Tuesday 31 January 2012

Tuesday 31st January
Snapshot: both of us are soaked through to the skin.  I have dried off with a towel and am sitting at the computer very elegantly clad in my mother’s green and white long-shirt nightie, donated to me many years ago.  Pete has dripped his way downstairs and will doubtless soon appear in dry clothes one way or the other.  Aaahhh no… he didn’t… He has reappeared in his Lounge Suit (pyjama bottoms, cutely named Lounge Suit on the label, a source of endless mirth to me – “Oh Pete, why don’t you wear your LOUNGE SUIT when we go out to dinner tonight?” etc etc…) and his new bright yellow t-shirt, wet as can be… He seems very surprised when I point out to him that he is still wet as can be…
This blogpost should be titled The Kindness of Distant Friends and Distant Relations….
Pete had such a dreadful headache when he woke this morning.  He had to swallow TWO lots of Aspro Clear, which, to him, is equivalent to most of us mainstreaming heroin.  I think, just possibly, he is a teensy bit stressed by the port-side gear problem.  We are now marooned in Coff’s Harbour, our new Home From Home.  Pete rang this and that person, this and that mechanic, and possibly it might all get fixed.  In a week or so.  At many thousands of dollars (yes Brother Chris – boat units not thousands of $$$s…)
So… We did have a lovely Coff’s Harbour day, thanks, as I have intimated, to The Kindness of Distant Friends and Distant Relations….
Duncan Wood was waiting to take us on a lovely drive-by tour of Coff’s in the later part of the morning.  Duncan is Pete’s brother-in-law Chris’s brother…one of the five Wonderful Wood Boys.  (If you have been following this blog, you will have read about Nick Wood, who was our crew member from Sydney to New Caledonia, and who delighted us not only with his boaty knowledge and expertise but also with his joie de vivre and GLOW STICKS.)
Duncan had a Welcome to Coff’s bottle of wine for us to put in the fridge, and he drove us around to various boat-y shops so Pete should buy bits and pieces to fix the problem with the anchor bridle.  (No more needs to be said; it is FIXED, thanks to Duncan, and to Pete’s MacGuyvering skills.)  Duncan also gave us an overview of Coff’s, from one beautiful beach to the other.  It is indeed a most gorgeous little town.  And it is reputed to have the best climate in Australia, if not in the whole world, with an ambient temperature of 24 degrees.  Lovely.  Yes it was hot, sunny, glorious.
We very kindly shouted Duncan lunch… in the RSL Club in Sawtelle… Not sure why Pete has such a fascination with these big clubs, he is so not a gambler.  Sawtelle was lined with dear little cafés, but somehow we were syphoned off into the RSL Club.  It was OK, because it was so nice to spend time with Duncan, but really, I don’t think RSL clubs are the best representation of these communities.
Duncan dropped us off at the slips where we had left the tender and we went back to 2XS to wrestle the new aluminum plate into place.  Success!
At 4.30 we hopped back into the tender and tied up at the slips again.  We had to scramble over a mound of rocks and rusty fence wire (round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran…) because the slipyard had locked the gates at 4.00.
We were meeting Craig Chisholm at 4.30 at the Yacht Club.  We had met Craig the year before last at the Bathurst races.  I had his details trapped in my iPhone and had sent him a text as we were coming down the coast – “Do you remember us? Would you like to catch up for a drink?”  He responded very promptly and happily – YES, drinks at the Yacht Club!  When I sent him a message back confirming our rendezvous I mentioned The Gear Problem.  So there he was, witting for us cheerily, and saying, “I have talked to Maggie.  OF COURSE you will stay with us while the boat is being fixed!” 
As we debated this kind offer and caught up on news since we had last seen each other, we looked out toward the beautiful beaches on either side of the Yacht Club.  And what could we see?  Not much…just LOTS of dark cloud and then… a downpour.  The downpour is still pouring down… We said goodbye to Craig and clambered back across the ragged rocks, rascals that we are.  We got VERY VERY wet.
So now here we are…back in WetWorld!  Who knows what tomorrow will bring.  But how lucky we are, to be surrounded by such kindness and hospitality and helpfulness.

Monday 30 January 2012

Monday 30th January
Snapshot:  It is 9.45.  I am – obviously - sitting at the computer with eyes which feel as if they are full of sand.  Pete is on deck muttering darkly and putting the anchor chain down.  We are in Coff’s Harbor, having left Mobb’s Bay (Ballina) at 10.30.  We are supposed to be tied up to the public wharf… Our friend Duncan Wood is waiting there to greet us; we can nearly see his big cheery smile…but we are anchored and there is dark muttering and dark words emanating, now, from the port engine hatch…
We had a lovely trip down the coast, with the wind and the sea fairly pushing us along at a splendid rate of knots for most of the way.  We were very pleased to get to Coff’s Harbour, although yet again we have missed going in to Yamba, which, I hear from all and sundry is a beautiful place.  We have a lot of lost time to make up, after our long delay on the Gold Coast.
(Why are my eyes full of sand??  Goodness knows…there is something very tiring about being at sea.  My cosy bunk beckons…)
It was quite dark when we came across the bar into Coff’s.  Not a problem; Pete swirled in like a professional.  We waved at Duncan and headed for the wharf and then…the boat wouldn’t go into gear.  This was more than a bit alarming.  We were in the middle of the boats gently moored in the marina, with a large stone retaining wall far too close on one side and some big wooden pylons much too close on the other.  Pete uttered some startled expletives and somehow – we’re not sure how – wheeled 2XS around and back just outside the marina, where we are anchored.  Something, we assume, is dreadfully wrong with the gear box…

