Ready to Move Aboard, and More History

We're currently in Perth for a two week holiday prior to moving aboard on Sunday (May Day!).  Great to catch up with family and friends.  We visited Fremantle Sailing Club several times and met many old friends.

It was great to meet Cheryl and Peter from Stolen Kiss.  They had lots of good tips for about-to-be cruisers like us, not to mention lots of useful information.  Thanks Cheryl!

We fly to Canberra on Saturday, overnight there, then take the coach down to Batemans Bay.  BBSC has arranged a farewell "open boat" for Sunday afternoon so we'll quickly dress ship for that.  On Monday we'll provision with perishables and the gas man will finish installation of our new gas system.  On Tuesday we should be ready to go!

Here are a couple of photos of Zen Again we haven't uploaded previously...

Zen Again at Batemans Bay

Zen Again's Saloon

And here are some of our previous boats...

Endeavour 24 Wench (2008-2010)
Raced at Batemans Bay

Runnalls 38 Degrees of Freedom (1999-2006)
Cruised 1.5 times around Australia, including the 2003 Sydney Hobart

Degrees of Freedom NavStation

Viking 30 Critical Path (1993-1999)
Raced and cruised offshore from Fremantle Sailing Club

Stratus 747 Quarterback (1990-1993 - co-owned with Mike's father)
Raced offshore and on the Swan River from Nedlands Yacht Club

Completing Refit and Starting Provisioning

We're now officially not employed.  Very liberating.  Busier than ever completing our refit and commencing provisioning.

Last week we installed the "pedestal" which replaced the previous saloon table.  The pedestal provides much more stowage space.  It is very securely mounted to the floor frames.

The Pedestal

Also last week Phoenix Traditional Boats remodelled the galley to house our new Force 10 stove.  They did a great job, installing stainless steel flashing around the stove and mounting it very securely.

New Galley

Over the weekend we provisioned the boat with most of the non-perishable food we'll depart with.  The first photo below shows most of the food in the cockpit, and the second shows the pedestal "loaded".

Foodstuffs ready to be stowed

Pedestal fully loaded!

In other news we tried out our new ATN MastClimber.  Works well but I need to get fit and improve my technique.  I inspected the rig and found no significant issues.  We do want to replace the masthead tricolour and anchor light globes with LED versions, but that's a job for later.

Three weeks until we move aboard!