Yesterday was almost a blue-hand day but not quite…

Pete bought me latex gloves, a small pack – we feared they might come in bulk 100-packs and really…how many does a person need?  NOT that many, surely??  So I put a pair nicely in my jeans pocket at the Domain slip and Pete drove off to pick up the missing safety vest (compulsory on the slip and the cause of much cursing when it was found to be missing) and I started stirring paint and setting up roller trays etc etc in James’s overalls…which did NOT have a pair of latex gloves in the pocket.  So by the time Pete came back my hands were slightly blue.  But…we had turps with us and now I am only moderately grotty and mauve around the cuticle area.

We achieved a lot of blueness in appropriate places ie the bottom of 2XS and we hope it is now completely totally anti-fouled and ready to face the sea and to repel all of the small marine creatures which want to make this space their permanent home.  We also visited the 2XS gearbox in Flagstaff Gully, where Glenn, the wonderful mechanic, has garage full of gear-fixing equipment.  With a bit of luck, this very clean boat will be up and running SOON!

Farewells…oh dear…I have been trying to avoid farewells.  I love my Hobart life.  Everything about it!  I love the city; my friends, my habits, my darling family… I am not embarking on this adventure because I want to escape from anything at all… I am never bored with this Hobart life; it meets all of my needs, aesthetically and emotionally.  Not to mention all of the theatre, music, art and gossip!

For the past not-so-sure-how-many years – probably, we think, since 1998 - I have been going to the Republic in in North Hobart after work every Wednesday night, just for a couple of hours.  What a nice thing to do… It is a loose group of people – the most there has ever been was 25 (this included offspring and hangers-on) and the least has been…one… (yes, me…)  We do include men but men are not the core group… My pubgirl friends are wonderful; I couldn’t refuse an offer for a sort-of farewell at Pauline’s house last Wednesday although I really don’t want farewells… .It was just pubgirls, and I thought we should just go ahead with our usual Republic arrangement.  But my friends all rose to the occasion and served up a five course fabulous feast.  I was very glad I had walked up UP the hill to Pauline’s house to be able to justify eating such a lot of delicious fare…

And today I am having a family farewell in South Hobart at my daughter Katy’s… The good thing is – we aren’t really leaving for at least another week, so I can do a John Farnham and be at the Republic next week, and see my family next weekend….

And last night was – the Royal Wedding!  Last time I watched a wedding with my family it was Diana and Charles…  Nicky was 7, Claire 5, Katy 3, Michael not born yet… Poor Katy fell asleep and woke the next morning to say, “I saw Diana in her cart; what happened next??

A very auspicious day – Pete’s birthday…he is a bit horrified.  How could he possibly be 65??  Not long ago, if he heard somebody had died at this age, he would have said, “Oh well, they had a good innings, didn’t they?”  And now, here he is, feeling very much in the first, or maybe second, flush of youth…and 65…nowhere near ready to cash in his chips and say, “Oh well I had a good innings.”

And auspicious for me – my second day of NOTworking… yesterday my old workfriend Kerrie came to visit, on her way to an appointment.  She arrived at 9am and we sat and drank coffee very happily on the couch for an hour – oh the luxury of not being in the office from 9-5…She retired over a year ago so it isn’t such a novelty to her, but for me it was quite extraordinary!

We got up early and set off to anti-foul 2XS, jauntily perched up UP on the Domain slip.  On the way we called in to see Martin, Pete’s son, busily working on the South Hobart renovation project.  He looked at me quizzically – “Is that what you’re wearing, to paint the boat?  Ummm…no.  take these!”  He handed me his brother James’s sturdy blue work overalls so I didn’t have to work wearing lemon yellow faux merino…

The boat looks huge up on the slip.  A great area of underbelly exposed to the world.  We got out our rollers and pans and had the whole thing covered with cobalt blue antifoul paint within about four hours.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, neither hot nor cold, brilliantly sunny, and it was really very pleasant work.  The Windeward Bound (sailtraining tall ship) was on the slip next to us, looking absolutely enormous out of the water.  The volunteer crew were certainly having a much harder job cleaning this boat than we were with 2XS.  They had to have scaffold put up, and were noisily scraping horrid rusty bits off with small spatulas.  I think Pete had the hard part of the job yesterday, cleaning all the grey grunge off.  We had company on 2XS – a lovely young marine electrician, Ben, who scampered knowledgeably up and down the big metal ladder to get on and off the boat with various mysterious tools.  We also had two lots of visitors, who had been driving across the bridge and had seen us down below.  Aha!  WHAT is going on?  Very nice to see Richard M with Larry and Bart, and then Richard D, but we couldn’t stop and talk at all because the paint starts going all hard if you don’t keep using it as fast as possible.

