Pete finally dumped the old boat on the back platform - more space, yay!
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Water.
Sherilee is basically a survival pod, Pete says – wind generator, ancient solar panels (that we think don’t work and will maybe replace if we ever go sailing in her again), equally ancient inherited stores of rice etc (I chuck a sack whenever I notice bugs have got in – we hardly cook and the containers just decay I think. I picked up a pack of Red Bull cans Pete bought a few months ago and the bottom just detached on all of them – the humidity & salt here, I suppose!).
Our catamaran docked at Middle Island, Hong Kong, with its wind generator attched for the last time (moved it to new boat).
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
And the watermaker. I have just been switching off on learning boaty things –I have no interest whatsoever and for once have let it be a bit sexist and left Pete to all that. Part of it is in the inner side kitchen cockpit seat, the rest you have to crawl under the back of the cat hull and turn on. Pete has been trying to get hold of some special gunge to coat the membranes in so we don’t have to run it every week (more in hot weather) to preserve it safely, but no joy. Until we moved out this week and discovered a tin of it had been left by the previous owner and buried by our gear when we moved IN! As it is after both of us getting ill (when I ended up in hospital) possibly from drinking water stored in the boat tanks, which we fill by driving it up to the jetty and using Middle Island’s mains hose, we usually boil any water before drinking it. I did boil water even when we had the flat – it’s supposed to be OK but was odd different colours sometimes so I want convinced. I did ask how/ if water tanks got cleaned when we were looking at the cat originally and got fobbed off! On the new boat we stick to bottled water which is a pain – Pete can get 2 big 1.5 l bottles free a day as his drink allowance but quite often we forget. We are looking for ways to sterilise both boats tanks and start afresh so to speak. What is bliss is you don’t have to use a foot pump to get water on NB – it has an electric motor so its almost like real taps, yay!
When it rained (ALL SPRING& SUMMER) on Sherilee, we attach special hoses to bits that hang down from the brown biminy (shade/ rain cover thing over the wooden deck) and collect as much rainwater as we can from that. We don’t drink it as the pollution here sucks – the rain turns newly washed white boats grey very quickly! Not sure if we can figure out a collection sheet on naught Boy but I’d like to get at least plastic sheets to line the back deck so we can sit out if we want – and hopefully help reduce dripping noise/ the leak we just found in the ceiling of our cabin! (I will work out how to fix it once I have worked out how to take up the wooden deck covering fibreglass which makes the floor/ ceiling – its screwed and glued down in strips but the screws are covered in wooden plugs I can’t move). By the way, its fairly impossible to sleep when its raining on a boat – even if the bed hatches on Sherillee / the ceiling in NB didn’t leak, the noise gets you. Its like being in a caravan I suppose…….gentle rain might sound relaxing but we don’t get that here!
Electricity
Sherilee had mini tube lights either side of the main hatches, and random small dome lights switched on with a little peg on their rim dotted around the cabins. Just enough to read by but not much else. NB has bigger square lights protruding from the ceiling in most rooms, quite dim, worked by annoying rocker switches on their edge. The bedroom has the same domed lights as Sherilee but some are also worked by a (gasp!) real light switch at the door. At some point we will be re-wiring stuff and putting in brighter bulbs that can run off the batteries.
Sue on top deck - we later put the windmill where I am standing where the chair was
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Pete just swapped the wind generator from the catamaran onto the top deck of NB. Brilliantly when he unscrewed the swivel chair thing up there the win gen's pole fitted the hole perfectly! we also think the solar panels on the cat may not be as dead as we thought as the batteries on it are now TOO full, I'll have to start going over there occasionally to waste some electricity from them!
He did a bit of a bodge, running the wire down through a window which now has to stay open a crack (they slide along lengthways and close nearest the back door) but hopefullly it will stop us running flat like we did last week.
Food.
