Truant came with full netting around the solid hand rails so I thought now would be a good time to get a mate, so I toddled of the Launceston dog pound for a look. The mutt sitting on the fore deck in picture is Samuel, a three year old bittza. He passed sea trials (even navigated his way to Brunny Is Pub) but he has an issue when along side the Kettering Marina. He thinks the whole joint is his and a one metre high fence and a fair gap to the pontoon is no problem to leap across to drive of other mutts.

Hello Mateys, just a quick note to say that Wavedancers repairs are progressing very well. I am amazed at what Will, Will's dad and mates have achieved to date.
Will has documented the resurrection on his blog,

http://thewavedancer.blogspot.com.au/

makes very good reading.

Hello Friends, I would like to introduce Truant. A ruff old 36' steel spray motor sailer. She is a bit lot like the skipper, old, battered, rusty but still floating.
Currently at Bellrieve Yacht Club shovelling spuds out of the cockpit and unloading junk. Do I really need 36 coffee cups??? Nahhhh, two should be enough in case I break one. Does any one want about 20 cans of soup, 20 cans of sardines and 20 or so cans of some pretty strange beans. Just a little out of date, like about 7 years. Yeah I know, should keep them just in case.
As usual the plan is pretty simple, spend a few weeks cruising around Storm Bay to find out what is broken. Then maybe a trip around to Port Davey, 70 miles in the middle of winter on the southern ocean, what could possible go wrong.
One bonus is, previous owner agreed to get the hydraulic steering fixed. I thought 10 degrees of "slack" was a bit much, but what would I know.
He has also agreed to chuck in a slipping and anti fouling paint because there is none left on , pity I have to splash it on.
Yes that is Mount Wellington in the back ground as yes that is real snow. What a dumb idea to turn right instead of left last year!!!!!!!

Attached pictures are of WD being loaded on to a truck to be shipped to Hobart. Very pleased to announce she will be repaired by a Father and Son team that just happen to have a couple of ton of King Billy Pine sitting in there Shed.
Quite exciting to know she will be launched again in the same water that she was christened in.

Wavedancer will sail no more. After all the crazy things I did with her she was destroyed alongside the Mersey Yacht Club (see photo in earlier post).
As a result of a huge flood upstream on the Mersey River, thousands of tons of logs, a couple sheds and bits of houses, dozens of bales of hay and a few poor drowned cattle, crashed into the club marina. The force was great enough to break away the outer pontoons with boats attached and crash into the inner pontoons where Wavedancer was just minding her own business.
Photo shows about 4m of crushed planking on port side. Starboard side was worse. It was amazing that she did not sink. At least 15 other boats were sunk in the river or washed out into Bass Strait and washed ashore and destroyed.
It was also amazing that no one was seriously injured attempting to rescue boats as they were carried down the river.
A big thank you to the skipper and crew of the Tas Ports tug that rescued me from the carnage as it was washed out to sea after bouncing of the "Spirit of Tasmania". They did an amazing job manoeuvring the massive tug around the river that at time was flowing at an estimated 15knts with all sorts of debris .
I was trapped on a fishing boat after the link bridge between the pontoons was washed away, yes I know, I should not have been there.
Really not sure what I will do now. Pretty sure I will get another boat but insurance is nowhere near enough to get another boat like WD.
Guess I will just have to keep dreaming.

The not so good stuff on return trip to Devonport:

The plan was pretty simple, sail from Port Fairy arrive Currie, King Is, next day. Weather forecast was not great 15-20knt westerly, should be no problem that is sort of the way I wanted to go, wrong.
About midday the breeze started to rip in from the SW at 25knt +. As most of you know there is nothing between King Is and South Africa and I am pretty sure that is where the swell was rolling from. The picture never does justice, it was the first time I experienced the swell rolling up from behind and filling the dingy, good thing I remembered to take the bungs out of the dingy or there would be no dingy , davits and probably aft deck.
Plan B run as fast as I could for Apollo bay. WD was really struggling to make any way south and more than once I thought I would be famous for knocking down one of the 12 Apostles (just of Great Ocean Road) .
About Midnight the wind abated and I thought great plan C head for Grassy on the East coast of King Island. All good for a couple of hours then wind swung SE and did its best to make WD expensive fire wood on one of the many little rocks around the island.
Managed to get into the harbour before dark and had my first decent feed for 30hours.

I had a pretty good run from King Is to the NW coast and decided to anchor on the east side of Rocky Cape for the night. I had anchored there on the way over in a westerly blow so was confident it would be good even though forecast was for a bit of breeze from the NE. Well the breeze came in about midnight and I did not allow for the affects of the big hills and shallow water. Once again I was trapped on a lee shore in 3 ft of chop, pitch black night and 100m from rocks on 3 sides.
I only had 2 options , cut away the anchor or shorten it in as much as I could and try to drag it to deep and calmer water. Plan B worked, of course once clear the breeze dropped out and I had a very nice little motor sail "home".