Eventually it was all as blue as could be.  Pete was still finding little bits to patch up, but I had finished all of my pots and scrapings so it was time to – oh no – examine my very blue, rapidly drying hands.  Time to wash off all of this paint.  Ofcourse you can already foresee what happens when you try to wash off antifoul boat paint with water…nothing!  It is totally impervious to water, as it should be.  I walked around whimpering faintly to myself – I very strongly disliked having dry blue painty hands.  Maybe the crew on the Windeward Boudn would have some useful product for dissolving all of this increasingly yucky blueness.  The scaffold builder was very friendly, and very sympathetic to my plight, and he asked some of the volunteers if they could help.  They were all very beautiful young people, backpackers from Sweden and the like.  One of them strolled up to me with a handful of product…delicately scented apricot scrub from the Body Shop.  This made my hands just as blue but sweeter smelling.  Ben the electrician gave me some acetone- yes ofcourse what I needed was POISON - and this smeared the blue into a different sort of all-encompassing paste.  Eventually Pete finished his patching and painting and we went and found a big bottle of turpentine, which did the trick, more or less.  We still have bright blue cuticles and knuckles… - lovely for our dinner at Shippies…

Tomorrow we do a second coat; I think I will buy some latex gloves….

The boat is finally UP on the Domain slip.  It took some judicious swearing from Pete to get it there – a few fraught moments… - and now it is up in the air, alongside Windeward Bound.  Tomorrow we are going to anti-foul it (details to follow; I can’t imagine how good an anti-fouler I will prove to be.)  A wonderful, reliable mechanic, Glenn, is fixing the gear-box – a shambles, according to Pete, - as we speak. 

Pete got home last night and was totally grey.  Hands, head, clothes, all covered with a fine grey sludgy substance.  I had dismantled my bed to put a new white skirt arrangement (yes I do now know this has a proper name – valance!) over the mattress and I needed his help but we looked at the bed, the man, the bed again and decided nothing at all should be done until a long hot shower with lots of soap.

Coff’s Harbour 2010

We spent a night last year at the marina in Coff’s Harbour.  It was the shabbiest marina yet, v tickytacky, with shabby old boats which would not dare show their pointy noses on the Gold Coast.  But it had a lovely amenities block and, best of all, CALM water…we had had a rough time at sea.  And I was able to do special treat things like scouring out the mat in the shower base with salty water – it was so unbelievably scummy it was actually a pleasure, to change it from slimy brown to pristine grey.

I had another treat – a delicious glass of water the previous day… There was a glass in the sink, so I rinsed it out carelessly, filled it from the cold tap, and skulled it.  Oh yuck… something wrong … I said to Pete, in some consternation, that the water we had just filled up the huge water tanks with must be contaminated.  Oh no, he said cheerily.  He had used that glass to measure out a dose of diesel to check his filters… I made some sort of choked reply indicating HORROR and he said, with wrinkled brow, “But a bit of diesel won’t hurt you!”  Exactly the same tone as when Angus said soothingly to Nicky, “Don’t be afraid of a shark, Mummy!” at Whitehaven Beach.

The boat is going up on the slip tomorrow for one last fix-everything session – bottom scrubbed, the works.  And my house is receiving similar treatment…

Here’s another bit from last year….in anticipation of this year

Hervey Bay 2010

We cruised back down (up?) the river in Bundaberg (begins with B… Burnett!!!…) the next morning with no mishaps, reversing the dogleg, admiring the mangroves, sugarcane, fallen-down-wharf etc.

Next stop was Urangan marina, in Hervey Bay. One reason for gong there was that Pete had told me that whales would be more than abundant in Hervey Bay.  In fact I might even get bored with the flapping of their tails, the launching of their bodies from the water.  So from the moment we left Bundaberg until we arrived in Urangan – not a solitary single bit of wildlife did we see!  Barely even a bird… but the whole of the Hervey Bay area is dedicated to whales . There are tour boats all along the coast, waiting to take you out in a big/small/fast/cosy boat to commune with nature and admire whales. There are theme shops, cafes, museums,

dedicated to The Whale…

So where were they???

Negotiating our way through the Sandy Straits between Fraser Island and the mainland was an eye-popping experience.  There is a trail of markers – yes, red and green – each within sight of the last. But only just… it was overcast and visibility not all that good.  Sometimes I would find the next RED marker and we would cruise happily towards it only to find that – oops – I had missed one or two along the way and we suddenly had to swerve quite dramatically to stop from running aground.  Or worse… (no I don’t know what WORSE would be…crocodiles, maybe??)

