Becoming Liveaboards: The Final Countdown

We’re moving aboard in 3 days.  The house is becoming emptier and more spacious and echoey, while the boat is bursting at the seams.  There are crates of stuff piled in every cabin as there hasn’t been time to stow our belongings, and you have to climb over things to move around. 

The Garage Sale Pile

This week has been dreary, just flat out busy packing boxes and lugging them to a) the shed to store, b) the carport for the garage sale on Sunday, or c) the car to transfer to the boat.  I hadn’t realized how draining it is, making decisions all day about what to do with bits of your life.  And even harder when doing the kids toys and clothes, and helping them decide.  The girls have two canvas shopping bags each and a small A4-sized crate for all the belonging (bar clothes and books) that they want to bring on board. 

Tilly was easy, didn’t want much, happy to put lots in the “pass it on with love” pile, and a few things in the tea-chest marked “STORAGE”.  Her “TAKE ABOARD” bags were half full. Sasha, on the other hand, was wild-eyed through the whole process.  Her “STORAGE” tea-chest was brimming with goodies and her “TAKE ABOARD” bags were bulging at the seams, with a pile growing alongside.  “But Mummy, I love them ALL” she said tearfully, when asked to choose what to let go, and I my heart broke for her, even as I wrestled with frustration. Hashtag thedichotomyofparenting.

The STORAGE piles

And sorting stuff with kids takes the longest time, as they’re constantly distracted.  Leave one to help the other, and when you come back to the first, they’ll be immersed in a complicated game with latest small plastic figures to be unearthed, eyes at floor level and doing the voices.  Which is so cute and you can’t help but admire the huge power of those imaginations, even as you weep internally at the mountains still to be scaled.

Come the evenings, I’m an emotionally wrung-out dishrag.  Matt comes home from work, having left thirteen hours previously, and starts packing.  So I can’t really sit on the sofa and veg out (or weep, rocking, in a corner) but pitch in.  For solidarity’s sake.

The end is in sight.  The light is definitely there, at the end of the tunnel, beckoning to us.  As Matt puts it, this is the storm before the calm. There will be pristine anchorages.  There will be kayak-paddling.  There will be the showing of kids how to use a halyard as a swing.  There will be sundowners.  There will be starlit family cuddles on the aft deck, watching for the space station.

Just a few more days, a few more boxes, one garage sale, a few Vinnies runs,  and we’ll be living on board.  That’s when it’ll feel like our adventure has really begun.  And we can’t wait. 

Passing the time ....

...while mum packs ...

Whitsunday Times article

Lovely write up in the Whitsunday Times today 😀 (Tilly was sad she's not in the pics cos she was away that day)

Now we just need to actually get on board and GO somewhere!

http://ow.ly/XVPD30dAGYM

Sailing family 'going where the wind will take' them

Peter Carruthers | 13th Jul 2017 3:00 PM

Matt, Annabell and Sasha Stewart prepare to set sail on the 50ft ketch Iron Will.

Peter Carruthers

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LOCAL REAL ESTATE

CARS FOR SALE

THEY have quit their jobs, sold their possessions, pulled the kids out of school and are planning to set sail.

Annabel, Matt, Tilly and Sasha Stewart are making final preparations to their 50 foot Alan Pape-designed steel ketch called Iron Will.

They plan to weigh anchor from Airlie Beach in August and take 12 months to explore the Queensland coast, as far as Lizard Island.

"I don't know if we will get that far but we don't want to have any schedule...and want to do things according to the weather," Annabel said.

Iron Will currently berthed at the Abell Point Marina in the Whitsundays.

Peter Carruthers

"We will go where the wind blows and see if we like it."

Matt compared the impending adventure to a land based 4WD expedition and said their outlay on the boat was similar to the expenditure needed to travel around Australia by road.

Matt is a certified sea captain and has spent his life working in the marine industry.

Annabel has worked in a library and at a local school.

Annabell, Sasha and Matt Stewart on board the 50ft ketch Iron Will.

Peter Carruthers

After many years of talking about sailing away but finding reasons not the take the plunge, Annabel said this year a line in the sand was drawn and their dream was finally coming true.

"We kept saying 'we need a bigger budget and a bigger boat' but in the end we said 'we will go cheap and go now'," she said.

Matt said he had never heard of the Youtube yachting sensations SV Delos and La Vagabonde whose crews have both racked up millions of views on their respective social network channels.

