18th April - Mexican food - rudder problems

Thursday 18^th April

So what did we eat last night, in this splendid Townsville building which houses Cactus Jack, a very busy so-hot-right-now Palmer Street restaurant?

Mexican food!  And frozen margaritas.  Michael, Sharon and I look a teensy bit as if we have been possessed by the devil but I am almost sure this was not the case.

Lindy and John are no longer Tasmanians; they are both very happy up here in northern Queensland.  They are living in a retirement village and recently scooped the pool at a mock-Olympics, in a Tasmanian team, excelling at – darts, bowls, hookey and also at making slightly gruesome but very clever two-headed costumes.

Michael, as usual, was very happy, with a large plate of food and a rum & coke.

This morning Pete and I scouted around in Michael’s golden ute, looking for a place to beach 2XS.  Pete measured this pole; this is where we will sweep in, at high tide, when the pole should be just about under water, and then remain on the sand, majestically, while Pete MacGyvers the pesky rudders until the tide comes back in to sweep us back out.  Or so we hope…

And this afternoon – well we went back to Garbutt, and to Domain, an enormous shopping complex full of…enormous shops.  Pete spent many productive hours chatting to very helpful men about reamers and pullers.  I found a nice place to sit, on a pallet next to a swivel-headed bandsaw, with a view of a fetching display of wire brushes.