Attenborough moments: one osprey, sitting in a tree, and one sea turtle, moving purposefully down the channel.

On the way down the coast we admired the Glasshouse Mountains, how amazing they are, and told each other stories about how we had been there….

We left Urangan the next morning and set off through whale-less Hervey Bay, to arrive at Moolooloobah in the late afternoon. No we didn’t go and rush about the streets of Moolooloobah…all this sailing is very exhausting! But we did admire the mansions lining the canals, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the hot showers at the Wharf Marina – now there’s a travelogue for you!

We left Moolooloobah the next morning and sailed – ummmm - alongside the Glasshouse Mountains… “How lucky we are,” said Pete, “to be able to admire them TWICE!”

As soon as we were well and truly away from Hervey Bay, we were in Whale World.  They splished and splashed and leapt most athletically and energetically.  When we were getting to a tricky bit of navigation, we were suddenly in the midst of quite a large pod – maybe five were on the surface at any one time, all outdoing each other, showing off with huge leaps, tail slapping, enormous spouts.

It is Easter in Hobart and we are very nearly ready to go…

Pete has been scrubbing and re-organising his garage in West Hobart; I have been scrubbing this and that, emptying drawers, entertaining family & friends, and cleaning the oven.  Guess which was more fun?? Oh what a tricky question…I love family and fires, do NOT love scrubbing…

The boat is to go up on the Domain slip on Tuesday, so our departure date depends on the results of activities from then on.

I hope I have solved the Prose Poem Problem...Nobody has leapt aboard my blog to help so maybe nobody is reading and nobody has noticed how very peculiar it looked yesterday...

Bars 2010

We crossed one bar, I think when we were coming out of Urangan (Hervey Bay.) I found it very thrilling but I think Pete was white with dread…BIG waves, a big swell and uncertain exit route. We were very happy to find a fishing boat ahead of us and we followed it faithfully. Then we overtook it and I watched it behind us while Pete steered – “They are turning sharply to the left NOW!!!” And we got over into calm water on the other side.

Pete has a friend in Port Macquarie, Andrew. We had another difficult bar to negotiate, so he very kindly went to the marine rescue office and rang on Pete’s phone to guide us through the bar. It was quite hair raising coming over the bar – huge surf, a narrow entrance – we had to rush in on the waves heading straight for the little beach… I thought it was just great – wee HEEE – but Pete was rigid with tension. He did very well. I spoke to Andrew on the phone and relayed the info to Pete on the wheel. Easy peasy…for me…

I have just put out a new post which has made itslef into a sort of prose poem...why??/
Help!
iI don't know how to remove and edit it...the perils of being a novice...

When we are at sea I spend as little time as possible inside because – ahem – it makes

me sick.

I proved this in spectacular fashion last year…. Our plan was to speed down from the

Gold Coast to Coffs Harbour non-stop, doing two hour shifts at the wheel and on the

navigation. All was well until I went into the galley to make chicken salad for lunch…it

was very rolly and polly… I then forced myself to do the next log entry, which involves

peering at screens and making graph entries… So far, more or less, so good… The next

hour I tried to do it again and – ooops spent a miserable time hanging my head over the

back of the boat.  For the rest of the many long dark hours I sat with a bucket clenched

between my knees, occasionally getting rid of yet another meal from the previous few

days. Ghastly! Poor Pete was left with ALL of the driving and ALL of the navigation. I

tried to do an hour but failed quite dismally; I just couldn’t concentrate, and didn’t know

when I was hallucinating or when there really was a big boat on the radar screen coming

right at us… I’m not sure why it happened, all the vomiting and misery. I would have

taken a pill or two, but you can only take them half an hour BEFORE you start being ill…

Next time we do an overnighter I will take pills JUST IN CASE, in good time.

Today is my last day at work…

I can’t believe that I won’t be at my desk next week. 

My whole life revolves around work – getting ready to go, having a lunch break, deciding what to wear, having a weekend, meeting people at 5.06 or 1.00…How strange will it be to have all of this structure removed?? 

I am still looking at my sailing emails from last year – until we are actually under way/making way/whatever on 2XS I will keep finding bits to amuse myself (and, I hope, whoever happens to be reading…)

Steep learning curve (20th September 2010…)

Pete is teaching me to navigate and to keep an hourly log… AAGGHH!!   This involves keeping careful records of this and that; it also involves a compass, and a protractor, and charts and graphs… Imagine how good I am at all of this????