Saturday 28 January 2012

Sunday 29th January
We did indeed leave Sanctuary Cove at midday on yesterday.  We headed happily for an anchorage very close to the seaway leading out from the Broadwater to the ocean.  It looked like a lovely little anchorage, with big signs saying 7 days maximum.  Seven days??  We didn’t want to stay there seven minutes!  Poor 2XS whirled on its lovely shiny new anchor chain like a kite; it was like being anchored in a whirlpool, with angry swirling brown water tugging us hither and yon.  We showed the whites of our eyes and scarpered for Bum’s Bay, where it was all peaceful and easy, with gentle water instead of terrifying eddies.
And this morning we set my iPhone alarm for 4.30 am.  It duly went off, singing a bright little Marimba tune, but really neither of us had really slept much at all.  Pete woke me at one stage to ask if I thought it might be nearly 4.30 and I looked to see…ummm…no it is only 10.30.  We have been in bed for half an hour!
Eventually it really was time to get up and go.  We negotiated the seaway with no difficulties in the dawn light and had a very good trip down to Ballina, at times getting up to 10.9 knots – this is FAST for us.  For once, the wind and the sea were going in the correct direction, not bashing against us. 
When we got to the barway in Ballina, the Richmond River was surging out into the sea like a stream of chocolate.  The sea was grey – it is still overcast and raining on and off – but the brown river was just thick with mud, and debris.  We tied up to a small visitors wharf and had lunch at a nearby café, then walked along in the thick drizzle to look at the RSL Club.  Whatever will they do when all the old gamblerchicks die off??  The pokie machine room was vast and mainly polluted by dazed-looking old ladies.  I thought there was an equal number of men, but on the way back out Pete did a swift headcount (he is very good at this; it comes from his many years of counting sheep,) and he convinced me there was about a third more ladies than gentlemen.  So to speak.
We are now anchored in a bay in the river, Mobb’s Bay, with a sheltering stone wall just visible above the tide.  We are poised, more or less, ready to leave for Coff’s Harbour tomorrow.  This will take at least 12 hours (96 nautical miles) so we have to time our exit from the barway just right to get there before dark.
(By the way, wasn’t the tennis a fizzer last night??  Sharapova looked very pretty in her bright green and white but she lost very convincingly…)

Friday 27 January 2012

Saturday 28th January
There MIGHT be movement at the station today…
We have paid up our marina fees and have handed back (sob) our keys to the showers.  This morning when I went, early, Chris was there with his Weimaraner, wanting to point out to me that there was a very big black snake under the water barrel near the entrance to the toilets.  But all I could see was the weeny little tip of a tail.  Maybe he was expecting me to have hysterics and need a bit of a rescue but…snakes are fine.  If, however, if it had been a big and hairy spider showing a weeny tip of leg, that would have been a different matter!
We are hoping to move a bit closer to the exit of the Broadwater, with a view to leaving the Gold Coast tomorrow.  And what is the weather like, I hear you cry??  Black black skies… At this very moment it isn’t raining, but every now and then the heavens open and rain buckets down in prodigious quantities.
Yesterday we drove to the mouth of the Tweed River, to get an idea of what the bars might be like further down the coast.  Horrendous!  A constant surge of big breaking waves, with hardly a gap between.  We couldn’t possibly get in; here’s hoping things are a bit more civilised further south.
After many phone calls and procrastinations, we did make it to Tweed Heads to visit Darv Wilkins, who is our friend John Miedecke’s godfather,  and quite closely related to the whole Miedecke tribe.  My darling iPhone came to the rescue with a nice little map, which showed The Uterus as a glowing blue dot making its way down the express to Coolangatta-Tweed Heads and then up Scenic Drive right to Darv’s door.  (I am a nervous map-reader and navigator and find it just a bit difficult to tell left from right so it was a great comfort to me to be able to clutch my iPhone and watch the blue dot, confirming our route.)
And what a door to arrive at!  Darv lives on top of a hill in a comfortable house surrounded by a big verandah, in the middle of five acres of lush green jungle garden.  He will be 90 in April and moved there twelve years ago.  I gather it wasn’t a lush jungle paradise in those days.  He told us he had to clear about fifty big straggly pine trees before he could re-create what looked very like a patch of Vanuatu paradise on Bilambil Heights.
Darv and his wife and four children lived in Vanuatu, as part of the British administration, until 1977.  They had four years on Tanna, where Darv had – he must have counted – 34 trips up the volcano with distinguished guests.  They then moved to Port Stanley on Malekula.  Last year Darv went back, with some of his offspring.  He expected that nobody would remember him and that it might be a disappointment, but they all had the most wonderful time.  There were banners across the street in his honour, and ceremonial feasts, because, ofcourse, people remembered him and his family with great joy and affection.  His daughters now want to go and live in Vanuatu, where they had such a happy childhood, and I gather Darv is quite tempted to end his days there as well…
We had a lovely visit; we were both so glad we managed to get there, thanks to Tim and Sally’s Uterus!  While we were in the living room, I saw some photos on a sideboard – a big formal photo of people in evening wear.  I got up to look, thinking it might be a wedding photo of Darv and his bride, but no, it was a photo of a youthful, glowing Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.  I sat back down and said, “Darv, I thought that photo was you and Maureen, but it’s only Liz and Phil!”  He brightened and said, “Did you see the one of me with Liz?”  And indeed, next the royal portrait is a photo of a young, red-headed Darv striding along a path on Pentecost Island, wearing crisp shorts and a shirt, with a happy-looking Liz smiling at his side.  He said it was quite dreadful, really, because he took Liz and Phil to watch the vine-jumping.  This is the precursor to bungee-jumping, where they build a bamboo tower and young men hurtle to the ground with vines tied around their ankles to break their fall.  One of the young men crash landed with a horrid thump… Poor Queen Elizabeth looked horrified and Darv said, cheerily, “Don’t worry, ma’am, nobody is ever hurt, they do this all the time!”  And then later he had to scuttle along to her lodgings and said, “Oh dear sorry but…the young man is dead.”

Thursday 26 January 2012

Friday 27th January
A few amendments to be made…
Firstly we are on the Coomera River, not the Couran.  I possibly made up the Couran River…not sure how or why… Anyway the Coomera, as we speak, is brown and swiftly-flowing with the odd large lump of PERIL – big branches, floating objects, dangers, all round, to shipping.
Also – Tim and Sally’s boat is NOT an Alaskan, it is a Grand Banks.  They would be devastated at my error but fortunately they will never know; they don’t read these pages.  They have been slaving away on beautiful Contessa, up in a sling at the Gold Coast City Marina, and the underside is nearly all fixed, the osmosis problem held at bay for a few more years.
We went back to Cam and Del’s last night for a BBQ, with, of course, Tim and Sally, and Amy, who had been shopping at Harbour Town with Del and was full of elation with her new purchases.  We sat at the beautifully set table (Del is very stylish) and drank a toast to Australia Day, and to Baby Solomon Wood.
We ended the evening with a very thrilling tennis match – Federer v Nadal, extremely close.  Nadal was SO happy with his win, how could we begrudge him this victory, much as we love Roger… Cam’s TV is enormous; we had to turn our heads from side to side to watch the ball.  (Except for poor exhausted Sally who slept, very discreetly and politely, in her big comfy leather chair…) We could all remember watching tennis in the past, on tiny grainy black and white screens.  We so take all of this wonderful new technology for granted, don’t we?
Guess what – it is raining!!  Not monsoonal downpour, just a steady stream.  We have some exciting tasks this morning – I want to go to the big nearby Salvo’s Store to buy a heap of old towels so we can soak up the squelchy water underfoot, soaking into all of the carpets.  Poor wet 2XS… This afternoon we are going to Tweed Heads – yes we still have possession of The Uterus - to visit Darv Wilkins and to chat about the days of the Pandemonium in Vanuatu.
Snapshot: 10.45 Drinking coffee, half-listening to the cricket quielty in the background.  I am on my computer blogging, Pete is talking away to his computer, trying to work out - THE WEATHER and whether (weather??) or not we can ever leave our safe, ummm, sanctuary in Sanctuary Cove...