SET SAIL: Matt, daughter Sasha and Annabel on board Iron Will.

Peter Carruthers

But Annabel said she was now aware she had already started a blog in which the family will document their travels.

"The Facebook page has really taken off and suddenly we are reaching 1500 people with some of our posts," she said.

"I know that when we were looking into doing this I loved reading stories about people that just decided to do it and did it. Ordinary families that just decided to give it a go.

"We are hoping that this will appeal to that market as well. To people who are thinking 'it's just too hard' and 'we need to be really rich' but you don't, you just need to be able to do it and set your mind to it."

In response to the big question: what do you do for money after you quit your job and set sail?

Matt Stewart's father Paul aboard Iron Will making repairs.

Peter Carruthers

"You just have to be very careful with your money and we have raised enough to live for a year by selling our stuff," Annabel said.

"If you over think it you will never do it. You need to set yourself a goal and go when you have got a certain amount."

The Iron Will is a steel boat built for Antarctic exploration and has a three-cabin configuration with a forward and aft berth, centre saloon and centre cockpit.

Annabel Stewart aboard Iron Will at the Abell Point Marina.

Peter Carruthers

"She is a very old fashioned boat and we love that. She is not a flimsy production coastal cruiser. She is a well solid sea-going boat," Annabel said.

Upon saying bon voyage to the Whitsundays the crew will head north for the Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club Rendezvous at Cape Gloucester in late August and end up south in Harvey Bay for Christmas.

ABC Tropical North on Facebook

We were featured on ABC Tropical North's Facebook page.



We love all the encouraging comments, thanks guys!

Link HERE.

Whitsundays parents Annabel and Matthew Stewart have quit their jobs and will rent out their home to set sail with their family along the east coast of Australia.

They have always loved sailing and for years have wanted to live on a boat with their family.

This year they decided it was time, after struggling to take school holidays off together to spend time with their two daughters Tilly and Sasha.

Mrs Stewart says they both loved their jobs, but they had to take the plunge and will set sail in mid-August.

"I didn't want to go, but then we both talked about it and realised it was too good a chance to miss," she said.

Seven-year-old Sasha says she's looking forward to sea life.

"Just being free and building cubbies and reading some books," she said.

Do you ever have dreams of setting sail into the sunset with your family?

Radio interview

Our radio interview on ABC Tropical North was broadcast today.  It's very strange hearing a recording of yourself, but it went well and we're hoping it'll give other families food for thought.

CLICK HERE to listen.

Haven? or Hades?

T minus 8.  A week tomorrow and we will be liveaboards! Our 12 month adventure will have properly begun.  It feels strange to think that next Sunday night will be the last we sleep in our lovely house for a while.

The bed, I have to say, is a biggie.  In the house we have a very comfortable queen bed with a king size doona (quilt/duvet for those who don’t speak Strine).  This is because I married is a doona-stealer, who wraps himself up like a sausage roll given half a chance, while I am left shivering and uncovered.  So we got a king-size doona which solves the problem.  Our bed is one of those super-comfortable ones, and whenever we’ve been staying elsewhere or camping , and come home, Matt and I always sink into  our bed with sighs of relief and agree that we have the best bed in the world.

So we’re going from this:

To this:

Now to be fair, the aft cabin doesn’t usually look like this.  The bunk was originally a bit smaller than a double, and being a boat bunk, was a funny shape (including narrower at the feet end)  We ummed and ahhed about whether we should go to the trouble and expense of widening the bunk – there was plenty of floor space to widen it in to, it’s a good-sized cabin.  We had half-convinced ourselves to live with it for a few months, and see how we felt after living on board.  However, the mattress is also old and tired, and rather than replace it twice, we decided to bite the bullet and extend the bunk.  So Matt and his dad, (who is pretty handy and helped build our house), decided to get stuck in one morning on the boat.

What they didn’t count on was the bunk fighting back.  It didn’t want to come apart.  I may have mentioned before, this is one strongly-built boat.  The original builder fitted out much of the interior with wood, which in most places seems to be glued together, then the joint is reinforced with screws, then the screws are expoxied in place.  And then the whole joint is covered in epoxy, just to be sure!

While this fills me with comfort that our boat’s interior is super-strong and robust, it does mean that it’s a total pain to make any changes.

