One of the many things I like about Elephants Child is how many hatches there are. Seven on the coachroof and another eight opening vertical hatches in the cabin sides. The two above the sleeping areas are very large and it is a pleasure to go to sleep with the hatch wide open, the stars shining bright and instead of counting sheep I count the stars I know; Polaris, Vega, Deneb, Altairrrrrrrrrrr snores quietly. Of course some nights you get woken by the raindrops and have to shut it but last night the forecast was for clear skies all night and no rain. So I was expecting an uninterrupted nights sleep, what I was not expecting was a torch wielding intruder to creep on to the boat and shine his torch down into my bed waking me up. He ws moving around and I was thinking do I go for the VHF and put out a call or find the breadknife to deter the guy flashing this bright torrrr "ah s**t it's the moon" Still it took me a while to get back to sleep and I had to shut the hatch as the moon was so bright I could read by it.
DIFFERENT BOATS
Most liveaboard cruisers are on sailboats with a few onboats they have built themselves.
But Tom on Essential Part is the only self built steel powerboat that I have seen cruising. The story goes that it was supposed to have a mast and sails but he got fed up and just took off when he had the hull done.
I passed him on the sail down from Union Island but he must have been running on economy mode as he has pretty big engines in it.
You don't snore quietly, The rest of the anchorage know when you're around.
ReplyDeletere the "intruder" perhaps you should have kept my christmas present, HM customs kept that. do you have the flare gun within reach?