The unimaginative title reflects the fact that not a lot of interest has been happening here since the last post in February. There aren't even any photos to put on but I guess there's nothing to say a blog has to include photos.
What's happened on the good ship Irrepressible since the last post? Well, there has actually been quite a bit of progress on a few long running projects.
To start with, the forward cabin bathroom is finally finished after many months of on again, off again work. Even if I say so myself, I think it's turned out really well and has transformed that area of the boat. The final step was to install a holding tank (for the uninitiated, a holding tank is a tank that untreated sewage goes into until you're in an area where you can legally dispose of it). It's not that we actually intend to use it (they're revolting things that end up smelling like, well, sewage I guess), but more and more the authorities are requiring them to be fitted as a pre-requisite to entering a marina. So, we're now legal even if we don't use it.
Another project that I finished recently was refurbishing the aft bathroom. Previously the shower drained into the engine bilge before being pumped over the side resulting in a smelly bilge in hot weather so I built a new shower sump under the shower floor which now pumps directly into the sea. Much better. I also removed the toilet, fitted a new set of gaskets and seals, painted the bathroom and put it all back together. So now we have two nice shiny, sweet smelling bahrooms.
While all this has been going on, Doreen has been remaking all the squabs (upholstery) in the saloon. While they were all in very good condition, the design of them made sitting on them quite uncomfortable so they have all been pulled apart, the foam inners all recut and reshaped, the material recut to fit and then sewn back up again. Quite a major job in the confined space of a yacht but the end result is much more comfortable seating.
In between all the work I went away for a few days on a friend's boat, up to the Cape Brett area for a few days fishing, plus the usual weekly (when the weather is good) day fishing trips.
Doreen, as you might have guessed is fully occupied with her family research and frequently away visiting rellies or scouring libraries and museums. Yesterday was her birthday and I drove her down to Warkworth and left her at the museum / genealogy centre there while I carried on down to Auckland where I spent the day browsing chandleries! All in all, a very pleasant day.
The tenants who have been in the Blenheim house since we moved onto the boat moved out at the weekend and we've just heard today that new tenants have signed up for the next 12 months and move in next week. From that you may infer that our plans are to stay on the boat for at least another year. Hopefully by then the property market will have picked up a bit and we'll probably consider selling the property and buying something up here close to Tutukaka.
And that pretty much covers the news for the last couple of months. It doesn't sound like much when condensed into a few paragraphs but we do seem to be quite busy most of the time.
Till next time..................
