In one of my previous posts I was describing our boat Avatar as our new born son like a proud first-time parent. The joy of motherhood! I carried Avatar's photos in my mobile phone and would show them to anyone who was too polite to ask me to sod off. I smiled when I thought about his blue and white stripy seat covers and his matching red cushions and fantasise about when he grew up we were going to go to all these cool places together. How wrong was I? In natural's usual cruel form, within half year Avatar has grown into what makes parenthood hell. Yes, you guessed right, our boy has turned into a teenager - who gives you nothing but headache, and as real good parents we are not going to give up on him yet.It is all quite interesting really. We did our last joyful sailing in late summer, just before daylight saving ended. The good old summer time felt like only yesterday. And WHAM! Winter arrived and everything started going wrong. It's like one day you realised your 15 year old is smoking! What is the idiot thinking? After you spend weeks talking yourself into that this is just a rebelious stage and he's going to quit after all, you got a call from the police who told you your son's been caught speeding, under the influence of alcohol! You decided that he had to be grounded, and that's when he told you that his girlfriend is pregnant. Instead of trying to fix the problems this time, you started thinking 'Oh my god, what's next? Am I up for what's gonna be next?'
Okay okay I may be over-reacting and people tell me not all teenagers behave like mine. Yeah - so why cant I have a better one?! I look at all these other people on their nice boats drinking beer after a day's sailing and look at Avatar, who is not moving at all!
Avatar's problem began in late April, when I found out the lock was stuck and we could not get in (you always know something dodgy is going on when they lock the door). We had the lock lubricated a couple of weeks later and when we started the engine the 'tailpipe' shot out not water but smoke. With my very limited mechanical knowledge this is how I understand what happened. The water cooler system pumps in sea water, cools down the engine, and pumps the water back out. Where the system should have been pumping out water, was broken, so it kept pumping water in, and way into the bilge (the bottom of the boat). So instead of a boat, we had a bit of a bath tub. (Does that sound bad enough for you?)
We had someone coming in to have a look at the engine for us. And apparently the problem was bad, and without telling us the dude took the engine off and sent it to Melbourne to have it fixed. Is it really that bad that we have to send it to somewhere 1000km away? We got a report back saying the engine was 'reaching life expectancy' and that 'repair cannot be guaranteed' a month later. Not to mention it was OUCH all the way when I saw the bill. Wouldnt that make you scream? We told ourself that Avatar is a yacht, as long as we have wind and sail, nothing could stop us.
We went back to Avatar today on a fortunately, not a good day for sailing type of day, as there was no wind and the water was as flat as mirror. We tested the engine and Hooray! It worked! It was pumping out water beautifully and the boat was not even cover with bird shit like I expected. I grinned when I saw these people having a picnic at the beach looking at us all green with envy (like how I used to look at the people on their dodgy little boat), and then, Yuting started having a nervious breakdown. Our boat was somehow moving closer and closer to shore and he couldnt reverse it because the propeller was not moving!!!!
So, after fixing our lock and spending a fortune fixing our engine, obviously now we have gearbox problem!!!!
Yuting is going back to the boat tomorrow and guess what he's going to have to do? He has to dive into the water with a snorkel, and check to see if we had coral growing on the propeller, therefore having it stuck on the shaft. Well, things you have to do for your only child!
To be positive and look at the bright side of things, we could always get ourselves a new son. (I know how horrible that might sound) The annual Sydney boat show is on this coming weekend, I am determined to go check out what type of son I want next time. But before that I assure you Avatar would still get my unconditional love and fussing over - until mommy wins the lotto...