We have just over a week to go.  The house is half–packed up and every day I have a different area to clear out: store/garage sale/rubbish.  But we’re getting there.  Matt is still working 12-hour days.  He comes home in the evening to have me thrust crates of stuff under his nose: “Shall we sell this? What about this?” and gradually the rooms and cupboards are becoming wonderfully empty.  It feels like we’ll get there, in one weeks’ time the house will be packed up and pristine and ready to welcome a new family.

I’m just not so sure the boat will be ready to welcome us!  There’s plenty of room on the aft deck, maybe we’ll have a few nights of sleeping under the stars…

Fame and Fortune?

We had a lot of fun filming on Iron Will today.  ABC's daily analysis and social commentary programme "The Drum" are planning a segment on why some Aussie families choose an unconventional lifestyle, and we're going to be one of those unconventional families!

It started last week when we met some new friends the Atkinson family from the kidboat Katsumi.  Lyndy Atkinson has an awesome blog called Homeschool Ahoy, which was read by the producer of ABCs The Drum.  The Atkinson's lifestyle tied in with plans the ABC had for a piece on housing affordability, so they approached the Atkinsons to see if they'd be interested in participating.  As luck would have it, the day suggested was a day when the Atkinsons planned to be out on the water, enjoying our beautiful Whitsunday sunshine, and Lyndy asked if we'd be interested instead.

My first reaction was "Hey, why not?".  Matt's was a horrified, "No! why would I want to do that?".  Tilly's was "Mmm?  Don't mind" (returns nose to book).  Sasha's: "Yee-haaaah!!!"

Shy retiring type

So we got in touch with the producer (who was quite lovely) and put out names forward, and sent her the details of the blog for background.  Lyndy had also put it out to the great "Liveaboard Sailing Families Australia" Facebook group so there were a few other families who put their hands up too.  We heard nothing for a few days, then two days ago they got in touch and said they'd be coming to film us today, Wednesday.  Much excitement - and trepidation!

We needn't have worried.  The two journalists were super friendly, genuine and down to earth.  They rocked up at the house with their camera, recording equipment and what seemed like a zillion tripods in various sizes.  They ran through what they wanted to do - get lots of filling shots and footage of the house, kids playing, us packing, us leaving and us driving off - before we'd go to the marina and get more of the same on the boat.

We ran through all the stuff pretty quickly.  They noticed our huge world map wall and, when we told them that we'd built our house around it, they wanted one us to talk about it to camera.  And guess who jumped in first? Mr I-Don't-Want-To-Be-Filmed put his hand up - Pick me! Mike me up!  And he was great!

Once we had all that covered, we hopped in the car and headed down to the marina.  They wanted footage of the boat, us loading the boat, Matt tinkering, me tinkering, kids playing (Tilly reading!) and then I did a piece to camera explaining the accomodation down below.  I did find it a bit nerve-wracking, and Matt gleefully pointed out that I said "um ..." a lot! The presenter/journo then did the sit-down interview with me and Matt around the saloon table; I felt very stiff to start with and Matt and  were careful not to talk over each other.  As the interview went on we both relaxed and by the end were talking almost normally!

We loved the whole day, but I'm sure a lot of that was really down to being in such capable hands. It was a great chance to articulate that if a mainstream lifestyle doesn't feel right, you can try something else.  We do feel quite passionate about what we're doing; that the liveaboard lifestyle isn't just the preserve of the wealthy; that if your life feels very small, you can take small brave steps to open it up; that consumerism is a creeping horror; that life can be slowed; and that connecting with your tribe and being in nature are balm to the soul.



The segment is due to be aired on Friday 14th July 2017 in Australia at 5.30pm on ABC1 and 6.30pm on AC News 24.  It may also be used for a radio piece on ABC Tropical North the following week, possibly an online article and we're hoping to catch up with them again further down the track.  We had a great time, thanks guys!

More setbacks

Matt and I both know that pretty much anything to do with boats gets delayed, takes longer and costs more than you expect.   So we  were  annoyed – but not surprised – when the boatyard called this week to say we weren’t being hauled out next week as arranged. 

Hope we get this many helpers

The yard lady was apologetic but adamant, and duly noted Matt’s reasons why we were so keen not to lose out spot: we had a surveyor arranged for the Monday as soon as the boat was on the hard,  Matt had taken leave from work to get the boat scrubbed and painted in the allotted 4 days, we currently still have an alternative place to live (which we won’t very soon) and, most important, his dad and mum were driving the 10 hours from Hervey Bay to help us that week!

