Log Entry 6th July 2009

A non-sailing blog entry for a change. Friday past saw the family at the Gold Coast Q1 building because Santa had thoughtfully given me a 30 minute ride in a Boeing 737 flight simulator. It was lot of fun and I can highly recommend it as an alternative to socks and handkerchiefs. First landing put the undercarriage through the wings but managed to get her on the runway reasonably well the second time around.

Afterwards I shopped with the girls who bought bits and pieces for themselves, all the time waiting patiently to spring an"impromptu" visit to Whitworths, a large marine chandler at Southport. I had been "researching" the purchase of a marine toilet for Lara, getting sick to death of the porta-potty, which is in the habit of tipping over and draining all over the cabin floor. It's also a real pain to empty waste and to refill the upper reservoir with water for flushing.

Fortunately Lara still has the appropriate skin fittings and space for a dunny, having being fitted with one in a past life. Managed to determine from the mounting abrasions on the inside of Lara's hull that a TMC (or equivalent) manual marine toilet will happily fit in the nook provided. No prizes then for guessing what we came home with.

Already started collecting the additional bits and pieces needed to complete the task.

Drove to the end of the spit before we came home to have a look at the Gold Coast Seaway. Considering it was blowing 20-25 knots from the north-west, the passage looked reasonably safe, probably because the tide was about an hour away from flood. Lots of swirling water but no breaking waves. There were even a couple of skin-divers swimming in the water, albeit not too far from the wall, no idea why, must have been freezing with very little visibility in the water itself.