Oh well…

21^st September 2010

Re the hourly log… You will be amazed to hear… I am improving!  I can now (more or less…) pinpoint our position with the map, the compass, the co-ordinates… And I quite enjoy doing it – a challenge!!   Yes ofcourse there is electronic stuff on board; our log is largely redundant.  But…if the electronics fail, we still know where we are by the old-fashioned method of ummm…plotting the course on a big paper chart.

Diving in the Whitsundays in 2010

Pete was v keen for me to do a proper dive, as a reward for my efforts getting my PADI certificate last year, so we set off from Hamilton Island to the closest bit of the actual Barrier Reef.

It took about two hours to get out to Bait Reef.  We moored there on the one free buoy and had a half hour of snorkelling – Pete was on a mission to get into Hook Reef while the tide was right, so no hanging about!  It was very nice, ofcourse – beautiful clear water, fish, coral, but not as beautiful as Blue Pearl Bay, where we had been the day before with the Wakefields.  Never mind; we were very happy because we saw a shark.  A very small one, about half as big as me, but indisputably shark-like, swimming about busily below us.

Getting into Hardy’s Lagoon was a bit breath-taking.  Hook, Line and Sinker Reefs surround this lagoon, and it is like negotiating a maze to get in there, to the diving pontoons.   We finally managed, after a bit of hair-raising only-just getting over the coral bommies….aagghh… Finally we moored on a great big mooring buoy near the operating pontoon.  The other one, bobbing about a hundred metres away, has obviously been abandoned and it is home to hundreds of very happy raucous seabirds, who are busily turning it into a mound of guano.

Pete took the tender in to negotiate a place for us to moor, and a dive with a dive master, while I steered the boat v nervously around the narrow channel between the reef and the pontoons, trying not to drift backwards into delicate coral or forwards into…umm…delicate coral.  There was a huge mooring, made out of a tractor tyre, and we happily tied up to that, but an angry young bloke came zipping across in a motorboat to tell us to get OFF right now, thank you very much.   I think he put the reef far more in peril by having me in charge of the boat in the narrow channel… But you will be pleased to hear all was well and I did no damage.  In the meantime, Pete was on the pontoon, getting us organised for our next Attenborough moment.  He has the gift of the gab, our Pete… Within minutes we were moored on a big commercial buoy in Hardy’s Lagoon, and within half an hour we were getting our gear organised for a real dive on the Barrier Reef.  I hadn’t admitted to this but I was terrified… I haven’t been diving since I did my course in May, and I had very serious doubts about whether I would be able to do it ever again.   I was very proud of having attained my special plastic card, with a picture of pretty coral and not–so-pretty me gazing anxiously into the camera, but I had no confidence at all in my ability to get down deep, keep my earls equalised and my eardrums from bursting, keep breathing, stay alive etc etc…

Pete, however, is an unstoppable force of nature.  He was determined that I should dive on the Barrier Reef, and there was no way I could begin to explain that ummmm…maybe…I just couldn’t… It was the end of the day, about 4pm, and all the dive expeditions had departed, on Fantasea, the big boat which brings them out from Airlie Beach.  There were only three people left on the pontoon, a skeleton crew staying overnight.  One of them, Jen from Manchester, is a dive master, and she was quite happy to take us out, although it was supposed to be the end of her work day.  She was very calm, competent, pleasant, and it turned out to be just wonderful.  For a start, this pontoon has a most fabulous diving facility.  We went down into an enclosed pool area under the platform where we could easily hold onto the railings and put our flippers on.  Then we followed Jen holding onto a firm rope which led down to about 14 metres.  So easy and gradual; I was able to unblock my ears every ten seconds or so; by the time we were right down my ears were fine, no pain, no about-to-burst eardrums.   I was SO happy.  We swam against the current along the reef wall for twenty minutes, then back for another twenty minutes, with five minutes getting back to the surface.   It was ofcourse, magical and fabulous.  And best of all – I found a huge sea turtle, just idling near the reef wall, gazing into the middle distance.  We went right up close to it, about a metre away, and gazed at it lovingly.  Davina Attenborough strikes again!  Jen said they don’t always see turtles; it is very noisy during the day near the pontoon, and the turtles keep away. 

When we were getting changed, I asked Jen if they do night dives.  She shuddered and said, “No – the boys sometimes go out, for their own amusement, but you wouldn’t catch me going in the water at night!”  We asked why and she said, “That is when the really big sharks come in.  It is too noisy for them during the day…”  When we were back on 2XS Pete and I spent quite a lot of time gazing hopefully into the water with his spotlight and his underwater viewer, hoping to see the big sharks coming in…but not a sight of any fish at all.

