Working Full-Time on Anima

Since Yasi, I've had renewed enthusiasm to accomplish as many boat jobs as possible. I still have had no supply teaching work so instead, I've been working full-time on improving Anima. This has been aided because our lovely friends from Sula Sula have flown south and have left us their car, Daisy, to look after and make use of while they're away. Daisy has allowed me to zip off to buy various bits and pieces so that I can finish off jobs more quickly and easily. No more walking in the sweltering heat or waiting around for hours to catch an over-priced bus!

So, in no particular order, the jobs that I have completed over the last week are listed below:

The mosquito screens for our small portholes are finally complete (these will be our protection against malaria in SE Asia). It was a long process of measuring, having the plastic cut to size in Brisbane, drilling holes, cutting and bolting it all together. I made seven of these beauties - one for each of our portholes.

My new mozzie screen above one of the originals.

All of the cushions in our saloon are now secured in place. I sewed velcro strips to the backs of the beautiful covers that our gorgeous friend Lizzy made for us. Then I glued and screwed the hook side of the velcro to the wood backing. Now when we're sailing, the cushions won't fly about - instead, they'll stay firmly in place. 

Me drilling the velcro into place.

The life U-rings have been temporarily fixed up. They were quite damaged from years in the sun and so we have sikaflexed some replacement rip-stop over the worst areas. We plan to have proper covers made while travelling in Asia, so the messy black smears will not be there forever. I also sewed up two small rip-stop bags to hold the extra bits (whistle and sea anchor) that go with the rings.  

One of the life rings with its bandaid fix and new bag.

I spent about 5 days sorting through all of our nautical charts. We had a lot - probably about 60 or so kilograms consisting of some given to us, some originals that the boat came with and some borrowed from Rene's parents. There were too many really - we had triplicates of some! Most are pretty old - almost all of them were published in the 70s. The oldest one was printed in 1901!!! I used my teaching organisation skills and have catalogued, ordered and sorted the best of them into giant-size folders. We need to obtain more charts for travelling through SE Asia but I'm really happy with how organised the charts are now!

Ordered chaos - every surface was covered in charts while I was working.

The finished product - organised chart folder (Rene was squashed underneath it while he worked).

I've also been making some of the documents that will help us to travel through SE Asia with ease. Thanks to Jan and Nick from Yawarra 2 for alerting us to these requirements! I've made up a crewlist document and have just finished the boatstamp (pictured) which now has to be made up into a stamp for official documents.

So, it has been a busy week! Only two months now until we leave for waters further north. Hopefully our new boat batteries will arrive today so that we can install them this weekend. If not, there's still plenty to keep me busy!

I'm feeling great! I just did a week-long Mysore Ashtanga Yoga intensive. I'm so grateful for finding yoga and for having time to make it a part of my life. We had a tricky decision to make this week when Rene was offered a job working 3 months in Toronto from August, then 3 months in London. Despite the lure of travel in Europe, we are happy with our decision to stick with our original plan of cruising this year. It is going to be amazing!