Time to fly north for the summer

Its time to fly north again to the summer.  Here in Canberra the nights are cold, as low as minus 4 degrees celcius, the trees have lost their leaves and the mornings are white on the ground.  We have not had a great summer which started with too much rain.  In fact up north in Queensland they had the worst floods in living memory.  The only upside was the garden grew and grew.  You could almost not stop it.  I spent my time clearing the undergrowth and mowing the lawn.  The tomatoes grew but somehow did not produce as much fruit as last year.  No bottles tomato puree for next year.
The grape vine turned white then withered to a dry couple of leaves.  I hope next year will be better.  The Back vintage will have to wait for a few more years! May be a trip to give some advice.
My time with the new Marine Rescue did not change from previous years with the same crony antics although I was able to highlight their methods and some are now on notice to improve.  The new boat, a lovely craft was delivered but required significant modifications to meet a standard of usability any qualified mariner would expect.  We can only wait to see if that size is justified in the bay.
Over the past few months I have purchased the “must have” items for the boat, a new EBIRB, two PFDs, leather spreader covers, clever pins and split pins and the inevitable parts for the freezer.  This year I am going to study the wiring diagram with more care and not connect the wires in the wrong order.
Our friends Sundancer are currently in Port Napoleon and say Malua is very dirty after the winter and consequently I have had her moved to a site with electricity and water.  I spend a week of so getting her ready for the water then take the mast down to go through the French Canals.  It is going to be quite different to the past couple of years in the Mediterranean but at least I won’t have to worry about the anchor dragging.

Frost on the sun lounge!

Well the last sleep is over, pack the computer into the hand luggage of 8 Kg and roll the case of 28Kg (thanks Emirates for the 30Kg allowance) to the bus and off I go for my ninth summer in a row.