We've done a few fishing trips in the boat. During the school holidays we planned a big trip of a few days over to the Tiwi Islands but we had a few technical issues just leaving Darwin so we just overnighted near Charles Point and came back the next day. The autopilot wasn't working, the toilet broke down and then we had saltwater pumping into the bilge from a broken hose on the cooling system!
The first trip therefore wasn't a great success in getting my wife and son keen to do trips on the boat! We did do a couple of overnight trips in Darwin Harbour (see photo) which were much more pleasant. A trip to Sail City wasn't so great with Gwenny, Daniel and his friend Rowan. We tried to go too far on limited time and spent all our time travelling! Combined with the fact that I didn't seek out a sheltered anchorage and we were tossed about all night when trying to sleep.
The best trip was with Peter and Nikki and the kids (Shania brought a school friend too) for a couple of nights into Bynoe Harbour. Was really nice except I wish I turned on the airconditioner earlier! Didn't sleep much because it was so hot and found out how well the aircon worked at around 5am on the last morning we were out!
Well the big boat experiment is over - but as Gwenny says its probably good I tried as I'd still be wanting one. It just ended up being too expensive to own - eg Marina Fees and maintenance, and we weren't using it enough to justify it. This pictures are of Condamine out of water for the eventual buyer to inspect her. The hull was actually in pretty good nick. I hope she'll be a good ol boat for the buyer. I'm a bit sad about it all but ah well.. its been a good lesson and good experience. There'll be some good memories still - even if short.
