Wow what a roller coaster year 2021 has been!

 Life is never dull and this year had us on a major roller coaster. Arriving back December 2020 into Brisbane and civilisation from an amazing trip along Queensland's Great Barrier Reef and islands into the depths of reality and COVID had us reassessing our 5 year plan. No longer did we feel sailing overseas would be an option in the near future. 

The underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef

You really can’t describe this in words 

Perfect day on the Great Barrier Reef

Ok so let’s look at what we wanted to do in that 5 years. We wanted one big, final overseas sail, PNG, Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, maybe the Philippines and then returning back to Australia to settle down a bit. This settling down meant establishing a small land base to come back to whilst we took shorter sailing adventures within Australia. Now that we felt we were going to be contained for sometime to Australian waters, we might as well get the ball rolling. 

Purchasing a block of land on Russell Island close to a good mooring field took place relatively quickly. Building our “Container House” was going to take some time. However this could be completed in stages. Having an off season for cyclones each year would allow us to build for 3-4 months a year. With the first stage being foundations and lock up completed before we set sail again in April 2021.

Well all of this sounds great until you invite council to join in on your dream ….. mmmmmm … well if we tell you every roadblock they put in our way we would now be to chapter 99. The straw that broke the camels back was a security bond the council requires for owner builders using removal houses or containers as a base. This was projected to be a paltry sum of $65K until we completed the build which in our case could be up to 5years away. Money we certainly didn’t have to tie up in the hands of council. 

One of the two containers we transformed to be our planned land base 

When Rob was diagnosed with prostate cancer our world took a ride on the giant drop. SELL was what Rob screamed saying we don’t need the stress of dealing with bureaucrats. And that was exactly what we did. We completed the two container pods that were to form our “Container House” and we sold them in record time. Container House walk through here

While awaiting Rob's surgery, we discussed many options for our future life of exploration.  One thing was certain. We were not giving up our wandering lifestyle. We were still going to sail, but in the off season we want to be out doing stuff. Karen has been following a number of #VanLife YouTube channels enjoying their freedom of exploration of the land. So a new project was hatched. “Project Recovery” keep the mind and body busy and it will recover with the enthusiasm to live life to the fullest. 

Dreamtime Van

“Project Recovery” has turned out well. We have built ourselves a lovely campervan and now have a land yacht that we can explore this wide vast land in whilst the sailing season is at a standstill due to cyclones. You can read about the van build and see lots of photos on the new Dreamtime Van page of this blog.

Then it was back to Our Dreamtime to complete a couple of jobs that we wanted to do coming into her 40th year afloat. Yep that's right. Our lovely lady was launched back in 1982. It was time to look to the timber soles and the refurbishment of the aft head. We still wanted to maintain her classic look so in went the newly refurbished, sanded and stained hatches plus new flooring to replace that which had delaminated over their years of service. The aft head was dismantled, sanded, waterproofed, primed and then two coats of gloss top coat. New fittings were installed along with the “Stick on Luxury” tiling system. We love this system, we used them in the van conversion and will also be revamping the galley with them in coming months. If you want to know more about them and receive a 5% discount follow this link https://stickonluxury.com.au/?ref=j6lo7h3nz4

Revamp of the 40 year old bathroom 

The floors refinished 

In 2021 it hasn’t been all that bad, we have really enjoyed spending the time with family especially being around our fast growing grandchildren this past year. Watching them in their many activities has provided us with much pleasure and these memories will be treasured forever. 

Our Family 😍

Teaching our little ones to sail

We also have the wonderful news that in 2022 we will be great grandparents if you say it fast enough it doesn’t sound all that bad lol and we had the surprise marriage of the parents to be on New Years Eve, Congratulations Chloe and Caleb, what a great way to end a roller coaster of a year. 

Happy New Year everyone and we hope you are safe, healthy and surrounded by loved ones in 2022.

If you would like to be part of the Dreamtimesail Crew in 2021, consider becoming a Patreon. Becoming a Patreon helps us to continue producing Youtube episodes and write blogs which we hope you get enjoyment from. To find out what being a Patreon is 👉 thank you for taking a look 

Following is information about products we used in the refurbishment of the Aft Head. Some of these links we have an association with, that means is if you purchase through the link we will get a small commission however looking and researching is free 😊

The finishing touches went in today on the Aft Cabin Head new porthole mirror 😍💙😍 https://amzn.to/3HpDN7J. The fabric baskets are from Ikea and the hooks we picked up at our local IGA.

Finally a nice toilet brush holder. If you are like us and have been searching for one just like this here’s a link 👉 https://amzn.to/3n9WXXF the mat and the canister are from Kmart, the starfish dish is from spotlight and the loofa is from our daughte'rs amazing garden. Thank you Felicity.

Yep still no new toilet seat, it can wait 🙄 but the new grab rail and combined towel rail is a great addition. We found it difficult to find quality stainless steel in this combination as most towel rails didn’t give the strength you really needed as a grab rail, essential on a boat. This one has good fixtures through the wall so will be structurally sound when needed. https://amzn.to/3sPFOpy

We are very pleased we used “Stick on Luxury” tiles for the splashback. We used their system in the van conversion and loved the effect. We plan on a revamp of the galley and we are looking forward to using their product again. If you want more info check out this link and get 5% off 😊 https://stickonluxury.com.au/?ref=dreamtimesail