PHOTO - The partially finished teak shelf . Now that the glue has dried, the screws will be removed and teak plugs used to cover the holes. There is also a 50mm deep shelf on the top which will hold the media centre and hard drives..

TUESDAY JAN 21st 2014 -

I've been back on the boat for two days now and I have been absolutely flat out with just about anything but boat related things which, at present, is fine because, though you may find it absolutely unbelievable, being back in the marina is kind of boring, particularly when there's renovations being done (shelf unit being built over the navigation desk and he's doing a great job with it by the way) and there's crap all over the place. I keep having to move stuff so that I can replace it with other stuff that has been moved previously from a spot that held entirely different yet eerily similar stuff not long before, and then I have to move that to put the old stuff back. At the moment I can't even clean so that I can start to draw because there's dust around and there's more predicted for tomorrow when the sander comes out. So the ever shifting stuff is not only constantly changing position, it's becoming dusty to boot. But, having said that, I can now see an end in sight and the end means a clean boat and the chance to do some artwork again. Yay!!! Happy, happy, joy, joy.

I must say that I'm looking forward to the carpentry work being finished though and not just because the sanding dust will cease. I really love all of the extra storage Dave's building and it really looks as though it was built with the boat. If nothing else, he's meticulous and it'll be so nice to finally be able to sort through some of the bits and pieces that didn't really have a proper home. I just wish we'd had time to do a shelf in the bedroom (V-berth for all of you anal retentive types who have a need to see actual sailing patois) but I guess we'll have plenty of time for that later on. The extra shelf that was built above the sea-berth has already proven invaluable as it holds stacks of dry goods which otherwise couldn't be stored.

The rest of the week will be equally non-sailory related as we prepare to bring our life on land to an end for a while. As Dave finishes up the internal stuff on Venture, I'll be running around and helping my family with last minute things. Making sure we are stocked up with food, tea bags and dunny roll (each equally as important as the others).

There was, however, one really pleasant interlude yesterday, last night and today when the renovations stopped for a while as our baby grandson Peter came to stay overnight with us. At 3 ½ months old, we can see his personality developing and he's going to be a massive grinner and a chatterbox. It was worth the poopy nappies and baby puke down my back just to have him for an entire day and night. He slept like a dream, allowing me 8 hours of snooze time overnight, except that I only half slept in the expectation that he'd wake up. He's an absolute little sweetheart.

I can't tell you how much I'm going to miss everyone. It's so hard even now to think about saying farewell but at least there's Skype and phone video chat. It's really scary to realise that possibly by this time next week we may very well be heading south, away from family and into the unfamiliar. I may have to start thinking about return airfares for April when we're expecting yet another grandchild (a girl!!).

5 Years ago I was adamant I wasn't going to do this whole living-on-a-boat thing and tried my hardest to talk Dave out of it. I had even made up a Dr Seuss style poem about it which went along the lines of:

I do not want to live on a boat.
I do not wish to drift and float.
I do not care to live with fish.
To live on land is my fondest wish
... etc.
(it was several verses long)

Now I think I'm glad I didn't succeed in what was always going to be an unsuccessful bid for eternal landlubberyness and I now admit I'm actually looking forward to it. It's something that, if we don't experience it now, we may never have another opportunity and what a great tale to tell all of the grandies when they get older. On the 18th it was my granddaughter Isabell's 5th birthday and I came to realise just how quickly time is marching past. In fact it's not just marching but shooting past with a jet pack strapped to it. It's time for the mother bird to prepare to leave the nest at last and wave a fond adieu to the chicks for a while.