An unusual semi liveaboard choice.

[Grith]

I think you were looking for a solar blanket

Yet another mail shot - this time from Jaycar

Jaycar

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan Thanks heaps. Have ordered x 2. Might not last long or be poor quality but at that price I can afford to experiment with them.
Last link you gave me and I tried to order they didn’t recognise my address making it impossible to order them and after waiting significant time on the phone to correct this issue they then advised nil stock!
We really are in an unknown spot with even most South Australians having no idea this place exists.
It is hidden from The Murray River by a barrier island and a one square kilometre lake with three islands. If travelling down The Murray it is very easy not to see it at all through the tiny breaks in the barrier island and then across the wide lake and behind the three internal lake islands.
The location also isn’t sign posted from the nearby major highways including The Princes’s Highway that circles the whole of Australia and is only 1klm away and most people we have talked too just don’t know it’s here!
Not suitable for keel yachts unfortunately with most pontoon’s or jetty’s being only in about 5 foot of water but fine for trailer sailers or even bilge keelers.
The red dot is our newly purchased property whilst the blue dot marks our existing home and adjoining vacant block.
The new high quality rarely used boat ramp can also be seen across the canal from our existing home and can be reached from the whole subdivision mast up on trailer due to underground power and no other overhanging obstructions.
It’s a little oasis in the desert with very low rainfall around here but waterfront homes having unlimited domestic use access to fresh riverwater.
Ferry road leads to a 24 hour free ferry over to a famous wine region with award winning wineries and 10klms by road in the other direction is Australia’s newest and biggest Motorsport complex The Bend usually just out of hearing range of the motoring activities!
Apart from trailer sailing, Clare and I are wine buffs and I am a Motorsport Club Co Founder ( 40 years ago ) who won several minor championships back in the day!
Heaven on a stick for someone with my interests though my ex central city based partner jokingly calls it somewhere nowhere!

 

[Neeves]

Hi Jonathan Thanks heaps. Have ordered x 2. Might not last long or be poor quality but at that price I can afford to experiment with them.
Last link you gave me and I tried to order they didn’t recognise my address making it impossible to order them and after waiting significant time on the phone to correct this issue they then advised nil stock!
We really are in an unknown spot with even most South Australians having no idea this place exists.
It is hidden from The Murray River by a barrier island and a one square kilometre lake with three islands. If travelling down The Murray it is very easy not to see it at all through the tiny breaks in the barrier island and then across the wide lake and behind the three internal lake islands.
The location also isn’t sign posted from the nearby major highways including The Princes’s Highway that circles the whole of Australia and is only 1klm away and most people we have talked too just don’t know it’s here!
Not suitable for keel yachts unfortunately with most pontoon’s or jetty’s being only in about 5 foot of water but fine for trailer sailers or even bilge keelers.
The red dot is our newly purchased property whilst the blue dot marks our existing home and adjoining vacant block.
The new high quality rarely used boat ramp can also be seen across the canal from our existing home and can be reached from the whole subdivision mast up on trailer due to underground power and no other overhanging obstructions.
It’s a little oasis in the desert with very low rainfall around here but waterfront homes having unlimited domestic use access to fresh riverwater.
Ferry road leads to a 24 hour free ferry over to a famous wine region with award winning wineries and 10klms by road in the other direction is Australia’s newest and biggest Motorsport complex The Bend usually just out of hearing range of the motoring activities!
Apart from trailer sailing, Clare and I are wine buffs and I am a Motorsport Club Co Founder ( 40 years ago ) who won several minor championships back in the day!
Heaven on a stick for someone with my interests though my ex central city based partner jokingly calls it somewhere nowhere!
View attachment 166144

Let us, especially me, know how you fare with the solar blanket. I had no idea Jaycar dealt in solar - and I was in their local store earlier in the week, eye connectors and hefty cable.

On location

It would not do if we all liked the same things. I can envy your choice but we do like to take the local bus into Sydney, Darling Harbour and walk round the foreshore - especially at lunch time when we can view all the frazzled hordes escaping from their offices for lunch and think how lucky we were to be able to have retired early. Too many of those we worked with are no longer with us - we now lead a charmed existence on Pittwater. It help that as we lived and worked in HK we bought our own home - came in handy when we sold.

We have sailed the East coast and all the way down to Port Davey - and have seen some delightful places - but when we get home (having sailed all the way south from the Land of the Lotus Eaters (and visited so many of the coastal towns) - why would we want to move? The weather is becoming a surprise every week but when I look at Hobart's forecasts - I can think of one reason, despite its attractions, why not to move there. Pittwater for us offers the right balance.

Enjoy....what you have..... we are both lucky

Jonathan

 

[Grith]

Let us, especially me, know how you fare with the solar blanket. I had no idea Jaycar dealt in solar - and I was in their local store earlier in the week, eye connectors and hefty cable.

On location

It would not do if we all liked the same things. I can envy your choice but we do like to take the local bus into Sydney, Darling Harbour and walk round the foreshore - especially at lunch time when we can view all the frazzled hordes escaping from their offices for lunch and think how lucky we were to be able to have retired early. Too many of those we worked with are no longer with us - we now lead a charmed existence on Pittwater. It help that as we lived and worked in HK we bought our own home - came in handy when we sold.

We have sailed the East coast and all the way down to Port Davey - and have seen some delightful places - but when we get home (having sailed all the way south from the Land of the Lotus Eaters (and visited so many of the coastal towns) - why would we want to move? The weather is becoming a surprise every week but when I look at Hobart's forecasts - I can think of one reason, despite its attractions, why not to move there. Pittwater for us offers the right balance.

Enjoy....what you have..... we are both lucky

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan Agreed!
It just takes a lot more money to live around Pittwater never mind “on” than down “on” the Murray and I bet a lot of those frazzled hordes (some dying tragically young) you referenced could also retire early like both of us if they left the rat race of Sydney behind selling their home (even still with a mortgage) and moving down here!

 

[Grith]

Our unusual semi liveaboard yacht may be about to open up a new and very unusual storage/mooring option especially for a yacht.
Our new waterfront home is much more wind and wave exposed than our current one tucked around a sheltered corner in the same unknown/forgotten canal development.
Leaving our yacht parked in the water for significant periods as we currently do may risk some damage by it being constantly thrown against the jetty in high winds and wind waves which are a fairly regular feature of living here.
We currently have a large modular floating pontoon which we moor against in our current more sheltered spot.
It was the solution I purchased as the original waterfront home we purchased came with some waterfront infrastructure but the previous pontoon had been loaned to the owner and returned prior to our purchase.
These Chinese made pontoons are rated to carry up to 2 ton and can often be seen with jet skis and small powerboats loaded up on top of them with lower central floats with rollers facilitating this.
Our yacht is around 3ton under or over depending on what it’s carrying putting it above these pontoons capability.
There is a new heavier construction modular pontoon being constructed here in Australia specifically developed to carry heavier boats up to 4 ton and I will order one of these as our monster engined yacht should be able to drive itself up onto one of these as it on appropriate occasions drives it self up onto its trailer.
This is potentially an ideal solution removing it from the chance of damage whilst also lowering cleaning effort and still allowing close to instant access for use on a whim versus effort of launching it from its trailer.
Obviously this solution is only available to both a virtually flat/shallow v bottomed craft with a big enough engine to push the boat up out of the water on the rollers and pull itself back in backwards.

Our current similar but lighter weight construction pontoon carrying our Hobie Tanden Adventure Island sailing/peddling fold out trimaran/kayak.