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Thursday 26th January
Welcome to another beautiful new baby – Solomon George Wood, born in Tasmania to Simon and Sarah, a grandson to Chris and Angela, a baby brother to Sebastian.
The weather gods are being kind to this part of Queensland today.  No rain…yet!!  And it is 5pm so many Australia Day festivities have been held without monsoonal deluges.
It has been very hot and Pete decided that he would like a swim – yes it must have been VERY hot.  And he was very hot as well from struggling with the last bits of throttle-cable-assembly.  So we packed up a big pack of dirty washing – oh we are lovely guests – and went off to Cam and Del’s to swim in their pool and to avail ourselves of their washing facilities. 
Amy, Cam’s granddaughter, is still there.  While we were swimming up and down the pool together – it was, for me, a bit like swimming with a hyperactive pink and purple dolphin because Amy was more under than on the water – she revealed a fervent wish: to swim in the sea before she goes home on Sunday.  “How about right now?” I said, so off we trotted,, just across the road to the Broadwater.  The sea was warm and inviting but very muddy and brown, from all of the floodwater.  We nevertheless had a lovely time allowing ourselves to be swept down the beach by the tide, and pretending to spot and fend off sharks.  You probably heard Amy’s shrieks in Tasmania… Then we walked along in the shallows, chatting about this and that.  Amy told me that her school song is Lean on Me – what a good idea, having such a meaningful song instead of It’s Good to See the School We Knew and other such dirges more commonly in place as school songs.  And then – oh no, how could I be so foolish as to walk through dirty Queensland water without my sandals on!! – I stepped on something sharply piercing and extremely painful.  Not fun at all!!  It is 5.00 and the pain is subsiding now, and there is nothing to show except for a bit of redness, so I feel like a bit of a fraud… Cam upended my foot and got out a sharp needle and a magnifying glass; I think he must have decided I was what Michael and his army mates call a “linger” – ie malingerer…
Pete is fast asleep but I will have to wake him because we are going back to Cam and Del’s for a BBQ with Tim and Sally… All of the throttle-cable thing was very exhausting, and I think he hasn’t been sleeping properly, most unusual for him.  Much fretting about the weather… He rang the Volunteer Marine Rescue (VMR) at Ballina this morning, to ask about the possibility of sailing in through the bar.  They said, “Don’t even think of it!  Much too dangerous!” which is extraordinary – the VMR NEVER give advice!!  It is OK today but the weekend forecast is ferocious so I think we are Gold Coast residents for a while longer.  Lucky Cam Del Tim and Sally!!!
Wednesday 25th January
And oh how it has rained! 
All night and all morning.  We felt as if we were living inside an aquarium.  Well a strange aquarium with water on the outside, but I hope you get the concept.
At 7.30 I squelched my way over to the ablutions facilities and I am not so sure why I bothered with a towel at all…
When I came out, wearing, fetchingly, Pete’s big bright yellow rain slicker over my nightie, topped with a very wet Tilley hat, I met a couple, sheltering from the rain on some plastic chairs, with their dear old Weimaraner.  They are living on a small yacht in the marina, and they have to take their dog off every so often for his own ablutions.  They were very keen for an early morning chat.  Julie is originally from Tasmania, and is in fact a granddaughter of our former premier, Eric Reece.  A very lovely grandfather he was she told me, and I can well believe it.  Chris asked me a bit about 2XS, and was very relieved to hear that we use it a lot, as a boat, and as a small floating home.  He said that lots of the boats here in Sanctuary Cove sit here in pristine splendour, and rarely go out past the Couran River.  Recently Chris and Julie were invited onto a luxury yacht for a glass of wine.  “Good-o,” said Chris, “We’ll bring a bottle of red.”  Oh no that was the wrong offer!  “We only drink white wine on the boat,” said their host.  “Red wine might stain the whiteness…”
We spent the morning watching the downpour.  At twelve the rain eased a bit and Pete took me to lunch at George’s Paragon Restaurant where we once again had a most delicious meal.  I had an appointment at the medical center at 2.15 to have my stitches out.  This was NOT fun but the receptionist/nurse was a pleasant woman and we had a nice chat about grandchildren (hers are Amber and Madison.)  Stitches in my wrist, in case you need to know.  I had my yucky growth thingy cut out when I was in Hobart.  This after about eighteen months of treating it most nonchalantly.  I did take it to various doctors and nurses over the year and a half it was growing gaily on my arm, and had it treated with dry ice quite a few times, unsuccessfully, and then burnt out in Vanuatu.  This was successful for a while but the horrid thing grew back with renewed vigour.  I took it back to my local Hobart Medical Centre in January where it was greeted with a startled squawk by the owner of the practice.  “Why haven’t you had this seen to before?” he said, crossly.  “You have almost left this too late!”  Well I manifestly had tried, as he could see by looking at my computer record, so he stopped being cross and swiftly cut and stitched.  I had to ring him yesterday, to see the results of the pathology tests and it is all good news.  Yes it was a nasty cancer but yes he got it all and now it is gone forever.  No more ugliness on my wrist!
After that we climbed into The Uterus and went off to various boaty-shops looking for this and that useful item.  A cup of tea with Cam in Runaway Bay and then back to 2XS to replace the throttle cable.  This was, I think, a mammoth task.  Pete is very handy and competent but it took him a lot of dark muttering from the depths of various parts of the boat before it was all done.  Well, nearly all done…Yes I did help, marginally, but pulling and pushing here and there as directed, and by debating whether various cables were (ahem) red or orange.
I stopped writing yesterday at about four.  We were on our way, via various boat-y shops and a provisioning trip to the supermarket, to Tim and Sally’s.  On the way we had a lightning visit to Sarah, one of Pete’s daughter Nicole’s closest friends.  Sarah is a beautiful girl and she greeted us happily and warmly, as if unexpected guests at 5.30 was JUST what she wanted on a rainy afternoon.  Her three lively children, aged 7, 5 and 3, were leaping in and out of the swimming pool in the rain.  What was causing them even more joy and delight than the pool, however, was a small splashy flood on the back terrace.  It did look like so much fun I almost stripped off and joined them sliding around in the puddles.  Sarah was very pleased because we had come in person, she said, to RSVP to the invitation to her mother Kay’s 70th birthday party on the 26th of February.  She made a tick on her list and poured us a reviving glass of white wine.
We arrived at Tim and Sally’s at 6.00 instead of 5.30, and found Sally in the splendiferous kitchen cooking up a storm.  She had decided against Chinese take-aways and had prepared a fabulous roast dinner for Cam, Del, Amy, Pete and me. 
Yes we will have to leave the Gold Coast soon, before we wear out all of this wonderful hospitality…
And when are we setting forth??  Well we spend a lot of time anxiously looking at weather reports and listening to alarming and/or reassuring accounts of what it is like Out There beyond the Broadwater… Nick at the Harbour Master’s office says, “Don’t go, mate.  There are 5 metre swells out there!”  And Chris, my brother, cautiously mentioned that the rivers in northern NSW are in flood and that this might make things just a bit difficult for getting into anchorages or marinas.
But right at this moment the rain has stopped, the wind has abated, and all seems quiet on the eastern front… We will reassess tomorrow.

