The Beginning
8:35 PM, Apr. 11, 2009
.. LinkAbout 40 years ago, I was living in my home town called Cumnock. We had a creek that ran through the back paddock and as kids we used to play in and around the creek, swimming amongst the barbed wire, old tin and broken bottles, catching crayfish and now and again build rafts. I have a very clear recollection of one day, sitting on my raft in the middle of the creek which was only about 4 metres across at most. The raft was made from 12 gallon oil drums and pieces of timber I had been able to scrounge up. I also had a wooden crate on top and that was my ‘cabin’. The raft was only about 2 metres by a metre in size but to me she was the best boat in the world. As I was sitting against my cabin, I had a thermos of tea with me and I sat back, basking in the sunshine, closed eyes and started to dream, a dream that has lasted 40 years; to one day be sitting on my own yacht, basking in the sunshine, having a cup of tea.
How much life has changed over those years and I think I have more memories than there are stars in the skies. Memories that reflect on so much life, a life I believe that has been full of so many good times and one in which I have been very, very lucky. I guess we all share the same path at times, when opportunities are presented to us. We can do something about them or we can let them pass us by. As most of you who have known me, I have always been waiting for that one particular opportunity that has eluded me for all those years. Last year that opportunity came my way and also for my family.
Every day for who knows how long, the daily trawl of the internet was undertaken, looking at boats, reading sailing blogs and sharing some great sailing times with Debs and the girls, and good friends, on charters or out sailing with mates, kind enough to share their boat and time together.
In December 2009, my life and the life of my family was about to change like it had never done before. We saw our boat, ‘Sunboy’, advertised for sale on the internet. When we first saw her, we thought the price was a mistake so Debs and I rang the broker to make some more inquiries. The price was confirmed and we literally sat there in shock, realising that an opportunity that I had waited all those years for was now open to us. We discussed options with Nikki and Layni, very openly and very honestly and at the end of the day, the decision was unanimous, lets try and buy the boat.
Hey, it wasn’t much to ask, lets just take the kids out of school, sell off most of our material possessions, close down a business that I had spent 10 years building up, put ourselves into debt and go half way around the world and live on a boat, away from all of our cherished friends and family and start to live a life that we had never done before: well not for any real length of time anyway. That’s not too much for a husband and father to ask for, is it? The fire did burn very deep within.
Deb and the girls wanted me to do whatever I could to seize this opportunity. We were so fortunate to have a friend, John Allison who worked near wher ‘Sunboy’ was berthed in England and he was able to head down and do a preliminary check of the boat and he confirmed that I needed to head over and not waste much time doing it. Debs and I looked at the option of both of us heading over to inspect the boat but the earliest we could both get over on frequent flyer points was late January and I was not confident, no matter what the world economy was doing, that the boat would not be sold by then. The window of opportunity, I believed, was closing. It was a bit like Haley’s comet in a way, the opportunity had arrived only once in all those years and it might be that amount of time or even more before it arose again and I was not going to wait anymore. I remember going to bed one night, tossing and turning everything over in my mind and I woke Debs and told her that if I didn’t go now, the boat would be gone. At 2.00am in the morning, my Darling was on the phone to Qantas frequent flyer staff and two days later I was on a plane heading for
I had a week to inspect the boat, do the sea trials, arrange for an out of water survey and negotiate a purchase. The combination of what I was embarking on and the life changing decisions Debs and I were making, over the phone to each other, coupled with a hefty dose of jet lag made me feel totally devoid of reality. Within 4 days the deposit had been paid, the noose around the opportunity had begun to tighten.
I arrived home, with a truck load of emotions going on and I wasn’t alone. We were all so excited and happy but also, and quite naturally, we were also just a tad anxious. Debs had been able to secure 4 frequent flyer flights back to the
Christmas and New Year came and went, and time started to tick down. Finally the papers came through. We had our boat, the money had arrived and the papers were signed over. SY Sunboy was ours.
