So much can happen in a relatively short period of time.... add a dash of luck, coincidence and fair bit of planning and all sorts of things are possible!

We sold the house, packed it up and moved out into our little pop-top caravan - all within a 5 week timeframe. As if this wasn't enough workload, we ramped up our search for our new floating home.

Just a few weeks prior to settlement on the house, we started up a conversation with an awesome lady (sadly widowed within the previous few months) who had listed her 1985 Bristol 41.1 blue water cruiser for sale on Yachthub. We'd taken a particular liking to this one and had added it to our "Favourites-To-Watch List". It certainly ticked almost all of our boxes but we were a little unsure about the addition of an encapsulated centre-board. Anyway - we started up a conversation via SMS with a basic "is it still for sale" type message which went on to grow into quite a friendly digital connection.

The owner's reason for selling gelled with our reason for buying and we just clicked. Pretty soon it became obvious that we needed to go see the boat.... BUT, it lay in Queensland and we were stationed in Tasmania. Not usually an issue until a Covid-19 pandemic came along and changed the rules about interstate travel. Anyway - after a lot of messaging/emailing/questioning/researching, moving house and, racing against two other interested buyers from NSW and NZ, we managed to squeeze in a mask-wearing, hand-sanitising, social-distancing trip to Queensland! And... well, we fell in love :-)

Within the next couple of weeks we had a deposit paid to hold her and organised a survey. All went smoothly and she came back with a glowing report card. We had landed a ripper of a cruising/live-aboard yacht! We had also scored well with this particular vendor. She really wanted us to buy her yacht as she wanted someone to live and travel on her, just as she and her husband had joyfully done for the previous 8 years. We were that "someone"

Our situation as of today, after signing the Purchase Agreement, paying for her and another quick, long-weekend jaunt to Queensland to prepare her, we sit here now in our little caravan, over 1000nm away from our gorgeous new home awaiting her departure from Queensland on her delivery trip home to Tassie. Sadly we couldn't arrange for the time off our prospective jobs to sail her home ourselves so we've enlisted the services of a Tassie-based delivery skipper and his crew to do it for us. Hoping they will arrive there (on a other delivery trip!) later this week to then jump aboard our beauty and bring her on home! It will be around a 10-12 day non-stop trip for them all going well so hopefully we see her again in her new home berth in Hobart by mid-November.

And then the real fun begins....so excited!!

Wow - so much can happen in just a few, short weeks!

Our house SOLD without even going to market!! We landed on a very satisfactory arrangement whereby Jake (eldest son)has bought the house as his first step into the real estate market. Corey (youngest son) also benefits from a small investment of funds on his behalf to use to get into the market later on down the track. The house stays in the family (a lovely thought after all of our hard work renovating it) we are mortgage-free AND, have enough left in the kitty to go boat hunting!

Win Win Win!

Someone has also come forward interested in purchasing our small-engine business - and both of these things may settle on the same day in September! But, that's going to be a story for another time.

So, now things are getting "real". We've secured a powered/ensuite site for our caravan from the beginning of Oct. Very close to work and, should our little Island go into a COVID lockdown, we will have our own bathroom amenities (something that the lack thereof which was starting to concern Kelly!)

We've found a boat that we're really keen on too! Unfortunately it's laying in Queensland - but, as luck has it... we have just opened our borders with them again so... we head there next week for a viewing and a test sail! It will be a very fast, 48hr jaunt only, staying with our niece on the Gold Coast to limit any possible hotspot exposures (hotels etc.) and, also so we don't have to shut the shop for too long (we don't have staff)

Will leave the boat details for the next blog... don't want to jinx things by getting ahead of ourselves!

In the meantime... it's box-packing time!

It's been 6 months since our last entry, but WHAT A 6 MONTHS IT,S BEEN!

We've come along way in reducing the preparation
to-do list, particularly with the house. We've scraped, painted, weather-boarded, demolished, rebuilt, gardened, graveled, pine-barked, scrubbed and preened the 90 year old cottage to within an inch of its life! It's never looks so good! It's taken 5 months to complete with only one weekend away for a break.

The house has now been appraised by the real-estate agent and we're now working on the best plan for selling. The housing market has gone CRAZY in Tassie an, with the addition of all the renovations we've achieved, we're looking like walking away with a 100% increase in the sale price from when we purchased the place 10 years ago! All the hard work is about to pay off! We hope to be moved out of the house come October - probably into the caravan for a while until we find the right boat.

In the meantime, the search for "SV Stardust" continues AND, can actually ramp up a little now! We will start inspecting yachts locally and knocking on some port-holes to see if we can view different types for research. (You never know... everything's' for sale right? The owners may just not know it yet!)
We realise that we'll most likely have to head to the Aus mainland to make the final purchase which also means we probably wont get the boat to Hobart until Christmas time when we shut our shop for two weeks and take our annual holidays.