Well, you know we had no fridge on the catamaran – the funny drop in box thing had died years ago, and had to be cooled with blocks of ice that melted. There was no drain and you had to scoop out the melt water, plus food either floated in it or was wedged against the sloping sides in trays I tried to fit in….finding ants nesting in there was the final straw. I’m afraid I sprayed the thing and just put the top back on (it made up most of the ‘work surface’ in Sherilees kitchen space!) so lord knows what its like in there now. Ick. (On the plus side that seemed to be the end of the ants the catamaran came with – no sign of them since May!).
I usually shop in Park n Shop or Wellcome supermarkets as they have some western brands. types (eben if they are imported from the Phillippines/ Australia) and lots of branches. I have loads of fabric shopping bags now and lug it all onto the minibus and down the main steps, or all the way along the promenade from Repulse Bay's shop.
I kept my insulin in the fridge in the open room half full of sailing stuff by the jetty at the Middle Island Club. It’s really for the coxuns to keep their snacks in, as they eat lunch and hang around there when they are on ferry duty, but they don’t seem to mind. So every 2 days I/ Pete have to buy bread (which is usually sold in small packs of about 6 slices – like 1/3 of a loaf – I don’t know why!), cheese, veg, crackers and cereal. (Rcentl saw boxes of my favourite mini-shreddies cereal on sale for over UK5!!!! Not buying them there again!).It’s not too bad in winter but as I have said, other times its so hot even solid cheddar is mush after a few hours. Often the fruit & veg isn’t great quality – well, not by western standards anyway.
pomellos - giant football sized grapefruit. Chinese New Year fruit packaging in supermarket, Hong KOng
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
It is odd – some of the stuff like all sorts of apples, is polished and waxed so highly it looks like its made of china! Some supermarkets even stack special packs of wipes and ‘vegetable cleaner’ beside the apples, to take it all off again I suppose! The mini cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas are far more battered and less regimented than what any UK shop (aside from an organic I suppose!) would offer, but from what I hear the poor starving farmers in the Philippines and China have to use loads of chemicals and artificial fertiliser to get even them….. That sort tends to go mouldy in a few hours too.
Everything I can I keep in Tupperware as it goes soft instantly in the humidity here – even dried spaghetti overnight. I also have those little moisture-removing boxes in every cupboard & hatch I can think of, much as I hate the chemicals/ waste, as even in the flat with the de-humidifier on, damp ruined stuff very fast.
Caroline donated us her wee 12v fridge which we have only run briefly – its sat on the sofa table in the new boat just now. It would only hold maybe cheese and a few bits of insulin but might be good when we sort the new electrics out.
12 volt fridge Caroline kindly donated to us on the boat. Not using it just now as the weather is freezing!
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
The boat came with a reasonable domestic fridge too, but like the built-in-cooker, its useless to us, as it needs mains electricity. At the moment it’s taking up the floor beside the useless cooker, and the 2nd cooker is filling the space in front of the steps into the sitting/ kitchen, as we can’t decide whether we may use it if we manage to find a berth with power in summer.
Bathroom:
Well, our ‘head’ space has increased but not the actual loo – its still a tiny wee kid sized bowl! But at least you can now get on it without being wedged in. Think I will turn the triangular shower space (as its in the bow) beside it into a greenhouse or something, as we will never use it.
Entertainment
Board games (we love that spatial strategy tile game Tantrix), Sudokus (I have ‘lost’ the books on purpose as I was dreaming them), travel backgammon (I taught Pete and am now fed up of him wanting to play) and music on the car stereo when we were in Sherillee.
It is totally DVDs on the decaying DVD player now we are on NB, as I haven’t moved the games over yet. I only bought the mini player last spring but it’s a bit iffy – only the remote works and the slightest movement (especially the cat) starts it rewinding or switches it off. It is handy though – smaller screen than my laptop but it comes with a car adapter so we can plug it in on either boat. And it plays come music CDs too…
Ship's cat REALLY hating the DVD we had on. No idea why. What a grumpy face!
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Sue/ I bought out a lot of our old DVD’s, and we did start buying VCD’s too. Then realise that though they cost UK2 max, they are sooo blurry and you have to switch cd’s in the middle of the film. A lot of DVDS are actually bootlegs, its quite hard to tell, and some ‘genuine’ admitted bootlegs are really good quality. So we sit on our actual soaf and watch them, yay.