The weeks started to fly past, we organised Nikki and Layni into Distant Education Schools, Nikki at Camden Haven and Layni at Port Macquarie. Furniture and household goods were being sold like there was no tomorrow and of course our ‘voly’ went as well. Emotions were starting to run a bit, especially when it came to find new homes for our dog Simmy and our cat Micah. Every second of time spent with friends and family became so precious for we knew that very soon we would be leaving and not knowing when we would see you all again. You mean so much to us, more than you could ever imagine.
I have to be honest and I think I speak for all of us when we really questioned what we were doing, not once or twice, but often. Was this really the right thing to do? Only time would tell. It was not only my life that was going to change but also each and every member of the family and we were collectively and individually feeling emotions that none of us had ever felt before. Through all this time, the bonds of friendship became even stronger and no one suggested that what we were doing was wrong in any way. The love, encouragement and support from all of you has been incredible.
Before we knew it, we were at
The adventures of ‘Sunboy’ the Sailing Boat had begun…..
Being honest, it was cold, we were all so very tired and all a bit drained from the 36 hours of travel, little sleep and the emotional upheaval of leaving home. Having said that, we were also very excited and for Debs and the girls, I was their first view of our boat. Layni literally squealed with excitement from the time she first saw Sunboy from the marina office to the time she was able to step on board.
Our boat was berthed at
As this was our first ever boat, Debs and I had anticipated a very steep learning curve but did not expect it to happen as fast as it did! The second day on board and Debs uttered those words you just hate to hear; “Alsy, the toilet isn’t working” “That’s alright Darling, I’ll call a plumber”. Well that’s what I would have said when I was back home. But that’s not what ‘boat owner’s do. Alsy, it’s only some screws and some plastic pipe after all, get in and have a go son. Those of you who know me well completely understand that my level of technical ability only extends to being able to put batteries into things and that is when the + and the – sign are clearly marked, both on the batteries and the thingamajig that I have to put them into. I bought my first ever tool box loaded with bright shiny tools and gizmos only about three years ago and that was just to make Paddo, our neighbour at the time, think that I knew how to use it!! Of course he knew better and saw straight through the ruse. The thought of having to take a manual flushing toilet apart was way out of my comfort zone.
Well fortunately, the previous owner had left an absolute plethora of tools and gadgets on board when he sold it to us so into the aft head I went. The problem was that the manual pump was not working so whatever went into the loo could not be pumped out of it, fortunately this break down had occurred after morning ablutions so it was just a matter of sea water used to flush the system was not able to be pumped in or out.
I felt a bit like a bomb disposal expert sitting down, pondering my fate, wondering whether or not an explosion was about to take place! Give me shrapnel any time rather than the contents of this system. Slowly but surely the whole thing was taken apart, rubber seals reset (now there is a technician’s term), a bit of lube here and there and time to put the whole thing back together again. Now that’s another story but I am very happy to report that not long after, Alsy was doing whoops and hoops throughout the boat while Debs very proudly stood over the porcelain idol, pumping away to her hearts content, testing and retesting to make sure the whole repair job had not been a figment of her imagination! Avid readers, you have to realise just what a momentous occasion this was in my life, I had actually fixed something. Well thank goodness that was all that was going to go wrong. We were lucky to get away with that weren’t we? And so life on the boat was quickly going to turn into nirvana: no more problems: Sunshine, warmth and lazy days reading over charts and pilotage books planning a very nice summer cruising program.
How naïve and innocent we were!!! It seemed like every other day something else would stop working and at any time I was expecting Debs to throw down the tools and say enough is enough but never, at any stage did any words of regret or anger come forth. The problems were all relatively small but they were just not what we had anticipated. But in reality, the boat has had such little use since she was launched and had been through such a harsh winter when things freeze up and break, things were bound to go wrong.
The girls all tucked up in computer land
some more cleaning of our new baby
All in all we have been able to repair, fix or replace all of the problems presented to us, the grand finalist being the porcelain cartridge in the tap of our bathroom off our cabin. A tiny little piece of plastic that formed a collar for an ‘O’ ring had broken off, it was only about 4mm long and about 1mm high but it meant that our basin tap continually leaked significant amounts of water when we turned the fresh water pump on. A replacement tap was going to cost about two hundred pounds until I came up with the brilliant idea of building our own little collar for the ‘O’ ring. A plastic pen was sacrificed, a small collar was cut off it and superglued into place and voila!! Tap fixed.