Monday 23 January 2012

Tuesday 24th January
A day of rain rain RAIN, interspersed with light showers for a few minutes before more rain rain RAIN!  I had it go to the ablutions facilities early this morning in the downpour – no choice at all… I couldn’t find any of my many umbrellas so I put on a light sundress, rammed on my Tilley hat, and squelched across the salubrious café precinct of Sanctuary Cove to have my shower etc.  I was just as wet as when I stepped out of the shower when I got back to 2XS.  But it didn’t matter – it’s not in the least cold, and humans are, after all, entirely waterproof.
We had plans to replace the steering cable which has been causing a lot of unnecessary grief.  But it was far too wet all morning so we lay on couches and read books and got very dopey until the rain eased enough for us to be able to venture forth and make a provisioning trip in The Uterus to the nearby supermarket.
It is now 4pm and the rain HAD eased off enough for Pete to start removing the cable, with the occasional bit of help from me – wobble the red cable in the starboard aft locker! shouts Pete from below, while I do mental calculations – starboard…aft… aha! right…back… But as I write it has started to POUR once again…oh deary me… We are expected at Tim and Sally’s at 5.30, for drinks and Chinese take-aways.  I think they will be getting very wet and bedraggled guests.
Monday 23rd January
Not as much WonderfulWildlife (or GolfClubLife…) as yesterday.
We started the day with a trip to the post office, to send photos – at last – to the people on Ramata Island (Solomons), and to send the book about the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race disaster back to Don and Marilyn in New Zealand.  By the way, Claire (WonderDaughter of the Day) taped THE episode of the Bachelor which featured Cool Change, and we watched it when we were in Hobart.  Glimpses of Don and Marilyn, in the freezing wind… No footage, unfortunately, of Don rushing to rescue the bikini-clad constant from near loss of bikini top in aforementioned freezing wind.
I mentioned, casually, to Pete that I was thinking of buying new bathers– my lovely flowery blue top, bought in Sydney half a decade ago, is disintegrating.  Well he had to come and help, didn’t he???  I tried to tell him that trying on bathers is in the top #5 of stressful situations for women but he paid no heed and settled himself happily in the bathers shop.  He rejected my pink check Jets selection with a swift glance, but did let me try them on, with some others, carefully chosen.  I won’t make too much of the experience.  It was all quite pleasant, really.  I have read side-splitting accounts by talented and witty women from around the globe who have had much worse moments in changing rooms.  I am a standard size, and when I tried on a black and white ruched stripey number with a jaunty bow, slightly retro (50s) in style, I was mightily relieved when Pete gave it the thumbs up.  He was right…I tried on the cherished pink check Jets ones and… they showed a (large is the wrong word…) portion of UNDERSIDE of boob – NOT a good look.  Well…I didn’t think it was… So, out with the credit card!  Pete had thought he was going to buy this item for me but he blanched at the price tag while the (not-so-young) saleswoman hissed at me, “Men!” as she swiped my card.  He did make a nice contribution but…it is hard to persuade a person who is careful with his $$$ that $149 is a reasonable amount to pay for what is basically a reinforced stripy ruched singlet… (In case you want one…it is lovely and comfy and serves very well as a quite stylish top with a black skirt – SeaFolly, if you want to get one… from Calypso in Sanctuary Cove…I have been wearing mine happily all day.)
We wandered around happily and spent some very happy time in an art gallery – DeLozzo, I think.  We loved the mother-father-daughter art work and I lashed out and bought…three postcards, for my darling daughters…We finished our time of benefiting the economy of Sanctuary  Cove with a cup of coffee at the Yacht club.  (Alert!  Mistake!  Do NOT buy coffee at a yacht club; buy coffee at a CAFÉ!!)
Kind Tim and Sally had once again left their ute (The Uterus) for us to beetle around the Gold Coast.  Off to various shops…lalalala…Muirs Engineering, Mitre 10 for gas, around the now-familiar traps.  I wanted to replace my lovely inflatable Black Wolf waterproof pillow (no longer inflatable…too many people have sat on it; I should have kept it for MY VERY OWN.  I am no longer into sharing and caring!!!)  We found the very Anaconda shop where I had bought it last year and…guess what – they no longer make this particular item.  In fact, our wide-eyed shop assistant assured us they had NEVER made one in this size.  Only ever TINY ones.  Eventually we found another shop assistant who said, “Oh yes, we did have them.  Yes, in that exact bin where you are gazing so longingly.  But…they were too popular so we no longer stock them.”  Or words to that effect… We gave up and descended upon Cam and Del for a soothing glass of wine or two.
We are now back on the boat…Pete is trying to fix the TV, with the new aerial he bought in JB along the way, so we can watch Lleyton Hewitt play against…well play against the man who is probably THE WINNER.
Are we leaving tomorrow?? 
Who knows…Pete is going to put in a new steering cable thingy.  Cam will arrive at the crack for dawn to help.  And the weather may be kind.  Or not!
I have rung John Miedecke’s (godfather? Uncle) Darv Wilkins, who lives in Tweed Heads, and who lived for many years in New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and was part of the administration – maybe he was the administrator?? Anyway he was part of the Condominium aka the Pandemonium… We are hoping to meet up as we head south… this WILL happen!!  I am getting very fond of the Gold Coast, mind you... This evening we drove back up the avenue to Sanctuary Cove and…some of the flower sculptures were lit up red and green.  SO pretty!
NEWSFLASH: Pete has fixed the aerial!!  He is very happy… And he is a winner!!!  Tennis is GO GO GO!!!  Lleyton???  We don't think so but....