One lot are making rather nice cheap box sets of all the UK sitcoms from Benny Hill to Cold Feet, and a lot of the USA imports too – medical, sci-fi, etc. I did get the new Dr Who’s (entire 2 series for15UKP rather than 15 UKP per 3 episodes) and all of Angel series 1-5 for about UK20. They have surprises though, suddenly missing off endings or changing to horrible unwatchable quality half way through. The blurbs and cover photos often bear no resemblance to the series and all of them seem to list extras (which of course they can’t copy onto the DVDs anyway!) for the ‘Lion King’ - ? The bootleg music CDs were worse – I did wonder why they had photos of Sandra Bullock the actress on one – they mistook her for the singer Shania Twain it seems!
Octopus face painting by www.cats-creations.co.uk. Its FREEZING in Hong Kong just now, OK? So I wear a hat!
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Sleeping
You have heard me whine about the mini mattress in the flat and the coffin shaped & sized berth on the catamaran with its paper thin sponge pad…well, FINALLY a proper bed platform! Either the splinters off it (big bits of it lift out to access the crankshaft in its water puddle below) or the cat deflated the air mattress Brian very thoughtfully carried over from the Uk for us. (Good idea of Sues – to stop a mattress going mouldy like the pillows do). Plus even when we didn’t wake up resting on a thin rubber layer on the bare planks, the noise & bouncing/ sinking wasn’t liked much by either of us. So, a mattress hunt. I tried all the little local suppliers but even their ‘XXL’s’ kept out the back were too short for us/ the bed platform, so I ended up at Ikea. I bought a latex mattress as they think its better for the climate here – has 100’s of airing holes etc – with a small pad on top of it. Wow. The 1st comfy, long enough, wide enough bed we have had since reaching HK. HOORAY. I may actually sleep well now!
The cat loves the new bed, especially as its been so cold that we wear jumpers and hats to sleep in, and have the lovely down sleeping bags over the duvet too. AND she loves all the hiding spaces in the bilge, under cupboards, in walls - keep finding wee black paw prints everywhere!
The cat escaping into the engines innards again - some of the boats cupboards are not storeage
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Plus she can now run madly from one end of the boat to the other! Skidding on the rugs is her new best game too.
who me? Innocent ship's cat face after destroying the rainbow pompom from my hat...
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
But NB is a much bigger, less waterproof/ airtight space then the skinny hulls on Sherilee. There, if the bed hatch was shut, I had covered the air vents with mosquito netting and made a screen to fit the main hatch doors too, so we were relatively unbitten. Here there are all sorts of cracks; there are sliding windows in all the rooms, which are a bit old and rattly and only 1 still has a sliding mozzie screen in.
Plus extra space means more hiding places for bugs that get in during the day. So after much searching I again hit Ikea & got 2 mosquito nets. Not the nice easy to use/ hang box shaped ones I found the best in Belize, but ones with a small hoop in the top. For show mainly…I clipped two together without the hoops and hung them from opposite ends of the bed, so we have the maximum space inside. I had to bodge ties onto the ceiling strips but it worked. Then the cat changes her habits – on Sherilee she refuses to move until we get up but here she roams at night. Queue lots of aborted leaps back onto the bed leaving her tangled in the nets, or panic digging into it to try to get back under our warm covers. She’s finally starting to get the hang of nudging in the opening on the ‘open’ side of the bed but forgets sometimes.
Daytime I twist and loop the net up and clip it near the ceiling so the bed is free of it. Then the mighty force of destruction called ‘Skitty Kitty’ comes into force. I don’t know how she does it but she detaches it all. That’s a lie, actually, frantic yowls and pinging last week meant I found she had leapt from the wall shelf onto the TOP of the net and been trapped as it all ripped and collapsed. So it’s now about 30% black duct tape over rips…..usually with her sat panting in the middle of it like some runaway bride.
