Going up the mast

One of the jobs I've had in mind for a while is to replace the anchor light so that instead of using 2 Amps for the 12 hours overnight we’ll only use about a tenth of that when I put in an LED light.
The 22 amp hours that I’ll save in battery life every day will probably run the fridge for three to four hours.
Belinda got me a bosuns chair for my birthday and so while I was up there changing the light I took a couple of photos.
Belindas view

And my view from 15 metres up

Boiling water

So we’ve got gas on the boat and we can boil the jug like anyone else but a 3.8kg ‘Swap-n-go’ bottle costs around $30 and the last one seemed to last about 6 weeks. (We’re timing this one and so far we’re up to 18 days, although I think that person days may be a better measure in which case we’re at 38 person days)
Anyway, when we use the gas we also need to turn on a safety switch first which uses about 1.5 Amps from the battery while it’s on.

So, boiling water in the jug has a double hit from a consumption perspective, power from the batteries to hold the safety solenoid open and gas from the bottle.
Last time we were at the caravan and camping show in Canberra we found one of these

That’s a glass tube with two cups of water inside and the sides fold out as reflectors and in about an hour of full sunlight we get two cups of boiling water, no gas, no electricity J

Time for a quick catchup

So, it’s February now and a lot has happened.
After finishing the course and going back to Canberra things just didn't seem the same. I gave it a couple of weeks and then decided that it was time to bite the bullet and hand in my notice. In the end I finished on 1 Nov and we came back up to the lake the following week.
We played around in the lake for a couple of weeks checking out different spots (mainly checking where their public moorings are) and starting on the job list for the boat.
At the end of November we went on a cruise with Royal Caribbean to Vanuatu and New Caledonia for 12 days. (Don’t ask for the photos, we used to have a waterproof phone that had a good camera). When we finished the cruise in mid December we went back to Canberra for a couple of weeks until just after Xmas.
Back up to the boat on the 29th Dec and had the fridge fixed early in the new year. Did a couple of quick trips back and forth to Canberra early in January and then spent the last 3 weeks of Jan redoing the bathroom at Amandas place.
We've been up here for a couple of weeks early in Feb and then went back to Canberra to be with Belinda’s mum and nephew and his partner went they visited Amanda. (Their first visit to see Lacey.)
Stephen came back with us on the Friday to spend the weekend and then he went back to Canberra again on the Sunday (16th).
Whew, all caught up.