Sunday 22 January 2012

22nd January

Sunday 22nd January
Yesterday we abandoned 2XS on the sandbank and spent the late afternoon and then the evening with Cam and Del in Runaway Bay.  Cam’s delightful granddaughter Amy was there too; she is ten now and I enjoyed showing her Scrabble on my iPhone.  She was very taken with it and very speedily found the Best Word (cheat) function.  I very nobly pretended that I REALLY did believe she had come up with words like optimus and zebu.  I did unkindly say, “Goodness, Amy, zebu!  Great word, great score.  But…Do you know exactly what a zebu is?”  But most of the time I went along with it. 
We had a wonderful seafood feast – Moreton Bay bugs, prawns, oysters from the Hawkesbury, and fish fillets for Amy and Del who weren’t all that keen on the shellfish.  Cam kindly drove us back to Bum’s Bay, where we were able to wade out to 2XS, still standing proudly on the sandbar.  This morning the tide was very high and we were able to float on out of the bay as if we had never been grounded.  (Or sanded…)
We are now – guess where?? – back at Sanctuary Cove Marina.  This time we have a berth just a bit closer to the bathroom facilities, which is very pleasing to me.  We can’t head south yet.  Something needs to be fixed on the steering, and in any case the wind is blowing entirely the wrong way.  Conditions out there on the ocean, or so we hear, are Not Good.  There are worse places to be stuck than Sanctuary Cove…
Cam, Del and Amy were here this morning, visiting Tim and Sally at the nearby boatyard, where they are doing hard yards on their beautiful boat, which has A Problem which needs much backbreaking labour.  They met us at 12 and Cam very kindly shouted us lunch at a lovely café – Sanctuary Cove Village is all stylish little shops and cafes and restaurants.
After lunch, Cam got the car and said, “OK, everybody get in.”  Del and I started to move towards the car and then I, suspiciously, asked why…2XS was only a hundred or so metres away – why were we getting into the car??  Pete and Cam looked at me with big round eyes.  “Well we are going to look at Tim and Sally’s boat, of course!”  I baulked at this – I have seen Tim and Sally’s gorgeous boat, an Alaskan, all gleaming woodwork and stainless steel, and I have admired it immensely.  At their place, tied up cutely to a pontoon.  I did not want to see it up on a hoist, with its poor beleaguered underbelly in full view, and with poor beleaguered Tim and Sally scrubbing and painting and sanding.  Nor, did I imagine, would Tim and Sally want us standing around gawking and not being able to do anything helpful.  I dug my heels in and said to Del, “I would much rather wander around and look in the shops.  What about you?”  Oh what a difficult question…she scampered around to my side of the car, eyes bright, and within seconds Amy had slid out of the back seat and was standing firmly at our side.  Pete and Cam looked so bewildered – how could we prefer to wander around looking in lovely little boutiques to standing in the hot sun looking at Tim and Sally’s boat on a hoist???
As it turned out they had a perfectly lovely time watching Tim and Sally do the hard yards, while the breakaway group enjoyed itself in a perfectly pleasant and mild manner.  We looked in every shop, admired every item of clothing and footwear, gasped at prices - $459 for a pair of denim shorts!!! – and had a delicious icecream while sitting and listening to a very nice singer called Rhydian Lewis.  (I have his card – he “specialises in Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Dean Martin and Paul Anka.”  Ofcourse!)
In the late afternoon Cam, Del and Amy went home.  I bought Pete a beer and sat him down to listen to Rhydian, for whom I bought a cup of coffee.  He came and talked to us after his gig, and told us about the fabulous pool at the Hyatt, just around the back of the marina.   So Pete and I got back on the trusty bikes and rode along the path to the Hyatt Hotel grounds.  The pool looks gorgeous – crystal clear blue water, with a white sandy bottom and (fake) beach.  There doesn’t seem to be anything preventing the likes of us from sneaking a swim so maybe tomorrow… I actually have my eye on some Jets bathers in one of the boutiques – pink and white check, very fetching – in Jets bathers nobody would ever suspect I wasn’t a Hyatt guest, would they??
We were on a mission to go to the supermarket, so we rode off along the beautiful winding Sanctuary Cove avenue, with its hauntingly beautiful flower sculptures, huge banksias, symmetrical palms.  We became aware of a path running parallel – aha, a bike track!  I am so law-abiding I immediately wheeled my bike through the bushes so I would be on The Correct Path, and Pete followed shortly.  It was a lovely wide concrete path, winding its way picturesquely through…oh no…a huge golf course… At first we were entranced – kangaroos!  Oh look!  Another one!  And another…dozen!  They were fabulous, many with big joeys lolling nonchalantly half- in half-out of their mothers’ pouches.  Big grey ones, big red ones.  And all equally fascinated by the sight of us.  They stood up tall and gazed at us, with their big ears pricked.  “Oh look!  People on BIKES!  Oh the horror and the scandal!”  Because we soon became aware that we weren’t supposed to be on the course at all… A few people pulled up in their golf buggies and said, “You’re not supposed to be riding on the course, you know.”  Well yes… but how could we get OFF the course??  It was such a maze of tracks.  By the time we finally burst out of Golf and Kangaroo World I think a dozen buggies had veered towards us to shoo us away…
Once back on the right track we found a big Coles supermarket and bought a few items.  Now we are happily back on the boat.  It has been very hot – no more need for my ugg boots, they are back in the cupboard.  It has been raining, and it is now a very pleasant temperature.  I just had a lovely hot shower in the (nearby!) amenities block, and Pete is listening to the cricket.  All is well in 2XS World.

