It has been quite a spell for the old Rogue and her keen crew.......quite a spell. Unfortunately work has taken a strangle hold for a while. Several trips to Adelaide and Canberra, a couple of weeks Stateside then back to Canberra and Adelaide all with a healthy side servings of meetings and visits certainly knocks the wind out of the old sails (excuse the pun).
When it looked like I could finally go sailing, the damn 12 ton floating footpath.....the only yacht to windward of my position in Winter westerlies......breaks free of its mooring in 32 knots and smashes into Rogue Waves bow and starboard hull. Approximately $5K damage and we are out of action.
Fortunately I was below at the time and I leapt into action like a startled Gazelle and with superhuman middle-aged strength pushed off the footpath after she smacked the bow. We collided several times as she slid down the side of my hull until I was able to insert a roving fender, averting further damage. I then watched as she narrowly missed a couple of yachts before she T-Boned a Spacesailer 24 owned by a fellow club member. I called maritime, VMR and the owner of the other yacht, but I called them off as the floating footpath had sailed her course and had now settled where concrete belongs......on land. Repairs in couple of weeks.
So in the meantime the galley has been the focus. To increase benchtop space in the galley, I knocked up a nice new bi-fold cooker cover from expoxied ply that I top and tailed with new cream laminex offcuts from the local kitchen guy and trimmed with Tassie Oak finished off with a Burmese Teak fiddle rail. The remainder of the galley also gets the facelift so looking forward to the weekend to finish it off.