Things were starting to smoke along, problem arose, problem fixed, was there no end to the skills that Debs and I were acquiring. Well then, oooohhh yes, the dreaded blocked holding tank. For those of you who don’t know, which would be me and maybe one other, a holding tank is a stainless steel tank on a boat that the contents of the toilet are pumped into and you then have a leaver on a hose that lets the contents be released into the sea when it becomes full. Well that is what is meant to happen. When one of these things gets blocked and people try to pump waste out, a thing called a vacuum is created and that means the contents of the said holding tank are then being stored under great pressure and that pressure has to be released or the said holding tank could, under extreme pressure, rupture.and empty the said contents into the bottom of the boat – i.e. the time that Debs and the girls say bye bye Alsy and I would be left with a boat full of s*$#t.
Armed with some trusty thin wire, for the unblocking of the blockage in the pipe, caused by what we suspected was a carelessly discarded baby wipe (thank you Alsy) was simply going to be the case of put thin wire up through the hole that is under the water at the side of the boat and all is good. Well that just didn’t happen and I am not sure if I was imagining things but I swore I could hear the holding tank start to growl and rumble, seeking immediate release.
By this time, I was standing in the inflatable dinghy at the side of the boat, the water was about 10’ Celcius and I was confronted by a small screw down cap on the top of the deck where you can also have a very heavy duty pump placed into the tank to pump it out. All I had to do was release the cap, very carefully of course, and let some pressure out so we could travel to the pump out facility and have it pumped dry and the blockage sucked out. Well I think the contents of the holding tank must have had enough of their entrapment and as soon as I started to release the cap, it erupted like
We spent the rest of the afternoon, cleaning the boat(s) and myself and whilst we had emptied the contents of the holding tank, we still didn’t clear the blockage. So off we hopped up the river to another marina that had a pump out facility. We got up river and radioed ahead and they explained that when we saw the three green lights the lock was clear to enter – Lock – hang on a minute, aren’t they those things you go into on the canals of France. Wait a minute mate, we have only owned the boat for a week, we can’t go though a lock. Well yes you can and yes we did and we tied up in the Hythe Marina and engaged a very serious bit of kit called a holding tank pump out facility. This thing could have sucked up the Titantic from the ocean floor I think and when we heard a very loud thud and saw a lump go through the pipe, Debs and I both thought, ha ha, got you, you bastard. We cleared the girls holding tank for good measure and headed back out though the lock thinking our blocked head days were a thing of the past.
So after all the time packing the boat, getting up to Southampton and getting some great storage goodies from the biggest IKEA store we had ever seen, repairing and replacing things, we just about had time to catch our breath. Well that was after John Allison helped us transport some very nifty wooden bed slats from IKEA to our boat. These slats are joined together and are curved so they allow the foam mattresses we have to be raised up of the bed frame to allow ventilation and also provide a nice touch of comfort thank you very much. We spent some time, cutting each of the slats to fit into the unusual shape of our bed but it has been well worth it, so much so, we are going to get some for each of the girls beds.
We took the boat out for her maiden voyage on the 30th of March and had a little sail over towards
maiden voyage
maiden voyage
The following weekend was spent with John and Sue Allison and had a brilliant time with them. They live in an area called Sway just near the New Forrest and they have horses and chooks and dogs and are just the best guys to pal around with. Layni just loved collecting the fresh eggs from the chooks and the taste of them for brekky in the morning was just the best.
John and Sue also have a Hanse yacht the same size as ours and they have travelled over 30,000 miles in theirs and their knowledge and experience base is just incredible. We had a great weekend in their home and came back to the boat full of enthusiasm and inspiration.
Not long after we got the terrible news about the floods in Coffs and what had happened to our home. To be so far away at a time like that was just horrible and thinking we had lost so much was just devastating. We will never know how to adequately write the words to say thank you to all those who helped through that time, saving our very, very treasured possessions and we cannot express how much we appreciate what you did for us. I am simply not able to explain what it felt like when we got the news that so much had been saved. It was, in so many ways a real turning point.