Friday 20 January 2012

Saturday 21st January
Happy second birthday darling Zoe in Tasmania… At the moment, No. #3 of 3, soon to be No #3 of 4…
We didn’t rush about yesterday.  I read a lot, and Pete talked to his computer a lot.  At about 6 our Tasmanian/Gold Coast friends Tim and Sally came for a drink; little did they know that we were going to keep them captive until late – Pete had prepared a large a hearty meal.  We had a very pleasant evening and woke early so that Pete could steer the boat onto a specially reconnoitered part of the bay, above a sandbank.  He was very keen to get a good look at the underbelly of 2XS.  Was there or was there not a mysterious bit of something or another wrapped round the propeller shaft??  I had already tried to look, when swimming in the not-very-translucent waters of Tipplers Passage, and had seen nothing.  Well…it turns out there was nothing to be seen… But it is good to be able to look carefully at all of the sea-life making a home on the watery underside of the boat, so it has been a worthwhile exercise.
We are now sitting stranded and sanded high up above the beach.  Children are playing in the shallows, dogs chasing balls, people are fishing, horses are being exercised, with 2XS providing a large and majestic bit of shade from the sandbank.  It is quite comfortable but we are on a bit of a slope.  Never mind, when the tide comes in, we will be afloat again.
There are many sandbanks around here in the Broadwater, and many boats run aground.  Tim says there are two sorts of boating people: those who have run aground, and those who lie about it.  Sally says, there are two sorts of boating people: those who haven’t run aground, and those who are about to.
We left 2XS to cope with the sinking tide and went for a long bike ride into Surfers Paradise.  Surface Paradise, as my poor dear Claire used to write, longingly, in her school story books – all of her friends, it seemed, went to Surface Paradise and had a magical time at Dream World, Wet World, Sea World, Movie World, Lalala World, and Shopping Heaven.  Many of them – sob – also went to Bali… We never could afford anything of the sort and went every year (many thanks to Dad and Fleur) to the Château at Coles Bay.
There were bike paths all the way, and no hills at all, so it was a very nice, easy ride.  We stopped for coffee and watched people coming and going from the beach.  People all shapes and sizes!!  Some looked like supermodels, male and female, others…well others were just a bit on the boombalada side of the spectrum.  Fascinating!  Some of the thin women had enormous bosoms, enough to make one’s eyes pop.  It’s all a bit unfair.  It is now within most women’s ability to buy a splendid set of breasts, so instead of being impressed, I now look carefully and think, “They can’t possibly be natural!”  In the past I would have been consumed with envy and wonder, now I think, ho hum.  I don’t think any such ho hum thoughts cross Pete’s mind, however. I think he is just impressed and admiring, whether or not the bosoms are fake or natural.  

Thursday 19 January 2012

Friday 20th January
Actually it is still Thursday….We have got very dirty at the Gold Coast City Marina shipyard.  Pete and Steve, our extremely helpful mechanic, have turned various shades of tomato and beetroot red as they struggled down the hatches with various engine parts.  And I got all manner of rust and grime coating me from head to toe, from close encounters with the rusty old anchorchain.  First I had to pull it out of its locker, and then I had to remove its remarkable dreadlocks.  How can an anchor chain get so very twisty? 
Eventually we got the bikes out – their first time off their bunk since Espiritu Santo!  They needed their tyres pumped up, and mine has disconnected and discarded its gear indicator, but other than that, they are in prime condition.  Well, they were in OK condition… Steve took one look at us trying to pump up the tyres, and led us off to his workshop, where he filled them to capacity with his compressor.  Then he got out his anti-rust squirty bottle and carefully went over the chains and gears so now indeed they are ticketyboo.  So lovely to ride again!
Pete has a new gypsy (anchor winch) from the gold Coast offshoot of Muir Engineering, a short bike ride away, and a new guide thingy for the chain – glorious and shiny – to glide down, but nothing is all that simple… One of the stainless steel bolts has sheared off, exactly in the position where the new gypsy has to be screwed on.  I am, I am sure you are surprised to hear, no help at all.  I stand around poking my finger at it and saying, “Are you sure we can’t squirt it with Steve’s grease gun thingy and just, ummmm, unbolt it?”  My next helpful act was to get out the binoculars and to trill away with great enthusiasm because, on a big pylons right near the boat, sits a small sea hawk with a fish which I saw it catch with its very own talons.  And on another pylon under the trees is…a great big sea eagle fluffing its wings in the sun!  I have now left poor Pete alone with his shiny new things and a cordless drill, with which he is trying to McGuyver a solution.
Friday
If I am tired, Pete is EXHAUSTED.  He worked away like a galley slave from morning until the end of the day.  Wonderful Steve, the mechanic, stayed on to help with removing the old anchor chain and winch (gypsy) and getting the new one installed.
Pete did manage to drill out the stainless steel screw, while I lay on the couch with my book and a big painkiller dissolving on a glass of water.  (I had hurt my back hauling the rusty old chain; my strong painkiller from Vanuatu worked a treat, even if it made me very dopey and useless.)  By the end of the day, everything was in place.  Michael, from Muirs Engineering, and Steve, were wreathed in smiles, as well they might be after all of the effort expended.  The new chain is a thing of beauty, Australian made, strong and gleaming, as yet unpolluted with mud, weed, rust, crustiness. 
And what of the old rusty chain, I hear you cry?  Michael form muirs was prepared to take it away in a big oil drum, to be taken to the scrap heap.  But… Waste not Want Not is the Headlam motto.  Think how useful this chain will be, on the farm!  I had retired from chain-hauling duties, injured in the cause, by the end of the day, so Steve and Pete lugged it out of the water and put it in Michael’s oil drum on the rear deck.  It looks just lovely…
We stayed tied up to the wharf at the marina; we were much too tired to move, and they very kindly turned a blind eye and didn’t charge us or shoo us away.  A big green dredge turned up at a bit after 6am this morning, and very politely waited for us to untie and move off.  We cruised back out of the Couran River and we are now anchored in a lovely little bay behind the Spit, nestled up close to the back door of Sea World, with the gleaming spires of Surfers Paradise as our backdrop.  Right next to the boat is a sheltered little beach, with toddlers frolicking, dogs, well dogs are dogpaddling, horses being exercised in the shallows withe bikini-clad teenage girls happily astride.  We have plans of taking the bikes ashore and doing some energetic things, maybe riding into Surfers, but for the moment, the couches are very attractive…

