Zinc sailing on MUSCAT 7

This is the first edition of Zinc sailing on MUSCAT 7. Welcome! It feels as though we’ve done this before… And we have, in a way, ten years ago, on another boat, without kids. Here’s a Venn Diagram.

January was moving out of our jungle tree house* and onto our floating tiny home. (*thanks Jules, love this description!)

BOAT. MUSCAT 7 was a father’s day present, coincidentally. This time around Dale is blessed to battle mutinies with three of us. Lucky Dale. I think you’ll agree he’s living the dream.

LIFE. After MUSCAT 7 joined our family, we raced to the end of 2018, enduring work deadlines, kindy/school shenanigans, and day surgeries. Between these land-based good times, we spent weekends sailing the Broadwater and south to the Tweed, which is lovely this time of year.

The girls played.

And friends visited.

Some things are different on a boat. For example, enjoying access to the ocean from your living room floor.

But most things remain the same.

HOUSE PACK-UP. We underestimated the work required to move onboard. I was Managing Director Pack-Up and my goal was to minimise – what we take, what we store, what we send to landfill. By Australian standards we live lean, but gosh, after five years in one place, and now there are four of us, we had an inordinate amount of stuff. During January, I handled around 20,000 household items and decided the fate of each one.

Minimising landfill is challenging in a country experiencing a gluttony epidemic; even the op shops have too much stuff and they’re sending excess to landfill. So, off to the car boot sale and facebook marketplace we went. The car boot sale was a hoot. Patrons battled (physically!) over our plant pots, old surfboards and kids’ bikes, but weren’t interested in quality books and kid clothes (until Dale hustled a fire sale on these items). Facebook marketplace was less pleasant, albeit slightly more lucrative. I was trolled for the first time by a gentleman who missed out on my $40 BBQ, and generally learned too much about the lives of strangers.

The girls struggled to choose items to take, store, give-away.

Occasionally I remembered it’s a big task for little people and cut them some slack; here’s the outcome of a strict ‘three-stuffed-toys-each’ policy.

What was left went in here, under our house, tetris style.

BOAT PREP. The boat prep was as challenging as the house pack-up, apparently. Dale was Managing Director Prep and his goal was to point to and measure as many items onboard as possible. Beautiful work Dale, thank you.

Of course there may have been other tasks he managed around wind, solar and engine power and water collection etc., but he will be remembered for his solid pointing.

BOAT. While we worked, MUSCAT 7 hung tight at the marina…

… where, in defiance to the “CAUTION” placard on the dock, Hazel did not wear sensible shoes at any time.

BOOKS.

Listening to Michelle and Boy Swallows Universe* kept me sane during the pack-up, and Andre** was a surprise treasure. I made it about half way through How to Change Your Mind, and pushed myself to make it that far. As a result I probably cut poor old Bridge of Clay too early; it didn’t grab me, so I flicked it. The Overstory was a struggle too, but I’m happy I persevered; it’s a clever, magically constructed and important book. (thanks for the recommendations *KT and Haids, and **Anna!)

Willow says she enjoyed the Raina Telgemeier books, especially Sisters, and adored The Alice Stories, which were written by a friend’s sister and are so good.

And these were Hazel’s high rotation hot picks for January.