Hey

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Some photos for now

Some photos of the rebuild, click on the link or check out the slideshow to the right. Over the course of 2.5 years we didn't manage to take many photos but we've managed to snaffle a few from friends' cameras to add to our own little pile and I think it's enough to give an idea of what has happened...

The last few months...

I meant to blog much sooner but…. Life….

I did however write an entry about Blunt’s Boatyard, but never got around to posting it, so here it is:

Being allowed on to the hardstand at Blunts was a mission. When James went knocking more than 10 years ago to ask about apprenticeships he was told a resounding NO. When he decided that it was time to rebuild Tai Taki he knew there was only one place he wanted to be, and went knocking again. The answer was

a similarly adamant NO and James was once again looking at the wrong side of the gate.

Blunts Boatyard is the oldest working boatyard in Melbourne (I think). It has been a family affair since 1858... moving from Geelong to Williamstown c.1880. Blink and you could almost miss the quiet entrance, sitting on the waterfront between the Sea Scouts and clean and shiny yard next door.

It's not whitewashed, does not generally cater to fibreglass or steel, but is ALIVE with characters, creativity, passion and productivity, and a haven from the tourists and pram pushing mummies that pound the pavement outside the gates. An old apricot tree sits by the ‘Smoko Hut’, and while it is buried under bitumen still bears the sweetest fruit. A walk to the end of the jetty reveals a kickass view of the city skyline. The men revel in the smell and beauty of huon pine, horde tools that have been passed down through the generations, make crass jokes and sometimes try not to swear in front of ladies. Above all they love their boats. After some persistence and a lot of luck, Tai Taki was granted entrance - the only steel boat in the yard!

There is absolutely NO WAY we could have progressed very far with the rebuild if it hadn't been for Blunts and the people there. MASSIVE gratitude to you all for your encouragement and support.

That was October. The boat seemed to be progressing at a glacial pace, yet we still had hope for a Christmas Launch. Unfortunately Christmas came and went, along with New Year, birthdays, funerals, Australia Day, Labour Day and now Easter. It’s Easter Sunday today actually. I’ve returned to the blogosphere to give my neck a rest as I have been hunched over the sewing machine all day trying to make some seat covers for the saloon. Whowouldathunk sewing a few rectangular bits together could be so difficult? But as I am typing away Mrs Duck is valiantly unpicking all my stitches because I managed to sew 4 out of the 8 covers inside out. F*ck.

As for the rest, a pre-Christmas headache has turned into a 3 month migraine. Despite the combined efforts of 2 intelligent men, the measurements were somehow taken incorrectly and the centreboard sleeve was made 300mm too short. The sleeve was the solution to the corroded interior of the actual centreboard case – it was much too hard to clean the depth/length of it so a plan was hatched to manufacture a sleeve and slide it inside the existing case and weld it shut. Then a new, thinner centreboard would be made up to fit in it’s new home. We burned $1000 the day it came back and realised it was too short, there was nothing to do but order a new one. It is now March 23… There is a charge in the air with the changing of the seasons. I am enjoying the crunchy leaves underneath my feet and like to see them swirl around in the wake of these city cars but it is also depressing to know we have missed the Summer we so wanted…and tick tock we are still awaiting the new case. This is truly an aggravation as it has severely disrupted the intended work flow and delayed the launch date.

We are continuing with other necessary jobs but in complete frustration as they are things that can be done in the water. Garry (James' dad) - is rewiring and installing the lighting and James continues with a never ending array of tasks.

May 17

The new centreboard sleeve finally arrived and preparations made to have the boat lifted onto the case. The crane comes on Monday! The men decided it would also be wise to take the opportunity to pull out the old motor and replace it with the Yanmar that has been sitting in the OTHER boat, the one that sits unfinished in James' mum's front garden with weeds growing all around it.

Question: How far away from finishing are you
Response: Another month hopefully

This has been the answer for the last year or so but now I think it may actually be close to the truth...

The lighting and wiring has been finished, which was a more detailed task than first thought - surprise surprise. Final coats of paint and varnish soon. As soon as the new sleeve is in the keel can be properly cleaned up and the launch party can be planned. Wish us luck!

chOnt

Trevor Robertson on being frozen in, in the Antarctic:

First day back at work in a couple of months, ho hum. After checking emails and facebook and playing sudoku and STILL finding myself with time on my hands I went down the slippery google path.

I searched my way to an article about a man who spent 13 MONTHS wintering in the Antarctic, aboard Iron Bark II, which is a 35ft wylo gaff-cutter, sister boat to Tai Taki. I always knew Tai Taki was a tank - built like the proverbial brick shithouse.

