Back On Deck
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Mon 6 Jul 2026 06:36
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Moored Rushcutters Bay, Port Jackson
Wind: SW F3 gentle breeze Sea state: 2 wavelets Swell: nil Weather: cloudy, showers, cool
Here is July and, as promised, I am back on deck restarting my blog (weekly while in harbour and daily when at sea).
As any engineer will tell you a ship can be considered as a system with numerous sub-systems that are required to be in good order for the ship to achieve its purpose. A small blue-water vessel such as
Sylph is no different and one of its critical sub-systems is its crew, especially when the crew consists of just one person. With this critical and all too rapidly ageing sub-system in mind, the past few months have been spent ensuring that it is in
sufficiently good order to fulfil Sylph’s purpose of crossing oceans to explore new (at least for us) and interesting watery parts of our amazing planet. To this end I have been ‘oscopied, ultra-sounded, CT'ed, MRI’ed and physio’ed. I have had a hernia
repaired and my prostrate enucleated (a most unpleasant experience). And, apart from some aching joints which have been judged okay for now, it looks like I am in good shape for a bit more blue-water sailing.
So, with this critical organic sub-system checked out as far as practicable, I can now turn my attention to Sylph’s other sub-systems, and I reckon the next most important sub-system is that which keeps the water on the outside and the fragile organic
sub-system relatively safe and comfortable on the inside, namely the hull.
For those who have been following my blog over the years, you may recall that I gave Sylph’s hull a major overhaul back in 2020, so I am confident that overall she is in pretty reasonable shape for a 66 year old steel boat. However, in her 2020 refit
my focus was primarily on the hull below the water line and since then I have discovered a couple of spots of minor corrosion above the water line which need attention, especially considering what I have in mind for our next adventure. So, the short-term plan
from here is to get Sylph ready for sea and to head over to Whangarei, Aotearoa-New Zealand, back to ‘Dockyard 5’, the yard where she underwent her last refit. Here we will haul out and attend to the (hopefully) small cutting and welding jobs that I
overlooked previously.
However, before we can head to Aotearoa-New Zealand, Sylph is very much in need of a fresh coat of anti-fouling, especially as A-NZ’s biosecurity regulations require proof of a clean hull within thirty days prior to arrival. Thus, the immediate short-term
plan is to scrub the bottom, do a shake-down cruise to Lake Macquarie to visit an old sailing friend, then return to Sydney, haul
Sylph out for a fresh coat of anti-fouling and then, once all the paperwork is sorted, to clear out for A-NZ.
As to what I have in mind for our next adventure – well, I want to make sure all systems are go before divulging my longer range plans.
All is well.
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