My Street is a Creek

November creeps past; its' air hangs close and wet.
I am mapping my street; a project initiated in response to a long past deadline.

The paintings as always take a life of their own; intended to grace the walls of an unmet niece.

Long time no see; new project

Greetings;

The boat now rests at anchor; buddies with a larger vessel in a mangrove creek near the city.
So no excuses for not painting and posting.
I have this week off work (to look after the kids for school holidays)so for the sake of a bit of discipline and retrieval of momentum I will enter the 'Street Stories' project with the ABC.

The oldest and the youngest sons

My excuse is that I started a new job and have been pushing hard to complete the boat. Launching date is the 12th April. I will then shift my efforts to painting and keeping this blog alive...promise!

Jazz's comments on an early version of The birds

A race through the house and then dinner

Billy and Clancy go for a swim and catch some little fish

Clancy and Billy cooking.

Harry Clancy and Billy

A20 finished and in action

After nearly a year of sanding scraping gluing and tinkering we have re-entered to briny deep and Amandari is all kitted up as a sailing camper van. Now we have notched up a few trips and hope to get a few more under our belt before the monsoon sets in.



Filled with epoxy it started to smoke...holy hell i had thinners and metho all over the place and it is hot at night. A squirt with the hose and a layer of ice saved the day.
From below, I have put in a section of marine ply
Using a router I cleared the rotten wood from the top
The Trailers;




Stage one complete. The objective here was to make the object in the driveway into another living space. The crew occupy themselves while the skipper knocks over a job here and there.

I'll be doing some more painting yet.

I've got about 6 weeks until the first rains. So the cockpit drains and stormboards are a priority.
Clancy and Billy;The Crew. Clancy in the foreground
Nearly finished






I replaced all wobbly joins

After removing the panels to use as templates
The trailer.... To be the subject of another holiday effort.
The amazingly long process of removing fittings continues.
Note the hose; wetting the wooden beams helped to ensure smooth sliding.
Winching the trailer out from under the boat after the weight was on the stern keel.
Winching the boat back off the trailer.
I threaded a snatch strap across the bows to ensure the forces were evenly distributed.
The tyres were insurance against the risk of toppling off the stacks of bricks.
I did not dare to go any higher so I cut the tyre with a grinder and slid out the axle and rusting hub.





This is an Austral 20 trailer sailer. I think it is about 20 yeas old.
It was auctioned off by the sailing club and for better or worse I ended up with it.

She is called Amandari, A Balinese word meaning peaceful spirits.

Amandari arrived last Sunday (24.6.07) I've been taking all the fittings off in preparation for a full refit.As she arrived. The axle and tyres were just sitting there, springs long gone.