jayneandmarty.com

Back in May I wrote about how we’d decided to freshen the boat up a bit. This afternoon, six months later, I finally got around to one of the tasks on the list - carpet.

I don’t really know what inspired me to get busy and sort it out. I just felt like fiddling with the boat this afternoon.

I took the seats out of the boat, measured up … (2m wide floor + 2×50cm high sides) x 2.6m of length … and went to Clark Rubber to buy some marine carpet. I probably could have found some cheap stuff on eBay but I was in the mood to buy and fit carpet TODAY and couldn’t wait. No patience, I know.

I only got as far as cutting the carpet today - I started to do it with scissors but got a blister so looked a bit harder for a Stanley knife (and found one). I’ll continue during the week so that we can use the boat again next weekend if we want to. The pressure’s on!

** Update - the slideshow now includes shots of the floor carpet (as opposed to the carpet up the sides) all glued in and the seats back in place. I’ve also glued half the sides carpet but haven’t got photos yet. It’s looking really good - (a) I’m pleased with the result and (b) it was really cheap. Should have done it ages ago!

Jayne, Peter and I went fishing this morning and we all caught something!

We woke with the sparrows at 5.30am, chomped down some brekky, made a thermos of coffee, hitched the boat up and drove to the boat ramp. I’d planned for us to zoom off towards Limeburners Bay and the whiting at about 6.30 - they get up early, those fishies.

We’d packed the boat on Saturday so everything was speedy at the ramp - give her a quick start before putting in, then just unclip her, back the trailer down the ramp, undo the winch and roll her off the trailer.

It was dead calm when we left the harbour so I opened up the throttle and we whizzed north at 35mph to the bay we wanted to fish and were baited up and in the water in no time. Sadly the bay wasn’t playing our game, and we went biteless for half an hour before the wind started to get up a bit. This made us decide to move back towards the boat ramp where it was a bit more sheltered. Good move!

Before too long I had a big bite (which surprised all of us, as Jayne usually catches all the fish and has all the bites) and started carefully reeling it in. When it was about a metre from the surface it looked like a huge flathead, which was exciting, but we soon realised it was weird-looking ray. Still, it was big enough and we figured it was probably OK to eat so we kept it. In the bottom of the boat. We forgot a bucket.

Here it is in the net.

Almost as soon as it was in the boat Jayne’s rod went and she pulled in a flathead.

Then it was on for half an hour or so as we caught another three of the rays (which apparently are Banjo Sharks) and four more flathead, including a real beauty for Jayne.

Another Banjo

Jayne’s big flathead

Not long after our 9th fish it started raining, so we decided to head home.

Peter filleted the fish up back at home (the Banjos were a real bugger, he tells me) and we had them for tea with chips. The flatties were great (always are) but those Banjos are full of bones and fairly bland, so we’ll chuck ‘em back next time!

P.S. After wakeboarding with 5 people the other week and fishing today with 3 in the boat I’m seriously considering ditching the name “Muchacha” and going with the one that was second on our shortlist: Tight Squeeze.

I’m moving webhosts at the moment so the blog will look a bit strange for a few days until I’ve decided what to do with the design. Everything should still work OK, though!Things didn’t go too smoothly but we’re all sorted now.

I have a bunch of photos of the progress Peter’s been making on the balcony so will set aside some time to write about that over the weekend.

Hope everyone’s well.

Great weather this weekend so we took Muchacha out both mornings for a wakeboard. On Saturday James and Lou came down, then today Iao came too, so we had 5 in the boat this morning. It was James’ first time and he managed to get up on his third attempt (must be our driving skills) and Iao went well too (proving that it’s like riding a bike) but Jayne and Lou didn’t board (they’re scared of sea-beasties). I reckon they’ll get in next time.

The water was much warmer than we expected. James and I wore our 4/3 steamers but Iao toughed it out in his boardies and said it was fine. Not sure of the actual temp but it’d have to be around 17-18 deg.

Muchacha went really well and had no trouble pulling Iao out even though he’s pushing 100kgs and there were four of us in the boat. The throttle’s still a bit touchy but it’s easy enough to maintain a constant speed.

May there be many more sunny and calm weekends like this between now and next April!

Plenty more photos on our Picasa page (and more to come when Iao burns his onto a CD for me).

James

James

Iao

Me

Me

Love that waterproof camera

Well we didn’t have a good day on the punt (except Paul’s win on El Pauli in the last) but we had a good day on the tucker.

Pics on our Picasa page
(http://picasaweb.google.com/jayneandmarty/MelbourneCupDay2007).