Kalitsah in her current state. Her former owners put a lot of good work into her before leaving Canada. Obvious here are her appendages aft; windvane and generator. Chainplates have been moved to the exterior of the hull. While I am keen to keep her lines as uncluttered as possible, there are a couple of things missing from this photo. A life raft lived until recently behind the mast (meaning no vang... I really need to work out a better place for it), and my recently completed nesting dinghy will live forward of the dodger. More on the dinghy later.

Isn't she pretty?

That was close...

Two things of significance have happened to me recently. First, I have remembered my user name and password for my log, so can finally update the thing. Second was more serious. While camping and only a day before I was to move aboard Kalitsah, I burned both my hands badly enough to require a 'medivac' flight to Sydney and a couple of weeks of hospital treatment. I'll recover fully, perhaps with a little scaring and loss of pigment in my skin in the more severely burned areas. Far worse is that I am hindered in my plans to fit out the boat for sea. What a lamentable damned nuisance it all is!

Forced for the moment into idleness, I'm spending my time planning the details of my eventual escape. Foremost on my mind are the modifications I plan to make to Kalitsah. She's already sailed half way around the world, so I know she's good for it, but I intend none the less to make her safer, to bring her up to a standard where I'm as confident as I can be that she'll stay afloat. She'll also be my home for at least the next few years, so comfort, both at sea and at anchor, will be a strong motivation behind the changes I'll make.

I just wish I could get in and start!


It hasn't escaped me that the punishment I mentioned below may well have caught up with me already. Not to tempt fate, but it'll take worse for me to be resigned back to a desk job...