Fremantle where we had rented an apartment near our old neighbourhood – first stop was a Little Creatures at the Local brewery, then we were off Sailing to Rotto with Clive and Roz – an amazing winters day for a sail, complete with whales alongside their boat on the way back. We saw as many friends as we could and gave a short presentation on our sailing trip at our Sailing Club – most people stayed awake!

Paul and Andrew catch up with the amazing skyline view

Girls ready for urban crawl!

My fab nephews enjoy Canadian choccie

Wine on the water with Roz at Rotto

Arriving at Rotto

Back at Fremantle Sailing Club - perfect

Getting ready for the presentation - our poster on the board quite entertaining for us!

We diverted from Perth to Darwin for a quick warm up with Lee and Andrew, which included an amazing sunset at the Darwin sailing club and a swim at Litchfield National Park complete with waterfall. Finally we had a lovely few days back in Sydney with Sarah and had a final catch up with My Brother, Suz and their boys.

Darwin sunset with Lee

Swimming without Crocs -we hope

Amazing magnetic termite mound faces north / south so part is always in the shade to control the temperature

Of course they put on fireworks for us in Sydney 

I've never actually been to Bondi before - great walk with Sar on a windy day 

Chilly back in Mosman but worth it for yummy food with Sarah

I had this idea we should look at houses while we were in Australia and Andrew even went to discuss a job – both of those ideas were short lived. Whilst it was great to be home we quickly decided that we have a lot more to see and do with Askari and that our time is now. Sometimes you have to take a step back and reflect to realise what you have and then leap back in with both feet. We had felt a little homesick, a little tired and just needed some time away from the boat after two and a half years living aboard full time. Whilst we live the dream much of the time, we also worry about the boat and rarely sleep through the night. Being at the constant mercy of the weather can be full on. This time off ended up being just what we needed.

Arriving back in Vancouver, we looked at the weather and thought we could squeeze in another couple of weeks hiking in the American Rockies. We crossed the border within an hour on landing and set a course for Yellowstone National Park – this has long been on by list of destinations.    

Old Faitfull - at Yellowstone

Yellowstone Buffalo

Rocky Mountain National Park

The geyshers and geography at Yellowstone were amazing, however it is so busy and board walked out that it felt more like Disneyland than a National Park so after a one day visit we carried onto the Grand Tetons NP – this was more like it. We were lucky to meet a fantastic park officer who recommended a plan for us and set us up with a free bear resistant food canister for wilderness backpacking. The route had us spend a perfect night with a camp fire right on the shore of a low altitude lake, then we took on the Tetons next morning on a picture perfect cool autumn day. We hiked the Paint Brush Canyon to Holly Lake and spent the night being blasted by really strong katabatic winds that left us with a tent full of sand, at around 10,000 ft it was the highest camp we had stayed at and even though we didn’t sleep much it was so beautiful. Next morning we hiked over the divide and into Cascade Canyon – wow this was one of the best hikes we have ever done. We had one more night out in the Valley alongside a river where we had to hide the bear canister a fair way from camp. In the Teton’s the camping was far more wild and random than in Canadian NP’s and we wished we had longer to explore this beautiful park but the weather was changing fast and we opted to drop off our bear canister and switch to a cabin in the Rocky Mountain National Park for a few more days and to desperately try to find a Moose – the only animal that had evaded us on the whole trip.

Paint Brush Canyon

Holly Lake - Campsite

Cascade Canyon

Amazing Grand Tetons

We did an end of season deal for cabin in the cute village of Grand Lake, CO and set about trying to find a Moose. We took advice from the rangers and hiked all the recommended Moose spotting routes, we drove the roads at dawn and dusk but alas no Moose. On our final evening we had given up, found the brew pub open and were just chatting with the owner about the lack on Moose, when a guy walked into the pub and announced there was a Moose and calf in the high street!! Did I squeal – oh yes and just abandoned my phone, credit card and bag. Yay finally a Moose.

Perfect end to our time in the Rocky Mountains  - thanks Mrs Moose

We had another few weeks before we were due back and had planned to take in a few more stops, however snow was forecast later that week and temperatures were plummeting. We decided we were keen to get back to our own bed and the boat and get her ship shape for the next adventure. We arrived back on the East Coast after a really boring few days of driving , made the last day of the Annpolis boat show. John and Gayle, we met in the Bahamas had spotted Askari in Oxford while we were away, we didn’t know they lived in the next village. They so generously invited us to stay until Askari was launched. As it happended the guys at the Oxford Boat Yard had her all perfectly ready, spotless and shiny and launched her for us within a couple of hours of getting back    

Annapolis Boat Show with Will and John from Oyster - John was our UK project manager who helped us through all steps of our build - just fabulous to catch up after two years.

We couldn’t believe how great she looked – it was definitely a good call to leave her in such a clean area with a lot of summer rainfall as the stainless looked like it had just been polished. I left a Kanberra Gel tub inside to manage mould and we didn’t have a single spot. It was only the teak deck that needed some work – that could wait and we moved back on board that night – then the real work started!

She looks like new!

Splash