Reading this article gave me immense comfort when thinking about us being aboard Tai Taki, taking in the crisp air of the Aleutian Islands, north of Alaska. I have however, made it abundantly clear to James that I don't think I'm cut of the same mould when it comes to the extreme adventuring experienced by Trevor! My rather romantic image of the proposed time spent up north is kicking back in a hot spring watching the northern lights twirl above my head...

From the article "The Ice Man of Iron Bark" by James Baldwin:

To give an example of how complicated the simplest chores become in the sub-zero world, Trevor explained the steps involved in making pancakes. "First melt some ice for water. To start the kerosene stove even the preheat alcohol has to be preheated before it will burn. Chisel off a chunk of frozen olive oil. Then melt the batter in a double boiler of water. Fry the pancake. Then melt the frozen jam in the double boiler. Then eat quick before it freezes up again."

To get drinking water he chopped and hauled fresh water ice from a glacier because all the ice surrounding the boat was contaminated with salt. Trevor's diet during the expedition consisted mostly or rice, flour, corned beef and butter. To survive the cold he had to eat a fat-rich diet of about 4,000 calories a day, he estimated. Even so, he came out of the Antarctic as lean as a marathon runner.

During the six hours a week when he ran the heater, the inside of the cabin - which was soon covered in a grubby freezer frost - would start streaming condensation. Everything, including clothing, bedding and books, got wet and then froze solid when the heat was shut off. To read the frozen books meant pulling off a glove and using his hand to thaw one page at a time."



Amazing. In 2004/05 Trevor spent another winter frozen in, at the opposite pole this time detailed in Annie Hill's blog: http://anniehill.blogspot.com/search/label/Greenland.

Annie Hill is the author of the book Voyaging On A Small Income which added fuel to the spark in James' eyes and was my first introduction to what a sailing life could be. Once I figure out how this blogger-thinger-mejiggy works I will update it to include nicer looking links instead of chunky URLs all over the post. Signing off for now...CHoNt

the story so far....

Tai Taki II... Our little beast... Our Kombi Van of The Sea....drifted into this Duck's life on the wave of an excited suggestion (read: near-coercion) to sail this baby all the way to Canada.

Built in New Zealand in 1982, Tai Taki had 2 previous owners before being trucked down from Cairns in 2002. She is a 32ft gaff rigged Wylo liveaboard designed by Nick Skeats. She has spent time on the mooring in Williamstown and puttering around the bay, and was run aground once in St Kilda when the ship ran dry and the lads decided it was a good idea to refuel...the pitt-stop cost 6 hours waiting for the tide to come in again.

With salt water rushing around his veins, James left to go sailing, had many adventures and returned to Australia in 2005. As the rest of the clan had also been to-ing and fro-ing for the last few years Tai Taki was left unattended in the water a little too long, and the electrolysis (stray current in the water) began to eat away at the steel hull.



She came out of the water in July 2006... and we're still working... working... The damage revealed post high pressure wash was enough to make a grown man cry - well, that and the trauma of having to hire a crane at a Grand a pop as the centreboard became stuck during the slipping process. Unable to go up, unable to go down - properly stuck - and did I mention that we had been broken into the night before coming out of the water? Ropes and tools stolen) . The sacrificial zinc anodes had long dissolved leaving the steel unprotected. Sections of the boat looked like swiss cheese, another month and she'd have been a Fishie Palace.




James learned how to bodge weld to back fill all the pits and replace a plate (he's since improved) and I got to work grinding off burn marks then painting over them with a stinky two-part hardcore epoxy. We ended up giving the entire 32 ft length of the boat this treatment, outside AND inside, blowing out what we imagined to be a conservative estimate of 8 weeks of maintenance (pre-high pressure wash) to 14 months... and counting! It has been an unbelievably daunting, exhausting, sometimes joyless and bloody expensive project, taking almost a year to get back to square one. What a way to challenge a relationship!!



We are crossing all our fingers and toes and arms and legs to get her back in the water by mid December so we can swan around the bay and maybe berth in the Docklands for the summer. Having never been sailing before it'll be a huge learning curve but she'll once more be a liveaboard and we three (me, him and her) can take our time learning to live with each other... Only a few tasks to go - finish remodelling the galley, make up some new cabinets in the fore cabin, apply the topcoats, connect all the pipes, build some gutters to collect rainwater, install a diesel tank, check the motor, major rewiring, install the electricals, get a new rudder, build a new dinghy, buy some new sails....um...wait there's more...

And there's a light there... somewhere... at the end of the tunnel... and a sea breeze and some warm tropical water...