I’ll miss the cat when its hot – she’s so cuddly just now. Even more noisy talking at you than usual but a lot of it is complaining she’s cold and wants you to get into the duvet/ blanket/ sleeping bad/ anything she can burrow into. Pete nearly had some painful accidents when she tried to get in his baggy warm PJ trousers with him…
Right the pompoms dead lets see if this attack gets a reaction out of Pete (ships cat about to be belted).
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Sleep itself depends on the weather a lot. It’s rarely flat calm (if it is its usually too hot and mosquito- ridden so their buzzing wakes me). I think I prefer the rocking movement on Sherilee, as on NB it is far more pronounced – the 2 hulls on the catamaran used to sort of wiggle and roll rather than tip. The last 2 days have been very queasy (Peter more than me) as the waves/ tide/ wind combine to rock side-to-side rather than front to back, yug. NB has no rattling ringing rigging or mast but there are lots more creaks and groans (its an old boat – I hope we can fix some of them!) and it swings around on the mooring more than Sherilee...plus the drips are bigger and noisier on NB. But then again the hatch that leaked on Sherilee's dripped into the middle of my back when we were there…
Cold ship's cat nesting in the duvet. With her current toy - the wool pompom.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Our houseboat docked at Middle Island, with Pete motoring the catamaran off behind it. Hong Kong
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Daily stuff
We usually have cereal (made with milk powder and bottled water) for breakfast, sat on the sofa and when on the cat could also boil up a kettle. (Hope to have it out on our nice sheltered back deck when its warmer!).
Cute fairy doll Freya made for me - has my hair type, fave colours etc.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
We need to work out either how to get the domestic gas cooker on Naughty Boy fed off a big refillable gas tank (whole nightmare where regulations say the gas bottle has to be in a cupboard outside on the deck I think), or find a small safe gas stove that doesn’t use those stupid wasteful tiny gas bottles. I succumbed and bought one, its just a little flat burner for 1 pan really, but it was so cold this month, and out ‘kitchen ‘ (Middle Island’s restaurant!) shut for 4 days for Chinese New Year!
Yup, that's my cooker...the one its sat on top of only works off mains electric. Useful on a boat moored in the middle of a bay......NOT
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
If we are having a special day (or guests) and it’s a holiday/ weekend, we get a nice cooked breakfast at Middle Island instead, but normal weekdays they don’t serve food until after noon. As I have said Pete gets a generous meal allowance equal to the massive buffet available at the HQ (with about 18 courses). As Middle Island doesn’t offer the buffet, it covers 2 normal meals so we often have at least 1 meal a day at whichever club he’s at. I’m really missing stuff like Shepherd’s or cottage Pie and even things like trifle (not a usual favourite) as the set menu choices get a bit boring and no-one does fresh peas or mash. But their steamed broccoli is great – lovely and green!
Pete looking cool, restuaraunt at top of RHKYC Middle Island hong Kong
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
The cat generally dives back into bed or the sleeping bags on the sofa to stay warm, whether we stay onboard or not!
Cold ship's cat nesting in the fab feather sleeping bags you gave us.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Pete then takes Pingu our dinghy over to the nearby steps if he’s working at the main club in Causeway Bay. We stopped anchoring it in Deep Water Bay by the jetty where we get the buses as someone stole the anchor – I think actually one of the speed boats must have got tangled in it and has to cut our line, as the dinghy was carefully tied up again nearby! If he’s lucky we can wave the coxun on duty (he swaps with the night security guard fairly early in the morning but is not actually supposed to start the ferry until after 10 am weekdays) and get a lift to the steps that way, but sometimes if we know we will be late home and will miss the last ferry, we still have to use Pingu. Pingu’s not happy at the moment – without the anchor to set to keep him from rubbing against the big boulders piled along the coastline he gets bashed & stranded by the tide. That or us dragging him off the rocks has made his very slow leak a rather fast one – most mornings he’s got several inches of water throughout now and I have to bail like mad! Fixing that is on our list – I bodged patches and reinforced the edges but couldn’t buy marine glue so it’s a mix of contact adhesive and aquarium sealer. Think it may be the actual bung that leaks now….