Yesterday we got up at 5.30 and made our way out of the maze of coral.  We had to leave then; it all depended on the tide, and the visibility.  I had to stand up the front and watch out for coral bommies… I have lost several years of my life, this was very nerve-racking… I would hold up my hand and shout, “Stop!  Go back!  You can’t go forwards...or backwards…or left…or right…maybe there’s a small gap just over there…” And yes we did make it but oh dear….

I have found some emails I wrote last year when we sailed 2XS down from the Whitsundays to Sydney, mid-September to mid-October.  The following was written when my daughter Nicky, her husband Gavin, and The Boys, Hamish (10) and Angus (8) were with us for three days before we left to charge down the coast.

Hamish and Angus were wonderful.  They enjoyed everything, were polite and happy, and kept themselves busy and quiet with Simpsons cartoons, soccer magazines, and their tiny little DVD player when nothing more adventurous was on offer.  Angus was ecstatic because he and Gavin snorkelled alongside a turtle this morning… We are all v envious, although we all did see many wonderful fish and coral at Blue Pearl Bay.  Nicky and Gavin were very happy to relax and enjoy the boat, the company, the scenery.  In fact I think I am writing the world’s most boring email… I am feeling v happy and relaxed too.

We had one night in Nara Inlet, where Pete took all the Wakefields on the short walk up to a cave with Aboriginal paintings. 

The next night we spent at Whitehaven Beach.  We went snorkelling at the end of the beach, and Nicky was very excited to see a shark.  It was, she said, bigger than her, and it moseyed along without seemed very interested.  Hamish was out of the water so fast it was as if his flippers were jet propelled… Angus stood benignly in the shallows, saying, in kind and soothing tones, “There’s no need to be afraid of a shark, Mummy” before he was back snorkelling along the rocks… I walked back along the beach to swim out to the boat and passed a woman who was camping at Whitehaven with her children.  She pointed out some turtles and said that she had seen a reef shark which had brushed past her on its way out to deeper water.  The next day Nicky and Gavin took the boys in to the beach in the tender, and Nicky heard a very excited conversation in a foreign language, which was basically “blah blah blah THIS BIG (in sign language…) blah blah” so this shark is obviously having a good time entertaining visitors to Whitehaven.

The next day we stopped at the most gorgeous idyllic little beach, Pinnacle Bay, I think.  Picture postcard perfect… Everyone went in to the beach in the tender, except me… I wanted to swim in…and back… Why do I have these superwoman pretensions??  I’m not really a very strong swimmer!  Fortunately I was wearing the enormous garage sale flippers which Pete bought and which have the effect of putting a big outboard motor on a small boat, otherwise I would never have made it back to the boat through the current and I would have had to be lugged aboard the tender in ignominious style… We all snorkelled around the rocks in Pinnacle Bay, but the coral was mostly dead, bashed by the violent storms they have in this part of the world.  So disappointing, especially for Angus, who REALLY wanted a Barrier Reef EXPERIENCE.  I lost track of Pete when I went back to check on Hamish and Angus, and then I lost him altogether… One of the most unpleasant moments of my life… I wanted to swim off to look for him, but Nicky called in her most stern teacher voice, “Mum come here to me NOW!!”  Gavin had the height advantage in the tender, and he was able to find Pete, who had gone a long way in the current.  They all chugged merrily back to the boat while Nicky and I swam…and swam…and swam… It is so hard swimming against the current.  I swallowed gallons of seawater and was very glad to haul myself up the ladder when I finally reached 2XS.

We moved on to Blue Pearl Bay where we waited patiently for a mooring.  We waited for an hour, then another hour, then… oh yawn… while a commercial catamaran,  Powerplay, loaded and unloaded divers on and off the beach.  They were obviously making a doco; they had shrieking girls in bikinis jumping cutely off the roof, and young men with ripped muscles frolicking in the bubblespa on the front deck.  They knew we were waiting, and had told us they would be another or hour so… Other boats were also waiting, but they knew we were next in line.  Just at sunset, a young bloke came over in a tender and said, casually, “We’ve decided to stay here overnight and do some night diving. See ya!”  Well, the crossness!!!  We were all outraged and some very choice language, you may be surprised to hear, fell from Headlam lips, to the delight of the younger Wakefields.  It was getting dark, v late to be looking for a mooring… Fortunately we found one just around the corner, here actually, on Langford Reef.  We had been here half an hour and oh look, what was coming past –that bloody Powerplay!!  They had done the dirty on us and had “given” the mooring to their friends in another cat.  Outrage!!  Consternation!!  War!  The boys were all so excited, none more than Pete.  He shone his search and rescue beacon on them in an AHA!  We know of your perfidy! way.  Nicky shouted at them in her Teacher Tones while the younger boys plotted dastardly revenge.  We all got over it but it created a lot of energy….

