We didn’t stay sadly contemplating the potential warmth of Lynne’s hospitality in Lauderdale Beach for very long… The wind died down and we hopped into the tender and went straight in to the high tide beach. Lynne performed a loaves & fishes miracle for us, and for their cousin Michael and his lovely daughter Laura She wasn’t expecting anyone at all and out came a delicious three course meal, beautifully plated in Masterchef fashion. We were very happy and appreciative! Our first night at sea and we were dining in style at Stella Maris., Lynne’s gorgeous beach house. That’s the life!

When it was time to go back to 2XS we had to take off our shoes and paddle out a bit to get the tender out of the shallows – SO cold on our warm little feet! But we were soon back on the boat and straight into our warm and cosy bed, no complaints. Today, however, Pete had more than just a splishy splash of cold water on his tippytoes…

We left Lauderdale mid morning and had a beautiful trip up the coast, through the canal at Dunalley. I felt like royalty because tourists took photos of us as we glided through; Pete has been through many times so he took it in his stride. It was all very splendid, with sparkling sunshine, not too cold, a calm sea.

Pete thought we should stop at a mooring in Little Chinaman’s beach while he made some phone calls to organise a few things in Triabunna.

The best laid plans…We had a slight altercation with moorings and buoys – I won’t go into details – and we ended up with a big entanglement of chains and ropes around one of the propellers. After much discussion and attempts with the boat hook and a bit of heaving and tugging the only thing for it was for Pete to christen his wetsuit and get in the water. He had to dive under the boat over and over, loosening the tangle a bit each time, while I sat frozen with anxiety on the deck watching him slowly turn more and more mauve with cold. After more than two hours he succeeded in releasing the errant mooring. I was so relieved when he was at last in the hot shower. But it took at least another hour for him to stop shivering and shuddering. I had awful visions of having to ring all four of Pete’s children to say oh oops, Pete went under the boat and didn’t come up again…yes I know we have only been gone one day…

A bit of nature study… We saw lots of wonderful sea birds diving and roosting on the small islands between Lauderdale and here. I can’t actually say exactly what they were; I do have a Birds of Australia book on board and I will study it and learn to identify this or that species as time goes by…but for the moment I can just say some were cormorants, others probably gannets, or maybe terns…(Every time I see terns I am reminded of the My Word shaggy dog story one good tern deserves another and it makes me smile…Those My Word stories are so enduringly clever.) While Pete was in the water a very big skate swam peacefully along beneath him – he came up for air with his eyes wide. And just as he was, literally, at his last gasp and about to give up – well no ofcourse he wasn’t about to give up; he would have kept on diving under the boat saying, “I’ve nearly got it! One more time and it will be all fixed!” – two big black eagles flew right over the boat and circled the bay.

We are now sitting in Little Chinaman’s, firmly anchored at one end and moored at the other, with the once-attached white buoy bobbling innocently nearby. The big gas heater is roaring away; Pete is wearing many layers of thermals plus a balaclava-cum-beanie and we are both drinking a much needed G & T before I start peeling potatoes for dinner. So…all is well!!