Charts

I copied a neighbours charts of New Caledonia the other day and, in my incapacitated state (see below) I've found my calling in sitting and colouring the things in. Theory: by paying such attention to the things while colouring, I'll build my familiarity with the areas and therefore hit fewer reefs. Practice: I'm considering a career change, seeking my fortune from those colouring competitions at supermarkets and pre-schools the world over. They'll accept a 28 year old right? I Do have a sore finger..

A break

And another delay... I hate delays!

So, cycling on my way to buy more of those little rubber gloves so I could put the last coat of paint in the forepeak (I'm a messy painter), I hit a pot-hole and went arse over tit. A broken thumb, fractured rib and a whole lot less skin was the happy result. I'll be hanging around Sydney now for the next month having pins put in, then taken out of my thumb. If I'm not ready to leave then, I vow here that I'll sell Old K and buy myself a farm.

Sacrilege

Old K's had a name change! But before I'm damned forever to Hell, let me justify:

1. "Kalitsah" is too long and confusing. Always misunderstood over vhf. Always confused with Calypso.

2. It's yet another of those oh so spiritual, oh so unique boat names that everyone seems these days to require. "What does it mean? Why, it's the ancient Pheonetian name for the Big Dipper; you know that constellation that points to the North Star?" Balls! Why a boat should dare to have so grandiose a namesake in the first place is beyond me.

3. I've only shortened it anyway, and that doesn't incur the usual name-changing bad luck (right?).

So there it is. Out with the old, in with the new; Kal, welcome to my life.

Back on track

Well I'm running out of reasons to prolongue my departure from Oz, so I'm going to just go ahead and say it, that I'm just about ready to leave. Old Kalitsah's undergone some quite transformative changes and I'm now enjoying greatly the feeling of living on a boat ready for sea, rather than the basket case she seemed so recently to be.

On the list for the coming weeks are some rigging work to beef up the forestay attachment and to add an inner forestay to accommodate a working jib, a final slip and no doubt a million other small things that will come up between now and then.

Ticked off the list recently: adding ribs forward to address some flexing issues when pounding into waves, replacing all my delapidated old sails and adding a cool big red assy, giving Isuzu some much needed loving, and many other odds and sods that I have already repressed into my super ego never to be revisited.

Come June, I'll leave Sydney for Noumea, via Lord Howe if I can wrangle it with the good people in immigration. I plan to stay in New Caledonia and the Loyalties for a little while given they sound so brilliant, then off to Port Vila and hopefully out to dig for Lapita artefacts in Pentecost.

Along for the ride to Noumea will be my good brother Stephen, then fingers crossed my girl will meet me later on. I'm glad to be getting out of Sydney. Man this place is expensive. People keep telling me how much sailing costs. It's all crap; sailing costs nothing, it's being on land that's expensive. And my, how this city excells!

I'm still in Black Wattle, down near the fish markets, for all who care to drop by before I leave.

D