People over here have been incredibly friendly and helpful to us, taking us to shops to buy essentials for the boat, giving us tips and advice and making life so much easier in our new little world. Our berth buddy at Hamble Point, Mike Lilley has been of great help. Debs measured up the cupboards in our galley and Mike cut some shelving to fit and all Debs and I had to do was fit the mounting brackets and screw them into the cupboards and hey presto, double the storage space. We have also cut and fitted some ‘fiddles’ (wooden slats) to go across open storage areas to allow us to store even more stuff, especially all the great books we bought from a fantastic second hand book store in Cowes for 99p each.
Debs has started a little bit of school work with Layni and it is compulsory for her to wear her school maam hat each time she does. Layni found this old tartan hat on board and it suits the job to a tee, we only hope that Layni pays the same attention and respect to her ‘new’ teacher as she did to her previous ones.
We have left Hamble Point Marina and been out and about on our boat, starting to enjoy all that we had hoped our new life was going to bring. We haven’t gone very far but it has been so good. We sailed from Hamble Point over to
When we arrived in
We explored
Layni at Yarmouth Castle
Another day was spent walking about 4 kilometres up to a village called Freshwater and wandered around the old church and graveyard, fascinated by all the hundreds of year old headstones and inscriptions. A quick drink in the Red Lion Pub and off we headed back to Yarmouth via a nice walking track, through the meadows and fields, even spotting a couple of pheasants, bringing back the words of that old rhyme about some pheasant plucker and his pheasant plucking son who spent his time plucking pheasants, for reasons yet to ever be discovered. Personally I thought the pheasants were far to nice to even conjour up the idea of plucking out their very pleasant looking pheasant feathers.
On the way to the village of Freshwater
Yarmouth Marina
We sailed back to
The last week has been just so good. Well except for the night before my birthday. I was lying in bed reading when I smelt impending doom. I opened the door to our bathroom to see blackwater overflowing from the toilet bowl into the bathroom floor. Yes, you guessed it the blocked holding tank was seeking revenge for having her insides sucked out some days before. Suffice to say we cleaned up the mess, didn’t cause another geyser of misery and released the pressure that had caused the back flow build up.
We had arranged to meet John and Sue over at their marina base at Lymington on the mainland for my birthday but I was determined to get this problem sorted. So we postponed our get together with them and stayed at
Overall though, I did have a good birthday with my girls. Deb, Nikki and Layni kept up traditions by making me a sponge, cream, jam and chocolate cake. It was very similar to the one they made last year (although this year made with a packet of brioche rolls) so I think that will, I hope anyway, be a ritual to be undertaken every 8th of April.
reading has become a very popular pastime
We have met so many really nice people on their boats and learnt so much from them and when we explain our plans they are all very excited for us as most of them have sailed into the areas we propose to go to. Were are now in Cowes Yacht Haven Marina, it is the afternoon of Good Friday and the weather is, how would you say, typically British old Chap, bloody cold and raining. Debs and I walked into the village and bought some goodies for dinner, a nice big bucket load of Scottish mussels. I have to say, they were the best mussels I have ever had in my life and we had heaps!!!.
favourite food for me....
and Nikki!
The girls are tucked up in our bed reading away to their hearts<
6:19 AM, Apr. 19, 2009
.. Posted by tpeacocke
10:38 PM, May. 7, 2009
.. Posted by Anonymous
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Welcome to our world!
Al you sound like my reflection, but with I think a bigger boat. I bought my one in Cork two years ago a Dufour 45 Classic and am just sitting at our kitchen table in Tauranga NZ planning our trip out to Marmaris in Turkey to be reunited in June. So pleased that you have the Allisons to lean on as they have been a great inspiration to me and I keep referring to their old blogs for invaluable info on where to go and what to do. Your birthday was the 8th well mine was on the 7th and all from the Southern Hemisphere we are used to looking at the same stars. I hope our tracks cross a some stage. Cheers Ted and Jenny Peacocke (Yacht Elixir)
G'day
Great to catch-up, the other week. We are back out on Ghost tomorrow and really looking forward to more contact with you all going forward. Keep the blog ticking over though!!
All the best
B&K
