Since we launched our boat in 2003 we have not sailed her as much as we could have. We spent much of the rest of 2003 renovating and preparing our house for sale - we changed the bathrooms around, replaced a wall of brick along the back with a wall of glass doors and built a deck. We had the outside of the house plastered, then painted everything and planted a garden. New fences and a new drive, tearing out the old broken concrete. At the end of 2003 I lost my job, which was good, because I then had time to finalise all the half-done things on the house, and we sold it for a good price in February 2004. We moved into a shabby little flat we had held as an investment (!) and started renovating that. I started paid employment again in September 2004. We hauled the boat for the first time in July 2004, for antifouling and a few jobs like wiring and installing electrics. There is a plan to all this of course. We drastically reduced our mortgage by selling the big house, and will sell this flat in a year or so to top up the cruising kitty. This time next year we plan to be in the Whitsundays, preparing to spend winter there, and keeping an eye out for a bigger boat. We would love another gaffer, but cruising gaffers are not thick on the water in Aus, and I will not build another boat!