Wednesday 7th March
All is
well in Hobart. It is mild, slightly on the
cool side, but…no gales, no storms, no flooding rain.
In 2XS
World, on the other hand… Pete and Steve are very cold and very wet. They have arrived at a marina (very expensive,
says Pete, sadly,) in Queenscliffe and everything is sopping. Apparently water came into the cabins and…oh
no, this is too tragic…all of our pillows are very wet and will probably go mouldy
and will probably need to be thrown out.
This is not quite as tragic for Pete, because all he demands of a pillow
is that it is flat enough not to give him a crick in the neck. Whereas my relationship with pillows is much more
intense and much more fraught with difficulty.
My pillows on 2XS are:
·
a wool pillow, quite firm and lovely for leaning
against while reading, which Steve made for me with his own fair hands in his
own little factory on Flinders Island,
·
an also-ran pillow which is sometimes used
to keep the cabin door from banging but which I also use for resting my knees
or my book when necessary,
·
and my pride and joy, a fairly new and expensive
feather pillow which can be plumped up into just the right configuration to give
me a happy night’s sleep.
So imagine
if you can my current distress…
While Pete
was on the phone, Steve was at the washing facility in the marina. I heard him coming in, saying, bleakly, the washing will take until midnight. And the towels aren’t going to dry in the dryers. Pete thinks a divorce is imminent…but they decided
to have a glass of wine and continue backgammon-to-the-death until all of the washing
is done and dusted. Or done and dry… In
the meantime wet towels are draped all over the boat, adding to the general
ambiance of cold and damp. (“Stinking
cold and wet” are Pete’s exact words.) The
carpets are soggy, too, squelchy and cold underfoot. As well as this, it is, says Pete, “blowing
its tits off.” “Oh dear,” said I,
smiling at Elsa and sipping my tea in Katy and Jeff’s warm, cosy, dry house…
Pete and
Steve were going to have a nice meal in a restaurant but this didn’t happen and
they ate fish and chips instead. This would
have made me very happy but Pete doesn’t like take-aways and doesn’t love fish and
chips as much as I do so this was not a big treat.
Oh I
forgot to say – they have run out of gin although they stocked up on groceries
in Cowles (in the north of Philip Island.)
On the plus side, they will be in Docklands marina tomorrow, right in Melbourne,
so they have done very well.
Coming
over the bar into Queenscliffe was apparently quite hair-raising, with the wind
blowing a belter and big following waves smacking them up the bum. There was an Easterly wind and a low tide but
the water was still running the wrong way so it was all, I gather, just a bit
difficult.
On the plus
side…they saw hundreds of dolphins, in big schools churning the water. There were albatross, and huge rafts of
mutton birds, and seals a-plenty on Seal Rock.
As well as this, Pete Attenborough is sure he saw a whale spouting. (He is very good at spotting whales.)
But if I
weigh up the phone call could I say 2XS was a happy cheery boat tonight?? Probably not…maybe after some restorative
wine and some fierce but fair backgammon games maybe a rosy glow will descend
upon Pete and Steve in Queenscliffe. And
I am going off to my dry little bed with a nice big glass of water, some games
of WWF (Words With Friends) to entertain me on my iPhone and a pleasant book to
read. And while yes of course I miss
Pete very much maybe I am glad I don’t have to lay my head on a damp pillow and
try to find a dry spot in a soggy bed right this minute.
