January 2021...

Gary bought Meshugah about 12 years ago and left it on the Gold Coast (where she was then lying) for about 5 years then took her up to the Whitsundays and a few years later on to Pt Douglas. Although a long way from home, Gary and his family commuted regularly and have had great holidays and trips on the boat.

Alas, due to Covid 2020 meant a full year with no boating so Gary decided it was time to get Meshugah close to home to enable him to access her more readily and get up to date with maintenance. Gary asked if I was happy to have his son Aaron on board for the trip and I agreed.  Fortunately Murray could get some time but not enough for the whole voyage so at Southport, we swapped Murray for Callum (the son of a friend) who recently completed his Coxswains certificate.  I also went home for a day and met my grand daughter who was born the day after we left (see photo below). The boat and crew were wonderful. A few minor problems with the boat but reasonably easy to sort. Aaron apart from being an exceptional cook also has huge ability and knowledge of computers and electronics. So when the auto pilot stopped working, he just pulled the circuit board apart and replace 8 micro switches (see photo below)

As always it was a pleasure to have Murray with us along with his great nautical wisdom and calm friendly manner and Callum the youngest on the crew just got on with everybody and jumped at every opportunity to help. Thank you all and I wish Gary and his family many great times ahead on and off the boat.