She may have been only 24 feet long, but she was definitely still capable of adventure. We first had to learn to lower her mast to get under the bridges ( no easy task!). Once we managed that the world was our oyster and ocean sailing was on the cards. First port of call – Rottnest Island about 10 nm off the coast, but when you get there it feels like you could be on a tropical island far far away.
Try sleeping within 24ft of these salty dogs!
The first couple trips over to Rotto, we kept them short, but packed. We have slept 4 aboard for a weekend away, and it was well let’s just say cozy.
But after having a full ship, sleeping with just two of us on board felt like luxury. Base and I spent three weeks at Rotto on board Gremlin. It was my first taste at boat/island life.
It kind of felt like living in a car, with water all around you. But really we spent most time on the deck, in the water, or going surfing. Cooking took a bit of creativity with limited space and no refrigeration ( we had an esky with some ice, it lasted a little bit). We could get to the shops to refresh every couple of days, and just had lots of dry foods, and some fish if we were lucky to snag a few herring.
Another amazing trip we did was sailing from Perth to Dunsborough ( 100nm South) , it was a taste of coastal sailing, and I loved it. It took 3 days and we had nightly stops along the way. The first two days of sailing were a bit rough, 25 knots of wind head on and 2m swell. Gremlin handled well and we suited up in wet-suits to stay warm and not worry about getting wet ( I think I will remember this trick for other wet sailing trips!). The one thing that was challenging was we all had to be in the cockpit and were on a close haul ( causing the boat to really lean), this meant you had to brace yourself. It was tiring and I wasn’t really used to it, so curling up on the cockpit for a bit provided some relief.
All in All adventuring on gremlin wet the taste buds and really gave us time to dream and get excited about bigger trips and hopefully a bigger boat.
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