Kelly now has a motor boat license to gain and some modifications to arrange for her new sea-boots. Mark has moved from house renovating tasks to now actively reducing his cigarette smoking habit (in the hopes of quitting completely by the time we move aboard!! (Tiny-home living is NOT conducive to smoking!)

So, a busy 6 months achieved and another busy 6 months to be had yet to complete the preparation list to finally hoist some sails!!

Well, after a short period of blog inactivity.. we're here to give an update and to show we are still ploughing through our ever-expanding Prep List!

Galley prep -
All glass storage has now been upgraded to long-life, sturdy plastic storage options with nice strong lockable lids. label top and sides and ready to go...in the mean-time, my house-bound pantry looks the most organised it has in years!!

Training -
Still learning, researching, You-tubing and collecting resources! Have bought a few more charts and are now proud custodians of some precious books from some highly valued Old Sea Dogs... thanks Dad and Des xx Kelly is brushing up on motor boat license prep knowledge and Mark is about t0 to qualify from the RYA Navigation course. I am also attending the Women on Boats group (WoB) with our local Tasmanian Cruising Yacht Club and LOVING IT... besides, after all the learning and yarn sessions we go out for wine and dinner!

kayak-
Got ourselves a great twin inflatable Colorado kayak - made to endure white-water rafting conditions in far North Queensland. Only thing I don't like is that there's more leg room in the back seat for Mark which obviously also means he can keep an eye on my work rate... ! 1st Mate, "Maltese Mo" took a walk off the side of it though mid river, it didn't go so well for him so, he now has a life-jacket!

Drone... meh. We must have bought a "benign-weather model. More practice required, although I can report we have nailed the "crash-landing module"

Lots of house reno work continuing now that the weather is better, and more off-grid living practice by the water in the caravan. Kelly has resigned from work in order to find something more suitable closer to the yacht club for next year.

Its all still happening, despite what global disasters are thrown our way.

So, we've been pretty busy since settling on pursuing this particular dream...

We started with setting the LAST major goal FIRST, deciding on a loose target date of when we hope to be actually living aboard.

We then drew up a timeline and set some tasks to give ourselves some sort of guide on how to pull this all together. To do this we worked backwards from our "move aboard" date (a "mapping" strategy I use at work - start at the target goal then work out a timeline back from there!)

So, our proposed move-aboard date is set for the beginning of next year's Official Sailing Season in Tasmania - October 2021.
That's it! That's our major aim - whatever happens after that will be the extra icing on our little cake :-)

Working back from that target we then decided that need to (in reverse order)

* buy a boat
* move out of our house (temporarily into our
caravan most likely)
*sell our house
*finish the outdoor reno and garden on our house, *finish the plastering and floor boards inside the
house
*Complete VHS Radio course Kelly
*Complete the Safety at Sea course Kelly & Mark
*Complete the Motor Boat License course Kelly
*De-clutter & prepare for downsizing Kelly & Mark....
but mainly Kelly!
*Get a new job closer to the Yacht Club Kelly
WORKING ON IT!
*Complete the online RYA Navigation Course Kelly &
Mark
*Complete the BYC /BOM Weather Observation
Course Kelly & Mark DONE!
*Complete Offshore Cruising Preparation Course -
(Down Under Rally) DONE!
*Upgrade house pantry storage to suit a galley - ditch
and swap all glassware for sturdy, well-sealed plastic
containers. label tops & sides Kelly DONE!
*Cull recipe books down into two, laminated, water-
proof recipe card binders - with BBQ and small-gas-
oven recipes! Kelly DONE!
*Learn to prepare and cook and enjoy seafood Kelly
WORK IN PROGRESS!
*Purchase & learn how to use a drone for
photography Kelly & Mark PURCHASED BUT WORK-
IN- PRGOGRESS RE SUCCESSFUL OPERATION!
*Purchase and trial inflatable twin kayak DONE!
(Hilarious to observe in use... but DONE!!)
*Complete all craft-related UFO's (Un Finished
Objects) Kelly MEH!
*Set up and learn how to use a sail blog Kelly DOING!
*Watch 1 million YouTube live-Aboard videos and
write COPIOUS notes Kelly and Mark
DONE/DOING/OBSESSED!
*Join Women on Boats group with Cruising Yacht Club
Kelly DONE and now attending monthly meetings
*Let our friends in on our plan DONE!
Overwhelming support so far!
*Inform Kelly's family DONE! Mixed response haha!
*Inform the boys (21 & 25) DONE! Overwhelming
support but fighting over who gets the outdoor spa
bath when we sell the house!
*Inform Mark's parents.... oops, this one goes last!!