Annie Hill wrote:

Graham: I'm so sorry to hear that little Arion has to go.  It's sad how these things work out.  I'm sure Fantail would have suited you, but when I was selling you were still happy to keep your boat.  I hope you soon find a good owner for her and a suitable replacement.  It must be a bit stressful having the boat for sale and yet still feeling that you have more things you'd like to do with her.

Yes, I'd like to do a tradewind circumnavigation, but there are days when I can hardly get out of my bunk.  There is zero interest in the boat here, though, so it looks like I might be chipping rust for some time yet!  I am hoping the cooler weather will revive me, and the search for medical solutions continues.  I recently raised the head of my bunk by 5 inches to take pressure off the brain and it does seem to be useful.  The time will come when I will have to give the boat away or scrap it, but that is a few years off yet, I hope.  And who knows, if I bounce back, I might even do another coastal cruise.

Gary Pick wrote:

Graham what price are you chasing? I sometimes come across someone after a boat.

I have the boat listed at $17,000 with the broker but will consider all offers.  Arion is not a bay cruising boat, it is a miniature expedition ship, heavily built and fitted out with all the gear including AIS and JSD.  The interior is a scruffy amateur fitout (but colourful, a friend said the boat looks like a French fishing boat from the 19th century on the outside, and a Filipino bar below!)  I wouldn't buy Arion if I was going to just sit on a mooring and go for occasional daysails, but for a youngish adventurer, seriously keen to cruise, whether coastal or transocean, it might be the bargain of the century.  I have spent over $120,000 on it, $25,000 in the last few years alone.  It needs someone willing to do lots of ongoing maintenance, like any older steel boat, that is the thing that will defeat me in coming years.  Although I had a good day today, and started thinking of how beautiful Great Keppell Island is!  A good week and I will be dangerous!  But whether I stay here, head north or south this winter, the boat will remain on the market, because I need a fibreglass boat for my old age!

PS:  Hopefully, Gary, you can check it out for yourself if I manage to get into Moreton Bay later.

Gary Pick wrote:

Graham I have an eye operation sometime in the next 12 weeks and I will be out of action for at least a month after it apparently. So I hope when you get down to Moreton you hang around for a bit.:)

Hi Gary.  Good luck with the eye op.  Long waiting lists in our hospitals!  I have no firm date for going anywhere at the moment, as I have been sick most of the summer, so have not done any work on Arion.  I need to slip first, which I hope will happen in May.  A friend is going to help but I need to be better than I currently am before working on the boat or sailing.  There are days when I would give the boat away for $5K or less, but I am hoping I make some sort of recovery when the cooler, drier weather arrives.  I seem to have lost my ability to cope with heat and humidity.  I have always loved the tropics.  But hopefully, if the boat does not sell, I will make it down there a couple of times this winter  I may only stay a month each time then come back here, but it is an easy daysail in the right weather into the bay and back.  I am dreaming of a glass boat for my final years but nobody is even looking at Arion.  I'll keep you posted!

David Webb wrote:

Hi Graham,

 we are building a house on Russell Island and would love to meet you if and when you are in the area. We spend the winters in Australia and will be back there around the end of May. When will you be in the Moreton Bay area? 

We know Gary quite well as I have helped on Redwing and he has helped on my house build. I have sailed on Redwing quite a few times. So maybe we can have a Moreton Bay junket and Dieter who has his catamaran at Victoria Point could also attend. I have a 12 foot dinghy that I intend to put a junk rig on when I get back to Australia, maybe even get the sail made here in New Zealand before I return.

Let me know what your anticipated schedule is.

All the best, David.

I expect I'll come down sometime in May and stay through June at least.  I need to be back in Mooloolaba in September for a medical review, unless I head further south, which is unlikely.  I'll let you and Gary know when I get underway.

Graham Cox wrote:

Gary Pick wrote:

Making a new tiller extension, bamboo with a snap shackle on the end. I made one using a length of plastic conduit and it worked quite well so figured it was time to get a bit arty about it.

http://www.junkrigassociation.org/resources/MemberAlbums/3245291/Redwing/preview/20180308_142913.jpg

Looks good, Gary.  I am still in Mooloolaba. I am hoping to get down into Moreton Bay in May for a month or two - doesn't look like I will be going north this winter.  My health is pretty shaky and longer passages would tire me too much at the moment.  However, I have bounced back before so who knows?  I'll let you know when I am heading your way.

We plan to be up that way around then as well.