Our new "pergola" goes on

Terry and Bryan toiled for 3 days raising our new roof ,lifting and fine tuning.

It all takes time......

Amongst the chaos washing still has to be done

Dry rot needs to be removed and repaired

Bryan takes delivery of his brand new railings

Yes, its all true,the nasty comments about boats costing a fortune to take you somewhere slowly etc.

I suffered from "sanders shoulder "after removing all the old varnish from the brightwork, can you tell it hurt?

We have worked to repair and improve the boat and even had some help from a visitor, Terry, as you wil see but it has been slow going.

It can't be all bad you say, well no, while you shiver down south we enjoy sunshine and and just the occasional day of rain and of course we aren't trudging to a job evey day,so i'll shut up and post some photos of our improvements.

What it takes to get things done..

The sunny winter weather continues in Bundaberg.

We thought of all you "southerners" as we watched the blustery winds and rocky seas buffet Jessica Watson and Ella's Pink Lady yesterday and shivered.

People near us have tales to tell of a crossing from New Zealand which was supposed to take 2 weeks taking 79 days because they were dismasted, they ran out of food and were thoroughly defeated by the sea, so congrats Jessica you conquered a tough opponent.

We try to stay motivated and use our time productively while we wait for the new railing to be constructed. We have plenty to do and Leon (my nephew) sent litres of paint and varnish down from Cairns, so we have no excuses not to look ship-shape by the time we depart.

Our method of transporting heavy items is pictured here, if you look closely you'll also see the above mentioned "motivation"!

I miss all my family and friends in Sydney and wish I could be there to see Tristan arrive home tomorrow from Indonesia and say Bon Voyage to my friend Sylvia who is off to Europe, still in only a matter of weeks we'll be on the move again,I hope.

If you saw the last post you will have realised what a lot of work there is to do before we can set sail but you won't have thought (unless you've lived on a boat)..where do they put everything while they work ..hmmm,it's a mess and I can't bear to show you BUT I will show you how tiring it is.

This is the shocking damage that awaited us on our return to Bundaberg.

Pushpit

Back to the very beginning....

You've got to start somewhere and a disaster is as good a place as any I guess.

I thought coming back to Bundaberg would mean a couple of weeks of tidy up on Star and Bryan and I would be on our way..WRONG.

The rain that revived the Outback deluged Bundaberg and flooded the Burnett river, which in turn washed huge floating mats of water hyacinth over the dam spillway,rushing downstream to weigh down and snap mooring lines and entangle and crash boat after boat into each other.

View the sad and sorry pictures of our (thankgoodness)floating home.