Voyages of Banyandah - Life on the Hard

[banyandah]

Tuesday 11 Dec. ~ Life on the Hard
Serious cruisers will know the shaky start of day descending a steep ladder to race for the loos that is normal for life on the hard.

Surround by a forest of masts, Banyandah stands forlorn like a worn object of art precariously balanced on her long keel, her mass kept from toppling by what appear two flimsy vertical arms, one of which doubling as the means of entry into our abode. She feels dead, or dying with occasional tremors and shakes so unlike her lively antics when afloat and this has us tiptoeing about praying she recovers.

Jude climbing up into her house

Instead of commanding her to even greater adventures, Jack and Jude consult her list of aliments to plan a recovery. It is a long list as she only get’s looked at every two years. There are spots of cancer needing cutting out, nothing serious, but a stitched in time…. Her sacrificial bits have been eaten down to gnarly bones. They must be renewed. There are nuisance leaks around some of her portals that need plugging. And to extend its life, her anchor rode should be turned about, her bobstay too. That’s work enough for a veteran couple, but alas, that’s just the start. Our lady’s protective skin needs rejuvenating, top to bottom. The five years of bashing around Australia’s hostile climate has left her beautiful blue coat threadbare and worn patches show hints of her white undercoat. Her skin facing the myriad of undersea creatures seeking a home needs copious amount of poison to ward them away. We normally double these coatings to give us two years of fast cruising. You can do that with ferro.

But it’s not all hard work. Oddly we can’t stop feeling like we’re on vacation! There’s so much beautiful scenery and plenty of others working, which is always great to watch. We got serious yesterday about having some fun and lowered the Green Machine off the deck to the ground two stories below, and then ferried it in two loads to a dock with a hand operated dinghy crane. What a perfect setup for launching our hefty kayak. It didn’t have the character of the one we used at Moth Creek in Melaleuca that Deny King had built.

This one is utilitarian, easy and safe, and in no time this morning, we launched and set off for a paddle. Navigating out the marina could have proved challenging except the Green Machine can go under low walkway bridges and quickly we were out into a bay more surrounded by green forests than the few collections of cottages. Away across the furthest distance, the dry hills of Bruny Island blocked the easterly fetch. The air was fresh, sky blue, our vision sharp, and energy from the heavens soon rejuvenated our spirits.

Now, it’s back to work or we’ll never leave Kettering.

[Hudson Force]

Tell us aboat Banyandah. From the photo of the stern it sort of resembles a Heritage from the late '70's.

[banyandah]

Hi CAPTFORCE,
Right decade, wrong design. Banyandah, which means "Home on the Water" in the Northern Territories Aboriginal tongue, is a homebuilt Hartley design, redesigned from the waterline up.

She's got a long full keel, so she tracks straight down wave fronts, flush deck fore and aft, plenty of open space, a centre cockpit with solid dodger giving great protection crossing oceans. She is not so good going round the buoys, a bit on the average side of fast. But has withstood seas that have destroyed other craft.

There's a bit more her on our website. Plus a heap of photos dating back to her construction in 1973.
Cheers from 'Down Under'