"Arctracer" Letters

Moving to Catamaran, July 2001

Last Monday we drove to southern Brisbane to get "Purpose." We sailed her to an anchorage about 25 miles away and anchored to check out the anchoring system. An electric anchor winch sure is easy (when it works anyway)! We found that the chain isn't marked, so we need to see how much chain we have and mark off every 50' or so. There isn't nearly as much anchor chain as on "Arctracer" because cats should not be loaded as heavily as monohulls.

On Tuesday we sailed to the Mooloolaba Yacht Club with "Purpose." Then we took a bus to Lawrie's Marina on the other side of town. On Wednesday we motored "Arctracer" down the canal and moored her in the berth right next to "Purpose," close enough together so we could step from one boat to the other to move. We'd forgotten how much work moving is!

There are three things we REALLY want to have done in the next two weeks before we head north. First, we've had a carpenter come to measure for a head (bathroom) door. There isn't nearly as much storage space in the galley of the cat, so if he has time he is going to make more room in the galley by cutting into walls and using spaces under the seats in the main salon. I sure hope he has time to do this, but at least he'll have time to make the door. Second, we need to change the name and get two huge painted black cats off the fronts of the two hulls and the back of the boat between the hulls. Apparently this is a tricky job, so we hope we can find someone who can do a good job with it. We have a guy coming the first part of the week to look at what we want. He makes signs and will get "ARCTRACER" in big letters on the front sides of the two hulls (where the silhouettes of the cats are now) and also "Arctracer - Norwich, Vermont" on the back between the hulls. Third, we need to sell a dinghy and motor. We have a 3.3 meter aluminum dinghy and a 15 hp, 2-cycle Mariner outboard which are both bigger than we need. The previous owners used the dinghy way up north to go fishing in places where there are lots of crocodiles, but we won't be spending a lot of time doing that and the thing is huge to lift up on davits and store on the back deck of the cat.

We just received a fax yesterday from our friends Pat and Jan in Tauranga, New Zealand. They will be coming to Mooloolaba about July 23rd to sail north with us. We'll spend some time in Hervey Bay watching the Humpback Whales and then head to the Whitsunday Islands which are in many ways like the Virgin Islands of the Caribbean. There are several islands in the Whitsundays with lots of charter boats, resorts, and pretty anchorages. They will be flying back to New Zealand on August 23rd, so will be with us for a month. They had wanted to join us in Fiji last year, but with the coup they decided to postpone their cruise.

We have moved a lot of "stuff," but we still have so much to do. We had planned on keeping the two boats together for one week, but today it looks like it may take us a couple of weeks. When we're done we'll be taking "Arctracer" schooner back to Lawrie's Marina where we've paid for another three weeks for her.

I'll get the email today to see if any of you have written, but don't know when we'll have a chance to answer your individual emails. We're still using the computer on "Arctracer" as we haven't found cigarette plugs to plug into on "Purpose." (I sure am glad we're changing the name - there are too many puns with "Purpose.")