Apparently this is happening all the time at the moment; people are being bumped and schedules being hastily rearranged.  Cyclone Debbie has a lot to answer for.  There are mutterings of unscrupulous owners stretching things out while on the insurers coin, but I can’t see how; surely insurers are even more careful with their money that the rest of us?  Anyway, I offered to phone the yard and add my two-penn'orth, but Matt hastily declined.  Hmm, not sure why!  So next week we suddenly have a whole 4 days stretching ahead of us with, luxuriously, nothing to fill it.   Of course, we have plenty to fill it, and jobs have rushed in to fill the vacuum, but it gave a brief illusion of breathing space. 

The most important of these is to finish packing up the house.  We currently have an awful lot of cardboard packing boxes around the house (mainly in places where you fall over them at night).  These boxes are split into 3 categories, stuff to give to Vinnies (St Vincent de Paul Charity Shop), slightly better items to sell at our garage sale in a couple of weeks, and finally, stuff to store.  So that if/when we come back in 12 months, we don’t have to start totally from scratch.  This last category is piling up as we have nowhere to store them.  The plan is that Matt will partition off part of of our 4-bay shed so we can use one bay for storage, and hopefully this is something he and his dad can do next week.  Then we can get the boxes out of the house, and move from room to room in a direct line and without navigating a waist-high cardboard maze.

Our packing up has been further delayed by the fact that I’ve been working.  I work occasionally as a casual in our two local libraries.  Sometimes it’s extremely busy and we’re rushed off our feet: still, I struggle to see it as work.  It’s a joy to be surrounded a) by books and b) by people who want to talk about them.  As I used to work fulltime at the school library, my casual work was limited to the occasional Saturday and holiday cover.  The gap between these stints would usually be just long enough to ensure I’d have time to forget everything I learned the previous time I worked.  But happily, all the regular staff at the two libraries are fabulous to work with, and kindly overlook my errors and fumbling with the computer system .  So I worked 3 days in the first week of the school hols and 2 days this week, the last week of the hols.  I love it, plus it tops up our sailing fund (“cruising tokens”,  as Lin and LarryPardy call it).  However, working 8-5 doesn’t leave much time for doing jobs at home, as I’m sure many a working parent would attest.

These two factors – the yard postponing and me working – have left a bit of a question mark over our departure date.  Although we are still planning to have the house available to let on the 1^st August (it’s now 8^th July).  We’re not in a hurry to go anywhere once we’re on board, so that’s ok.  However, the biggest setback is we had the rigging checked this week., and it was bad news.  Expensive news.

Iron Will is an older boat (launched in 2001 but the build started in 1981!).  A boat’s rigging is constantly working when it’s in the water, lots of constant tiny stresses even as it rocks in a marina berth.  We knew one of the swages (where the wire shroud, holding up the mast, joins the deck) had a crack and needed replacing.  

This is one of the reasons we didn’t sail, only motored, on our inaugural family passage to a local anchorage.   However, the riggers report shows we need to replace ALL the shrouds.  They’re too busy with cyclone work, and it is something Matt and I can do.  The trick is to replace them  just two at a time apparently! However, even without the labour costs of taking off the old and installing the new, it’s going to set us back $10,000 to have the replacement shrouds manufactured.  That’s a lot of money for us.

(No not our actual rigging.  Thankfully.)

We are quite philosophical.  We got this beautiful boat for a very fair price, and this just effectively bumps up the price by $10k.  Boats are beasts that need constant outlay.  The delay?  Our marina berth is booked until 15^th August, and that’s when we’re leaving it.  It’s been awesome having Iron Will in the marina while we move stuff off the boat, tinker with systems, clean and move our belongings on.  But we have no desire to sit in the most expensive marina in Australia for a day longer than we have to.  So there’s a good chance we’ll sit at anchor in the little bay in front of Airlie Beach for a while, til we get the rigging sorted.  But that’s ok.  

It seems crazy that we're rushing, rushing to move on board so that we can do nothing!   Our priority right now is to get the house earning its keep.  And we know that once we’re on board, we want life to slow right down so we can just enjoy our life, our family, for one precious, fleeting year.