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Thursday 19th January
We have left our Tipplers Passage anchorage.  (And thank you Elsa for your very appropriate comment re Tipplers Passage...)  No wonder we stuck so fast…the anchored and chain was completely coated with thick gooey mud.  We had stuck, as Pete so elegantly says, like shit to a blanket.
The old codger on the boat next to us, also anchored in the mud, he said, until Australia Day, came out to wave goodbye.  As far as we could tell he hadn’t moved from his cabin, not for a swim, not for a walk.  We had caught glimpse of him occasionally emptying a bucket over the back, and he was at those times happy to chat with Pete across the water.  We tried to imagine what he was doing inside, all alone.  But…he wasn’t alone!  When he came out to say goodbye, there, standing shyly behind him, was a dear little wifey person.  So funny, the people we have come across, who just anchor their boats in a beautiful bay, and then…they sit inside, gently pootling.  Maybe reading?  Watching DVDs?  Snoozing?  Certainly not paying any attention to the water, the scenery, the birds!  Not sure why they can’t do this at home…
We had a lovely few hours slowly making our way up the Couran River to Gold Coast City Marina (Flagship Marine Services – they deserve a plug,), to get the oil changed and the engines checked.  We had been here last year, and had caused a nice young mechanic, Steve, to spend a whole hot sweaty day down the engine hatch, trying, a bit unsuccessfully, to fix a mysterious knocking sound.  Imagine his joy to have the manager, Charlie, say, “Drop everything, Steve, and come and change the oil on 2XS!”  To his credit he smiled brightly and chatted to me about the South Pacific as we walked back down to the boat.
It is lovely, going up the river.  On one side it is typical Gold Coast, with new-age palazzos, enormous doll’s houses, huge expanses of glass, floating pontoons replete with large boats.  And on the other side…primeval swamp.  Mangroves, eucalypts, and possibly hundreds of snakes, mud crabs, prawns hatching.  At one stage we passed close by a large eagle preening itself in a tree overhanging the river.  Above it swooped a small sea hawk, and right behind the boat, a large flock of ibis swooped towards the mangroves.
The weather is beautiful.  They have withdrawn the gale warning and it is hot and sunny, with nary a puff of wind.  2XS needs a few urgent bits of work – the engine service, a new anchor chain and gypsy (a sort of anchor winch…) – so it will be a few days before we can head south.  Not sure where we will stay tonight.  Pete is keenly looking for anchorages along the river; I am more attracted to going back to the marina at Sanctuary Cove so I can get my bike onto shore and stretch those unfit sea-legs…

Tuesday 17 January 2012


Wednesday 18th January
We are still anchored in Tipplers Passage, being very lazy.  The cold snap has gone, and it has been hot and sunny and very beautiful here.  I have been for two swims, one a.m, one p.m, and am now yawning hugely over my computer…
Once we get going we will be very grateful for these days of rest and recuperation, I am sure.

Monday 16 January 2012

Tuesday 17th January
It was 29 in Hobart yesterday…
We spoke to Pete’s sister Lynne, who was frolicking on the beach with her daughter and grandchildren at 5pm, in warm water and brilliant sunshine.  Here, off South Stradbroke Island, it was trying very hard to get up to 20 – overcast, drizzly.  The next time someone shudders and says they couldn’t live in Tasmania because of the foul climate I will…no I won’t slap them merrily about the head but I will want to…
Do we mind the inclement weather??  Not at all!  I have been swimming every day, just a few laps round and round the boat.  We have been for a walk, across the island to the big long wild surf beach, and along to a few campsites.  And the rest of the time we have been gently bobbing about on the sea, reading books and listening to all of the new music I downloaded while we were in Hobart.  It is very restful and pleasant.
We are anchored in Tipplers Passage, and we can’t really leave, even if we want to, because the weather Out There on the sea is – frightful!  Winds of around 60 knots do not entice us to heaving-ho!  I feel so sorry for the people who live in the area, where the floods and rains were so devastating last year.  They must be looking up at the grey skies with dread in their hearts.
This isn’t a good place for snorkeling – the water is pretty, warm and green, but with no visibility, and I think even if we could see, we would only see a few startled flathead and bream, and a few fishing lines from the smattering of determined anglers on the shore.  When I go for my daily swim, I am watched by a small flotilla of little brown ducks, and a lone pelican, who keep a steady eye on me, as I do on them.  They are not a disappointment to me, but I fear I am to them…I do not swim with a trail of yummy breadcrumbs or fish skeletons in my wake.

Saturday 14 January 2012

Sunday 15th January
We have had a wonderful and most memorable month in Tasmania.
Now we are back in Queensland, trying to leave Sanctuary Cove marina…
Oh dear and oh no – what is Pete doing??  We are tied up to the fuel wharf and he is down in the engines, with Nick, the lovely young marina boat mechanic, trying to MacGuyver the steering, which doesn’t seem to be working at all.  Well not working in the way one would like steering to work… I am happily sitting at the table with my computer and my new internet connection thingy, all working well.  It is warm, and drizzly.  My role in the steering debacle is to make soothing sounds and keep out of the way.
Other than that the boat looks well, very clean and shiny after a few days with Cam and Del on board.  They bought it a new pump for the dinghy, some white china mugs, a can opener (yes we did have one but maybe it was a bit tinny Solomons-Islands-ish…).  The fridge didn’t seem to want to work at all; I think it was sulking after a month of neglect – Cam and Del didn’t use it or turn it on.  But now it is happily doing its job, making things cold, freezing some ice for our nightly G & T.
Last night we took Tim and Sally, our Tasmanian/Gold Coast friends, to dinner, with Twyla, my Tasmanian/Brisbane sister-in-law.  We went back to George’s Paragon seafood restaurant, and it was absolutely delicious, yet again.  Pete and I had the special – lobster mornay with steamed veggies.  Tim and Sally had picked us up from the airport in Coolangatta, fed us a lovely salad lunch in their wonderful new house on the Broadwater, and lent us their ute (The Uterus again) to buy a boatload of groceries.  We did one spasm of shopping in Aldi before going back into the more familiar territory of Coles.  Aldi, as my brother Pete has always said, is like being in a different world.  Strange brands…where are they from??  Much stranger than in any of the Pacific Island city supermarkets.  I felt quite relieved when we finished in Aldi and moved on to Coles – Coon cheese, not Coan, Duck River butter, not Butterly butter… Aldi is just too Twilight Zone for my liking.
I think I will post this, ummm, post, and maybe write a little bit about our Tasmanian month, once the steering issue is resolved – I am sure everyone reading this will be holding their collective breath for a resolution of the problem.  (Steering is important…)