This morning we went to Blue Pearl Bay by eight and were all immediately snorkelling v happily, with five sets of equipment between six people – a bit of swapping.   Angus got his Barrier Reef experience…and we all saw many fish and lots of coral; bliss!

Some things sink, others float.  Those items which sink do so very rapidly, straight to the bottom, without trace…

This is one of the sad lessons I have learned while sailing…

The first thing I lost was our trusty and essential boat hook.  My role, when we are coming in to a mooring, is to stand like Poseidon on the front of the boat, either port or starboard, depending on which way the sea is moving, the wind is blowing, the ice caps are melting… Pete slows right down, according to my semaphored instructions, and then when we get close enough I have to hook the heavy, wet loop of rope, pull it up, and get it secured to a stanchion quick smart.  Otherwise we keep on sailing past and have to turn around and come back and start all over again.  Poseidon posture, semaphore, lunge…the whole kit and caboodle.  Many possibilities for error.

In the process of mooring Eroica (in the pre-2XS days) at Airlie Beach a few years ago, I managed to get the loop of rope secured, but let the boothook slip through my nerveless fingers.  I didn’t actually think this was much of a problem – wouldn’t a boathook be – well WOULDN’T it be??? – floaty??  No, apparently not.  Not this one.  It sped for the depths like a javelin, never to be seen again.  We had to slink off to the shop at the marina to replace it.  I think it had been specifically designed to sink, to keep such shops in business.

The boat hook on 2XS, to my great relief, is a sturdy wooden affair which does not sink, not at all.  When I drop it into the water (yes this still happens...) it just bobs about like Excalibur, waiting for me to pluck it back out of the water.  I am inordinately fond of it.

Another item which, to my sorrow, has sunk without trace is my gold bracelet, the one I bought with much effort in the heat and dust of Mumbai.  It suddenly came undone and disappeared before I could do more than utter a startled yelp, when I was sitting on the trampolines discussing ocean race swimming with Bridget Walch.  No I have never done such a thing – the very idea!! – but Bridget is, or has been, a champ!

But my very worst sinking story involves…alcohol.  Not consumed but lost forever.  Pete’s daughter Rebecca was on Daydream Island with her husband (also Pete) and little girls.  Pete and I did a mercy dash to the bottle shop at Airlie Beach to stock up on gin – two bottles of cheaper stuff, two bottle of the best.  Nothing like a soothing gin and tonic when on holiday… Oh and yes we bought other things.  Cheap things like potatoes and carrots and teabags.  Unlike the gin, totally replaceable and unimportant.  We unpacked all the groceries from the tender to the deck of Eroica – Pete in the tender handing things up, me niftily arranging things on the loading platform.  On top of the rope (yes I do know it is called a painter but I don’t want to be too much of a boaty show-off) which ties the tender to the boat… Just one little jerk and splish splash what was THAT?  Oh only the two best bottles of gin, plunging, like the aforementioned boathook, straight to the depths.  I looked down in horror, then happened to catch sight of Pete.  Now Pete has a very nice look about him; he is smiley and affable and almost invariably cheerful.  So who was this man looking at me with such a grim expression??  I think I also heard some extremely rude words – but we will gloss over this very painful – for both Pete and me – moment…

We have already had some very fabulous David Attenborough moments.  On the way back down from the Whitsundays to Sydney September-October last year we saw what we reckon was about 200 whales.  No not all at once, and yes sometimes it might have been the same one popping up again to confuse us… But – a lot of sightings!  Each as exciting as could be.  Some were just a spout or two on the horizon, while other more co-operative cetaceans did incredible gymnastic feats right up close to the boat, complete with tail waving and acrobatic leaping and splashing.  Just wonderful.  Very hard to concentrate on Collision Regulations but fortunately we didn’t know about them, last year.  We would just see a boat and say, “Oh look, there’s a boat.  With pretty flags.  I wonder where they are going?”  Whereas now we will be scanning other boats anxiously for signs of distress, restriction in draught, trawling and/or fishing; running aground, operating a diving unit…

