We decided that we're going to have 12-month break. This is what we decided to do.
Oh my gosh. Hot water filter system has separate outlets for unfiltered and filtered water.
I quit my job while John's is on hold and we bought a yacht. I guess we just wanted a bit
of a sea change. For the last decade I've been a TV news reporter.
"One of the standout stars Robbie Williams"
We were looking at boats on and off we actually looked at about six of them.
Considering the age of the boat it's actually pretty good.
And then 'Tucana' came along.
It was well over our price range but I decided to call the broker up anyway and just asked him if the owner was negotiable.
Just remarkably John looked at the listing and thought I was flying with a captain last month
who told me about this boat that was a 50 footer, a Jeanneau and it was based in Sandringham, Melbourne.
And John was like I wonder if it's the same boat.
And so he messaged the captain and was like
"Hey, just wondering is this your mate's boat?" And the captain came back going
"yeah, that's my mate's boat" that's me on the back
and so you wouldn't believe it but the next day
John got in touch with the actual owner directly and they took us out for a sail.
So Brendan was amazing from the get-go and he showed us the entire boat and took us out and we thought
it was beautiful. After we went to the sailing club and Brendan was so kind and really really
wanted to make this work for us.
Some of the main concerns I had was how big the boom was
and if John stands up on the steps here sometimes
I have to hold his backside up so I just thought the boat was way too big for us.
Didn't have a bow thruster as well which was one of our concerns.
Brendon's just showing us the ropes.
Brendon sold us his boat.
Even before we purchased the boat and went unconditional he allowed us to stay on the boat ,
sleep on the boat, go through the boat, he took us out for a couple more sails.
Yeah just a really really awesome guy.
Well we envisioned one day sailing around The Med, for now beautiful Australia will do.
So our plan is to go up the East Coast and spend summer in North Queensland.
Here in Melbourne right now it's getting unbearably cold.
It is so windy today. Wow.
Wow, wow, wow.
There's currently a wind warning out here in Sandringham.
Crazy times. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like docking it
or even going out in these conditions.
Pretty intense huh? It is crazy. John point your head out.
The poor guy, this is what he has to deal with.
It's fenders are completely deflated.
Really?
You should see ours, they've really started to deflate.
We're getting absolutely smashed.
Oh my gosh.
It is now hailing.
Oh dear lord.
Oh my god.
I'm going to run back in side, cause I'm saturated.
So these are all worn. It is currently 10 o'clock at night but we are still working.
The stickers on the stairs that give you grip have started to perish and wear away,
so I've just taken all the stickers off the top one and now I've just got the second and the third one to go.
It is quarter to eleven, unfortunately we weren't able to use the WD-40 or the kerosene oN it so
we'll head back to the hardware store tomorrow and find something to take all the glue off and then
we'll be able to put on the new stickers.
But that was the least of our worries.
After that intense weather over the last couple of days we woke up to the bilge pump going.
Not intensely just a couple of pumps.
So we changed the water heater element the other day and to do that you had to drop all the hot water out into the bilge
and because the boat was on a lean because of the wind
I think all the water bypassed the sump and filled up the bilges on the side of the boat
and stayed that way for about three days and then last night the wind changed direction and the boat
healed over to the other side and now all the waters run out to the to the bilge.
That's what we're hoping because there's water coming from... it's still appearing, but we thought while we'd do it
while we're investigating, we realized how dirty some of these compartments are.
So we got to work.
While inspecting the bilges John decided to swap out the transducers.
One examines depth and the other speed and temperature.
Show me your backside.
Pulled out the speed transducer. That's what happens when you put a hole in your boat.
There's always something.
The next thing that we're needing to get replaced is our rigging.
It's 13 years old so it's original and for us to be insured it needs to be less than 10 years old.
Barney the bloke who's doing our rigging is just on his way so our friend Woody is here
and together we're going to be trying to take down the mainsails.
The guys are just having a look at the sail locker.
It was loaded with gear. Fishing rods.. and
oh, it's for the anchor! We've got a snubber. We've got a snubber.
The snubber takes the load off the windlass and the windless works essentially like an electric winch helping us put up and down
the anchor so we don't have to do it manually.
Another job on the list was to clean the water tanks.
Can you smell the vinegar? Yeah.
John put vinegar in the tanks to clean them and
and I had a shower before and I was just covered with vinegar.
I was like AGHHHHH! It was gross and I thought I'd run the tanks out and John's just had a shower now.
Yeh, there's vinegar in there.
I'm making breakfast.
Fuelling our tanks but there was one tank running cold. You might have seen it in our previous
episode. The hot water is not working unless we run the engines. So John's going to try and fix that up.
We have been practicing the Wim Hof method for the last week and John has decided to fix the problem,
and that is why we have pulled apart the hot water system and this is what we found.
The element looks fine. It just needs a new anode but we're replace it anyway.
Living with Covid has made us all reconsider and evaluate what's important in our lives.
The feeling of being stuck, isolated, weighed down and restricted. It made us all think
and it made us stop. There'll be so much to learn, so much to explore, so much to feel and experience.
Tastes good. I think. I can still taste butter chicken from dinner. Haha.
Some might say what we're embarking on is crazy.
Actually can i change my mind.
Perhaps stupid, reckless or conversely the best decision that we'll make in our entire lives
but whatever it is we'll soon find out together
This is a pain in the butt.
So join us on this next adventure.
Noooo!
As we set sail up the East Coast from Melbourne to the Great Barrier Reef and beyond.