Monday 9 January 2012

Tuesday 10th January 2012
Not so warm today…I don’t think I will be plunging into the sea at Cremorne with such alacrity as I did two days ago.  They have predicted snow to 1200 metres, I think.  No probs; all weather is good, in one way or another…
Pete has gone to a funeral – the second since we have been home.  This one is in Oatlands, the other was in a small chapel in the outskirts of Launceston.  I went with him, a bit reluctantly – I had never the very old lady, Aunty Dot, who had died at 91.  There were only twelve people in the chapel, close family members… They were thrilled to see Pete, whose parents were great friends of Aunty Dot and Uncle Bill, and were very kind and welcoming to me.  I tried very hard not to feel like a funeral crasher… It was all very nice, really.  Not too much sorrow, just some gentle reminiscences about a much loved mother, grandmother, great grandmother.
I have been meaning to write about the strange little sea creature Pete and I stalked when we were snorkeling in Blue Lagoon in the Louisiades.  It was about the same size and shape as a pug, and seemed to be able to move forwards and backwards with equal ease.  It had a graceful beige sort of frill around the bottom edge, and some sort of tentacle arrangement at the back or front, depending in which direction it was going.  It was very much aware of us and didn’t like us hovering overhead at all.  At first it just stayed still, hoping to be protected by its – well by its protective colouring!  It changed colour extremely swiftly as it moved over the sea floor, quite amazing to see.  At first it was speckled and brown, like the rocks, then as it moved over the reef it turned pink, blue, green, sandy.  We were entranced and followed the poor thing everywhere, for about ten minutes, no doubt making it feel very uncomfortable indeed.  We had no idea what it was – some sort of squiddy thing, possibly.  Since then we have identified it as something quite common – maybe a big cuttlefish.  But to us it will always be a mysterious and charming little PNG sea creature.

Sunday 8 January 2012

Monday 9th January 2012
Yesterday I swam in the Tasmanian sea water… Twice!
And it was just beautiful, not a horrid shock, as I had feared, after warm tropical water over the past year.  The beach at Cremorne is so wonderful, with a soaring sea eagle, happy joggers, happy swimmers.
Family time, friend time - what could be better?
Saturday we will be back on 2XS after an extremely busy (and happy!) time in beautiful Tasmania.
More adventures to come, more swimming in waters of different temperature.  And I hope – no stingers, no crocodiles!  And can anyone tell me why jellysfish sting has to be so very painful?  Surely just a small ouchy-ouch moment would be enough to repel us from the jellyfish environment?  Irukanji jellyfish have a horrid stinging system.  Nothing happens until about 30 minutes after the poor unsuspecting human has left the water.  Then comes – stomach cramps, malaise, and a general sense of impending doom.  Lovely!  And soon after comes – intense pain!  Much too late, one would have thought, to protect the tiny Irukanji from the fearsome human!

Tuesday 3 January 2012

4th January 2012
A Launceston heat wave…
It is so beautiful here, on these hot, still days.  Reminds me of teenage years, walking downhill all the way to the Gorge with my much younger sisters, skipping cheerily, for a cool refreshing swim, then walking back UP the stinking hot steep hill with much younger sisters, trudging not skipping, complaining bitterly all the way… Was it worth the cool refreshing moments in the chilly Gorge waters??
Lots of lovely family reunion moments during our three days here, all is well with our world so far in 2012.
2XS  -This story is too sad…a salutary tale. 
Pete is quite strict about safety procedures on 2XS.  When we had Nick Wood on the boat, he increased our safety standards about 95%, with his good seamanship and knowledge of proper ways to store safety equipment etc.  So whenever anyone is new on the boat, we try to run through just a few basic safety issues IMMEDIATELY.  The most important thing is, what to do if you have a Man Overboard situation (MOB).  Nick ran us through a MOB drill between Lord Howe Island and Balls Pyramid, in rough seas, and it was certainly a big wake-up call.  We haven’t actually done this again, but we think about it, and talk about it, quite a lot. 
Basically, if you fall overboard at night in rough seas – you are a goner.  So the best thing is NOT to fall overboard.  We are very careful about attaching ourselves to harnesses and lanyards as soon as it is dark and as soon as we step outside the cabin.  (In fact I have just realised that the only time I undo my harness is when I am vomiting over the back of the boat, which is, obviously, the time at which I am most vulnerable and most WANTING to fall overboard…I told Pete and he said we will have to put an attachment point right where my favourite vomiting place is to be found.)
In daylight, it is more likely that a Man Overboard can be retrieved.  Most boats have an MOB function at the helm, which records the exact position at which the accident has occurred.  So the first thing you do, after emitting a few frantic squawks when someone has gone over the side, is to hold down the MOB button for four seconds.  Then you hurl safety equipment – a life ring etc – into the sea, hoping it will float towards the MOB.  Then…well there is a whole lot of other stuff which has to be done,
including turning the boat in a circle, keeping an eye on the MOB, etc etc.  Vital information for anyone stepping on any boat, all this procedural scary stuff, I think.
So my sad story…I’m not going to say where this occurred or give any details.  But a lovely lone sailorboy met a lovely lone young woman on a lovely tropical island.  They fell in love and he invited her to sail off into the sunset.  Wonderful stuff.  LOVELY in fact.  She had never been on a boat, but he was very knowledgeable and felt he could look after everything while they pursued their beautiful new love affair (lovely).  They were sailing around in a rough bit of sea one day when he noticed the dinghy needing attention.  So he reached over to tighten a rope or whatever it was that was bothering him, and he fell overboard.  His girlfriend had no idea what to do; she didn’t know how to turn the boat or drop the sails or do the MOB procedure in any way.  So she watched helplessly as he was swept away never to be seen again.
I don’t know what happened next.  Much weeping, I imagine.  She was rescued by people passing by on another yacht, because she didn’t know how to sail to the nearest safe harbor.  Too too sad…