The mainland whales were indeed fabulous but very recently we had a day of nature overload, just here in the Derwent.  We took my daughter Claire, her husband Stuart, their children Jemima (3) and Felix (not yet one) along with Hamish and Angus, the senior grandchildren in my family (soon to turn 11 and 9) for a lunchtime cruise down as far as Denne’s Point, on North Bruny.  Not very far from town at all.  Hamish and Angus were very happy because they caught a mass of squid.  Beautiful fish which squirted big quantities of black ink at them.  Pete and I had a hands-on Nature Study lesson that night as we learned how to clean them – a very laborious task.  Hamish and Angus were totally exhausted, otherwise we would have made them arise from their recliner chairs in front of the TV and help.  Next time, we told them!  Angus looked at us, with some irritation, and said, “But, after all, we CAUGHT them!” as if they had done all of the hard work.  It was in fact worth the effort.  I am very squeamish but I got over it – I didn’t want these beautiful fish to have died for nothing, so I got into peeling and scraping and preparing them.  And they were indeed totally delicious.

The squid were just the beginning.  We saw flocks of little penguins (sadly no longer called fairy penguins) and the usual gulls, silver and pacific.  A large pod of dolphins leapt past, not all that close to the boat, but still close to make us very happy.  There were also several seals, not at all alarmed by the boat.  Pete steered towards one of them, which was lolling about lethargically on its back.  As we got closer we could see that it was enjoying itself very much tormenting a large octopus – throwing it into the air, catching it, letting it go, repeating the process.  Not long after this, as we were going past Tinderbox, I saw a long black shape in the water straight ahead.  I alerted Pete Attenborough, who steered straight towards it, and prepared Claire for a possible sighting of – a whale!  Claire is 35 and has been wanting to see a whale all of her life.  Recently they have been leaping and prancing not far from her house in Blackmans Bay – “Oh it’s not fair!” she says, in plaintive tones.  “I walk on the beach every single day and am always there just after or just before a whale sighting!”  She thought she was going to be like her mother and not see a whale until she was sixty.  But there it ws, right in front of us; unmistakably a whale!  The whale saw us and very obliging swam right up to and then under the boat, bringing with it a calf. 

So how wonderful was that??  Perfect warm sunny weather, calm seas, sparkling water, an abundance of entrancing wildlife, right on our doorstep!

Nature study – that can be one of the Things to Keep The Woman Occupied on a long sailing trip.  I am happy with this idea, love a bit of nature.  I do already spend a lot of time scanning the sea for mammals and/or fish, and the sky for birds.  It’s time maybe to find out a bit more.  I would be very happy if I could identify at least a few species with some accuracy. 

Dorothy Darden, from the Adagio Journal blog, told us some amazing bird stories at dinner one night.  I don’t think Pete and I will be replicating these experiences any time soon…

Steve and Dorothy sail long distances, to and from the USA.  They have had albatross settle on the deck and travel with them for days – hitchhiking!  Also storks have landed and wandered around to have a look in the saloon before flying lazily off again.  For our part, we have occasionally had a very small swallow or two settle on the mast in the Whitsundays…

Some of their friends had a horrific story about sailing in tandem with another yacht, somewhere off the coast of Africa.  No they didn’t get waylaid by pirates – this is a Nature Story not a Murder and Mayhem Story - but one of the yachts was a beacon for a flock of – vultures!  They circled and then landed on the rigging, where they stayed – another lot of happy hitchhikers.  The crew were not as delighted.  The birds pooped all over the deck, and were starting to make the boat top-heavy.  They were in danger of falling over so they radio-ed their friends.  Not a problem…their friends had a shotgun.  They got close enough and fired a round at the birds to scare them off.  Success!  The whole little flock rose from the first boat and – settled on the second one…

It all sounds great, doesn’t it?

Take some time off and go sailing away, literally, for a year and a day.

Not in a pea green boat but in a lovely big solid catamaran - 2XS…

The idea has been hovering and developing over quite some time and my very helpful contribution to preparations is to start a blog…

Oh and to do some useful courses…

Last year I very helpfully did a PADI scuba diving course.

So if we had lots of equipment and were ever in need to have somebody under the boat in water down to (I can’t remember how many) metres…well I would be ready willing and able!

Pete and I did a marine radio course.  Three Wednesday nights 6.30-9.30 - this does sound daunting, doesn’t it??  We learned how to change the radio from one channel or another as directed and to say our bit, which hopefully will never be MAYDAY.  We both passed our (multiple choice…) exam and have licences; mine has SUCH an ugly photo… When my niece Jo saw it she laughed heartily and said she hopes that if I am lost at sea this isn’t the photo they put on the front of the Mercury…

And we also attended a very alarming course on Collision Regulations, without having to do the exam.  This went from 6.30 to nearly 11.00 Tuesday nights…how tired were we??  Tired and ALARMED!  So many ways to come to grief at sea… Our teacher, Jeremy, was a total rockstar – so knowledgeable and enthusiastic – that is why we were there till 11.00.  I hope we absorbed a whole lot of useful knowledge.  At least now we know that lights, shapes, symbols and flags all have a meaning, and are not just to make boats look pretty…

One of the things I have been doing is reading books and blogs.

