The Steamtug Blog

I am heart broken. My dream girl ADAQUA is in trouble. I was forced to sell her off last month too cheaply, but not living in Australia at the moment, was unable to take care of her. Thinking that if I sold her cheap, someone would be able to not spend too much on the purchase price but could easily afford to look after her, and one day I would come home and even buy her back again. But these thoughts appear to be over…. (continue reading…)

This week was the exciting trip to tow Adaqua back to Geelong. Captain Dave is a retired workmate who retired a couple of years ago, and we have kept in touch. He has a big cruiser boat on a trailer and I managed to convince him to partake in a great adventure of getting Adaqua home.  (continue reading…)

(Cmon, sing the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song with me…) Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from the Gee-long port, upon a tiny ship. The engine started running rough, the big end bearing got hot, if not for the well stocked beer fridge, the skipper would’ve been shot! (continue reading…)

Word had got around boat yard there was going to be a BBQ Friday night. I was there organising to get John’s little yacht up the slipway (yes…it’s the one that sunk). When I was there a few weeks ago, I was convinced to join the yacht club as they seemed to be a fun bunch of blokes. But this Friday night turned out to be the best fun I have had for ages! (continue reading…)

On the cusp of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, we decided it was such a lovely evening that instead of going to the pub, we should take the little yacht for a sail. So with eskies (cooler box) in hand, we boarded Adaqua and headed over to the yacht moorings where we recently moved Meridian, to begin her new life at the Western beach boat club. But as we approached and made ready to fend off and board, I had some trouble locating her. Where could she have gone??? (continue reading…)

Have you noticed?

Ever notice how you can be professionally trained in something, but nobody takes you seriously because your just a young “whipper-snapper” but then you get a couple of grey hairs, and can talk with confidence about any subject, and people hang on your every word like you’re an expert? I noticed this just last week when I was asked to do a talk by the Historical Society on the steam shovels of the Geelong Cement works. (continue reading…)

Don’t go looking for Adaqua down at the waterfront of Geelong, she’s not there! After battling mountainous seas, constant rain and almost running out of beer she has been left to think about her bad behavior on the other side of Victoria. After an interesting crossing of the open sea, across the top of Bass Strait she sits in a small, calm estuary, East of French Island in Westernport bay. (continue reading…)

Just arrived home after a week living like the homeless (Hobos of the bay!)on Adaqua visiting places like Portarlington, St Leonards, Rye, South Channel fort and finishing off with a few days in Melbourne’s docklands marina to unwind with luxuries like shore power, hot showers, a washing machine, and an easy place to wash the old boat down before heading home to Geelong. (continue reading…)

You can’t plan anything to do with your boat with a specific date attached. It happens almost everytime when a date on the calendar is selected, the weather will be fantastic the day before, crap on the day, and good again the day after. Take for example the underwater hockey break up party where we recently upset everybody’s plans by moving the date to the day before when the weather was perfect. It happened again with the family Boxing day sail down to Portarlington, and now again.

With perfect weather the day before new year’s eve, the big important day saw winds from the North West at 30 knots, gusting up to 50, driving temperatures up to 43 degrees and making not white caps on the water, but almost surf! But undeterred, we ventured down to the boat and set up everything ready for the big New Year’s Eve party. (continue reading…)

Since I am the president of the Under Water Hockey club, I took the team out on the boat for our annual break up party. We have done this the last few years and sometimes, the weather has not been great. This was going to be the case this time too, but looking at the forecast, I could not help noticing the perfect conditions the night before. So after lots of worry about who would miss out, I changed the night for Tuesday instead of the Wednesday. And the weather turned out to be just fantastic!!! Sorry to those who missed out. (continue reading…)