when things seem to be going in one direction...

[Bernadette]

today i went 'down' to the yacht to do just one quick job and i ended up staying the whole day and completed a number of tasks...wow! it was such a nice day and a shame to waste it sitting at home studying!! so i got some 'extra' work done on the "old" girl (she's only 3!!!). anyhow ive taken off the cast bronze anchor winch and cleaned up the deck for a new muir electric anchor winch when i get the money together. i will be selling the winch on ebay. so i guess its a step in the direction of me finally deciding to keep the yacht. i was even having far off thoughts of my desire to sail the pacific rim!!!! its the cruise i want to do first. i really enjoyed myself today. it was like being home again!
bernadette

[Thad]

Excellent!! Enjoy!

[rbgarr]

Thanks for the note, Bernadette! It's funny how memories and sensations come flooding back when you're once again working on a boat that you've built, sailed and lived aboard. It's like you're a different person who's had a wholly different life.

[The Bigfella]

An excellent first step. A new (electric) winch will make life much easier. I've started mounting the 'lecky one on Grantala. Just making sure I've got the right spot before I drill a few more holes!

[Rick Starr]

When you're young and able, it's always easier and better to upsize your ability and self-confidence than to downsize the challenges you face. Here's a vote for keeping her and mastering her.

Good luck.

[Bernadette]

its really so nice to have people comment here and via private messages to my goings on! its very comforting to have the support as such! in response to a PM i never really thought of myself as a solo sailor having always the need to have crew onboard. but when i think about it, the changes i am making to DECATUR have only one stipulation. and that is to make her so much easier to handle albeit by one person. im honestly not sure i can handle her on my own. thats a huge undertaking but not impossible. but in any case, i will keep on making my alterations and adjustments and see what i come up with. if she is a one 'woman' yacht after all this, then well and good! in all honesty, i do prefer company on board and i think its a much safer alternative. just getting the 'right' crew is very very difficult! i guess i should start thinking about letting the broker know that she is off the market! no love lost there. they are a rather pathetic lot and not really interested in selling the yacht in the first instance.
bernadette

[Don Kurylko]

Cheers, Bernadette, don't underestimate yourself. Think Ellen McArthur!!!! :)

[Bernadette]

please dont compare me to e m.
we are streets apart.
she has sponsorship and boats built to suit her diminutive physique. she has push button running rigging and probably never felt the pain of hitting her hand with a hammer or trying to pull out paint from her hair during boat building. or has she?
not sour grapes on my part. she aint in my league thats all.
she is in my opinion just the chosen person who happens to be "driving" her floating watercraft from one point to another on the chart.
she aint a 'sailor' in my opinion.

[Rick Starr]

if she is a one 'woman' yacht after all this, then well and good! in all honesty, i do prefer company on board and i think its a much safer alternative. just getting the 'right' crew is very very difficult!

If you throw yourself into the boat and mastering her, you will quite likely attract someone with a like mind. If you throw yourself into finding (someone/crew/whoever) you will attract....someone who wants to be attracted.

Seems obvious, but most single people forget that at some point.

said with some experience.

Good luck.

[Uncle Duke]

she is in my opinion just the chosen person who happens to be "driving" her floating watercraft from one point to another on the chart. she aint a 'sailor' in my opinion.
Not to argue with the opinion, and it may well be that the round-the-globe boats are pretty automated, but let's remember that she's been sailing since she was a child, circumnavigated Britain in a 21' sloop when she was 18, and did respectably in the 1997 Mini Transat - none of which were automated. I think that she's a real sailor.

[JimJ]

Bernadette
You will have to start "Friends of DECATUR". I am sure there are woodies in Brisbane who would help.

Jim

[Bernadette]

quite the thing uncle duke...for someone to have done as much sailing as miss e m. but so many people are and have been sailing since they were quite young and done wonderous voyages in so many different ways and are equally capable...and yet we wouldnt know about them. in my opinion im just saying her 'fame' is disproportionate to the reasons/achievemnts i see worthy of such noterioty and invariably backed up by the 'dollars of promotion'. strip this away and what have you left? take it this way, give me a fist full of folding stuff and i bet i could propel myself onto the world stage too!

and rick...yes! i think you are right. it took me three times to read your message to see your point clearly. i do believe its something ive known all along. but thanks again.

[Bernadette]

jim! come on down anytime.