Anyway, he/ we (if I’m going to) meander along the ‘Seaviw Promenade’ avoiding all the Phillipino maids walking their owners (mainly posh expensive big breeds with even the Labradors wearing raincoats) dogs,
Dog in a bin bag coat along Seaview promenade. He was dying to get into the water and get wet anyay.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
and the joggers, and the fisherman casting without checking there is no-one behind them,
Dedication. Fishing in rain,along Seaview promenade towards Repulse Bay
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
and get a taxi or minibus from the lay-by at the top of a short flight of steps. It can be hard to get into town before 10 a.m., from the lay-by as all the taxis will be full from Stanley, ditto the minibuses. If Pete’s in a hurry we climb the 200+ steep concrete steps directly in front of where we get off the ferry instead. As long as its not summer and we aren’t carrying stuff. He reckons its faster but as I tend to want to vomit by the time I get up then I can’t agree. But at the top of the 200 steps is a proper bus stop where mini-buses AND proper big buses will stop, so there is more choice for destinations.
We take the minibus to the stop with the golden dragon just outside Aberdeen tunnel, opposite the Jockey Club Race Track, and get a taxi to the club from there as Pete hates the huge jam of crowds in the morning. He usually showers at the club (they have nicer changing rooms & free towels at this main one) before he starts work. If I’m not working, I hang out in a little room off the big round sitting room attached to the bar. Quite often it’s deserted all day, but if a meeting or function closes the main room it gets busy. Its always freezing too – in summer I have to bring a jumper and even now its cold I need to turn off their A/C all the time. Stupid!
The Midday Gun goes off with a bang nearby, and Pete’s office (there’s only ever 7 of them max) leave 1 on duty and get lunch either down I the main restaurant or brought up to the bar (as they are allowed to sit outside there but not downstairs for some reason).
Evenings we either eat there, at Middle Island,
get a takeaway from one of those two, or grab something in a café as we walk to the minibus. We did try just sandwiches or cereal for tea but I kept having hypos overnight, it didn’t suit my sugars. On Sherilee we cooked occasionally f it was cold enough, but the lack of space and having to wash up mainly in a bucket of salt water (I always did that in the day on deck) was not a great incentive. And the lack of fresh stuff – will have to see if that improves when we sort NB’s kitchen out.
Pete eating at Kellet Island Club - in monkey hat for my god-son's birthday...
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Cool Thai food. Unfortunate type face. Rice & nooples anyone? Hong Kong
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
MMMmmm tring something new in a Hong Kong cafe. It turned out to be cheesey sweet custard with veg in it.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Definite advantages;
The rent is peanuts, we pay a few hundred UK per month for the 2 moorings and the man who owns it putters round a few times a week checking everything is still attached.
The fact that at the end of our stay we will have something to sell – Johnny in Pete’s office pays a fortune, like most, for a flat smaller than the space we have on Naught Boy, and will gain nothing as he rent it.
The view – we could never afford to live in this area with this view any other way.
The lack of pollution (compared to the rest of HK at any rate!).
The lack of bugs – most flats are full of cockroaches, large spiders, poisonous centipedes (on the islands), ant nests etc. So far we are NOT. I do miss the house geckos but not their poos….
The peace and quiet – apart from weekends & holidays when all the jet-skiers, speedboats etc drive us mad. But then again we usually work on holidays so are not onboard.
Ease of transport (as long as Pingu is working) – usually its fairly easy to get to shore and we don’t have to worry about missing ferries! Unless we start very early or finish late – then hopefully we have Pingu….
My favourite has to be the commute. As longs as its dry its lovely. Especially at night –we get phosphorescence a LOT. All the anchor ropes sparkle and flash, and washing up in salt water was a firework display on Sherilee. Recently its been so bright our Pingu or the club ferry boats going past look like they are levitating on light like something out of Star Wars. Its SO cool. Still not managed a photo of it though!
The cat escaping into the engines innards again - some of the boats cupboards are not storeage
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
So come and stay – being a 2 boat family now you, no longer get a bucket on a string but maybe even your own boat!
Our catamaran AND our houseboat docked at Middle Island, Hong Kong
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