First thing - I NEVER want to go anywhere near the Southern Ocean.  It sounds way too scary - cold and BIG.  Fortunately, we don’t need to…Thank you Sir Francis Chichester; ditto Pete Goss.

The books-and-blogs research has been very interesting, alarming, amusing…

Men tend to write about:

Gear first and foremost.  They wax lyrical about Gen sets, batteries, water makers, engines, bilge pumps, different sorts of ropes & pulleys & attachments.  They also glory in Man and Boat versus The Ocean. 

Another underlying theme with the men is…how to keep your woman happy on board.  There is a general understanding that an unhappy woman is not a good thing…your idyllic life at sea will be under threat!

As for women…

Well they do write a bit about gear, weather, relationships on board.

But they also write about…

Seasickness and how to deal with it/prevent it/survive it

How to keep yourself occupied

How to stop your skin from turning into leather from all the fresh air and cold salty water

How to wash your hair, if necessary, in seawater

I have been paying particular attention to all of the hints on how to keep yourself occupied at sea.

First on the list is reading.  Well ofcourse - I have always been a reader, never have less than three books on the go at any given time.  And now I have my beloved kindle I will never be without reading material, and my poor books won’t go all soggy and festy in the sea air.  So - a tick for this item.  Mind you I am a teensy bit disillusioned with the kindle system…so many books I want to download (ie by paying cold hard cash for them) are “Not available to Australian readers.”  In fact, most of them.  Damn and blast!  I suppose this is to protect local bookshops, which is all well and good, but local book shops can’t provide me with waterproof lightweight electronic books, can they?

Next is - writing… Many of these fearless seafaring women have taken to writing, producing novels, textbooks, cookbooks; I am mightily impressed!  But I think I will just aim to write a blog for my friends and family… I actually (guilty pleasure…) read lots of blogs.  All manner of them, and I find lots of pleasure, guilty or not, from regular updates from my blogiverse friends.  Not that I am much of a contributor; I tend to read and lurk and only very occasionally send an encouraging comment.

Craft work - apparently many women find endless enjoyment and solace in making jewellery from found objects eg shells.  And yes I am a wee bit obsessive about crafty projects... I have been a very keen and prolific knitter for many years.  My friends are all wonderful knitters; they undertake the most complicated projects, such as steeking and … well I can’t think of anything more daunting than steeking; look it up and your eyes will widen in amazement!  I am not particularly skilled or adventurous but I am, as I said extremely prolific and have made, for example, endless numbers of small baby jumpers, for all of the new babies popping up around us, all with the same knitted-in elephant which I find endlessly cute and fascinating.  (The jumpers not the babies have knitted-in elephants…) 

A few years ago when Pete and I spent some time sailing in the Whitsundays on Eroica (another big cat in which Pete had a 1/9^th share) I did knit, obsessively and prolifically.  I made stripey vests for three of Pete’s granddaughters (Ella, Tessa, Holly,) who were staying in the area and spending time on the boat with us… And yes I am sure I was the only person knitting in the entire Whitsunday Passage… But I fear my knitting days are over… I have developed a very small but very painful RSI thingy in my left arm.  Just enough to stop me in my tracks.  Maybe it is a sign from the heavens that the world has enough small baby jumpers with knitted-in elephants…who knows.  And no I don’t think I will take up jewellery making.  Maybe the world has enough beautiful necklaces made from shells…made by somebody other than me… And possibly Pete doesn’t need me becoming all obsessive about a new craft project which will lead to small and fiddly, not to mention sharp, things being scattered all over the table and the carpet…ouchy ouch!  The more I think about it the more I think he would prefer me to confine my activities to reading and writing…

Oh and Nature Study!!  I do love a bit of wildlife… Seals and whales and dolphins…and birds.. We will have to get very knowledgeable.

We aren’t ready to leave yet.  This stage involves putting our lives in boxes.  Pete has completed his packing and sorting; I am halfway through… And now he is concentrating on getting the boat ready.  A mammoth task!  New radar, new chart, sails all fixed, new windscreens so now we can actually see through them… A huge and daunting list of improvements and changes.  I am still at work so am not contributing anything at all to the preparations; possibly all I would be contributing would be…getting in the way…