Living on (bread and) water

So you're thinking of living permanently on your boat? Think again! You may need a larger boat just to store all the rules and regulations that govern such an innocent pursuit:

The appropriate laws are contained in the "Management of Waters and Waterside Lands Regulations—N.S.W."

The maximum amount of time you can live on board is 21 days in every 6 months. Beyond this, your vessel becomes a "moored houseboat," and there are requirements.

Firstly, you need special permission from NSW Maritime, or from the Crown.

Before it even comes down to a NSW Maritime decision, you must have two things:

1. Written permission from the landowner who owns the land you will use to access your vessel, that they approve of the use of the land for that purpose;

2.Written approval from the council of the nearest adjoining land, that they do not dissapprove of you living on board the vessel, and the standard of living therein.

A new neighbour?

The sun was over the yardarm and we were enjoying a drink on the verandah when a rubber-duckie came up the river. He waved, we waved, and he came ashore!

It turned out to be the 64-year-old sailor Brian Metcalfe who, a couple of weeks ago, had spent an excruciating night stranded off Batemans Bay suffering from hypothermia and medication withdrawal. [Read more].

Brian lives permanently on a 24ft TRITON 721, and is anchored - indefinitely, it seems - in the Bay off Square Head. Now that he has explored the upper reaches, he wants to move upriver.

An example of a TRITON 721 but not Brian's
Welcome to the Nelligen Yacht Club, Brian!
Wear our yacht club t-shirt with pride!

Ahoy there, AMBER LADY!

Click on image for another patch
I've rowed out to AMBER LADY to inspect the patches - and they are looking good!

After all the rowing, I had to have a coffee-and-cake break while I ran the engine for ten minutes or so.

Click here for a close-up of the book's cover

Nick, I left you this book to expand your mental horizon as we sit around the infinity edge pool at the Banjar Hills Retreat in Bali.

I also left some housekeeping material to keep the boat clean:

Travelling North - at a snail's pace

CHARON at the 1972 Sydney Boat Show
Richard and Wendy's CHARON is currently tucked up at a jetty alongside the Wangi Wangi Workers Club at Lake Macquarie where it is blowing a gale.

They took the train down to Sydney to visit the Boat Show. There they were given an old photo of CHARON when she was the centrepiece of the 1972 boat show.



P.S. Wendy, Padma has just finished reading Rosamunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice and highly recommends it!