Month: October 2020

25/10/2020

Left North Keppel this morning heading for South Keppel, only with the mainsail still keeping 6-7 knots.

Arrived at the destination and anchored the boat next to Rory’s new boat then we invited him over for tea. He is the Perth guy who made the first offer on Dagmar. He and J had only spoken on the phone before 

they finally met each other today. He is an interesting guy. Came with his family from Ireland to Perth in his early teens, surfed everywhere in his youth, backpacked and hitchhiked around until he had a motorcycle accident which caused half of his body a bit uncoordinated. He met his current wife in Canada and they lived on a boat and sailed around the oceans. Later they had children so they moved back to land, started a business to support the family. One year he almost died from a malignant tumor in his eye, which was removed soon and turned him into a one-eyed-man (the fake eye was so realistic you couldn’t notice). Immediately after his recovery, he sold his business to travel with his wife and spend all his money. Now that his children have grown up and left home, he even became a grandfather. By observing those repetitive life cycles, He found something in his life is greatly missing: Salt! It’s time to go back the the water. Due to financial problems he did not buy Dagmar, but ended up buying a smaller boat which is much easier to handle by himself, and he is very happy with it and sailed around the Keppels. He’s been in the Great Keppels for a month and knows the islands like the back of his hand, as he told us yesterday about the place where we could take a shower. He said he noticed the change in him since returning to the boat, more flexible, lighter and generally a happier man.

It started raining when Rory got back to his boat. We collected a lot of rain water and did some laundry.

Stir fry pork with shredded potatoes for dinner.

24/10/2020

Still staying in North Keppel today and loving the seclusion. Walked two kilometres up the island through the mosquito-infested bush to a campsite on the west side of the island for a fresh water shower. The shower room was built in the outdoor with a wooden fence around a shower head, using collected rainwater and no heat. Luckily, it was hot enough to take a cold shower. Picked up a couple of coconuts on the way back to the boat and cracked them. They didn’t have much water in them, but they had plenty of coconut meat, which I used to cook a green sauce curry in the evening.

After dinner we watched a documentary called My octopus teacher.

I was amazed by the intelligence and amazing structure of octopus. Also admired Craig Foster for diving every day for more than a year to observe the same octopus. He says that “gentleness” is what you learn from nature, where you begin to love all creatures, including the tiniest… Indeed, after a few months of sailing in nature, not only have I learned how to enjoy a very basic life, but also I care more about the wildlife and environment around me. At least I don’t think I’ll be eating Takoyaki (grilled octopus balls) anymore.

23/10/2020

Went to bed early last night and woke up naturally at 8am this morning. Finally we were able to sleep in as the plan for today was to relax.

After delicious egg and avocado toast for breakfast, we gave our beloved boat a good clean. J adjusted some of the stays and ropes on the boat, and dived into the water to clean the hulls. He scraped out a lot of strange sea creatures. He also found that the propeller on the stern was small and not in hydrodynamic shape. No wonder the it didn’t work well in the waves. So it looks like it’s not the gearbox problem but the propeller needs to be replaced.

A pile of red vegetables and stir-fried meat for dinner.