25th November - Lauderdale Bay - early days on 2XS

Tuesday 25^th November

Sensational Lauderdale sunset

Did it sounds as if I knew what I was walking about yesterday, with the melted transducer thingy?  Well…I don’t have a clue, I just know it didn’t look good, all melted…

raft birds

Yesterday we spent the day in Lynne’s beautiful beach house, Stella Maris.  She can now put just a bit of weight on one of her poor broken legs, but she is still immobilised on the couch and in her wheelchair.  NOT a word of complaint!  (I would have been complaining mightily, I am sure…)

Lynne's magpie friend, Paul, sitting on her Stephen Walker sculpture

I was very kind and helpful – I went for a walk on the beach for her. 

So beautiful, in the dark stormy light.

A young Pacific gull

Black cockatoos flew overhead – they always presage a change in weather.

This little bay provided shelter for 2XS on our very first trip away form Hobart.  We left the Motor Yacht Club with great fanfare, cruised up the river, around the corner…and into Lauderdale Bay, where we anchored and looked longingly at Lynne’s house.  It was quite rough but…she beckoned, in her hospitable way, and we leapt into the dinghy and had a lovely cosy evening eating delicious food, along with (cousin) Michael Rood who lives not far away along Seven Mile Beach. 

And here he is again, with his darling dog, a blur of delight to see his man again

I remember very clearly wondering if we would actually get much further than this nice bay… It all seemed very daunting, back then.  But yes we DID keep on going up the East Coast and over Bass Strait, and all of the earlier doubts and fears have vanished with the wind.

We had delicious soup for lunch.  Lynne had managed to cook from her wheelchair, by judiciously instructing whoever was in the house at the time.  She had chicken stock already in the freezer.  Amongst other things we discussed mortality… Pete and Lynne were astonished to hear that in the hour I had been in Lauderdale I had had two text messages announcing the death of people younger than any of us… Too sad… Pam in Hobart; Steve, also in Hobart… Untimely deaths.

Some flowers for Pam and for Steve