Monday
29th April
Where was it that Ulysses stopped over
for the night and ended up staying for…years??
That is a bit what Pete and I have done, in Mission Beach, at Pete and Maddie’s. Such a
lovely place, such wonderful hospitality…
A last photo of Maddie's fabulous garden...
But we have in fact left, after yet
another fabulous breakfast, and we are now anchored in Mourilyan Harbour, about
twenty miles up the coast. It is
relatively cool, and overcast, so we had a very easy run with a brisk bit of
wind, and a lively bit of sea. We went
past these islands (the Barnards), with their fearsome little reefs, and talked about the many
shipwrecks along this bit of coast.
Thank goodness for our efficient navigation computer…
This harbor is big, and very protective
from the elements. It has a narrow
passage, and as Pete and I discussed (ahem) whether or not we were looking at
the correct leads into the harbour, he suddenly shouted, “What’s that? It looks like a great big log! Are we going to hit it??” No we weren’t going to hit it and no it
wasn’t a scary bit of flotsam or jetsam – it was a very big, slow-moving
turtle, looking at us with mild interest before plunging back into the sea.
When our lovely guest Phil and I were
bobbing about in the water off Dunk Island on Sunday, he told me stories about people
he knows who have always wanted to buy a boat, live on a boat, do a big trip on
a boat. And how sometimes this does not
have a happy ending… John, for example, had saved for years to be able to
retire and go off with his beloved wife.
On a yacht… Unfortunately he didn’t spend much time “training” his
hapless wife, Jenny. They climbed aboard
on the very first day of their new life, with a merry yo-ho sailor, and went off into a brisk wind and lively sea. Poor Jenny had not even begun to find her sea
legs… The boat tipped at an alarming angle and she was hurtled from one side of
the cabin to the other and broke her arm very badly. And…that was the end of the sailing dream.
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