The weather gods are being very kind to us. Today we had a most magnificent cruise, from Little Chinaman’s Bay up to Triabunna. Glorious balmy sunshine, smooth gleaming sea all the way.

Pete started the day with…another swim! One of his big industrial strength flippers had fallen off his foot during his under-the-boat ordeal yesterday, and he was determined to retrieve it. I was not in favour of this endeavour. You may gather that I REALLY didn’t enjoy seeing him turn mauve with cold over the more than two hours he spent struggling with the recalcitrant ropes and chains attaching the errant buoy to the propeller. So when he jauntily asked me to help him get zipped back into his wetsuit I did so with a very disapproving expression. In general Pete doesn’t enjoy being in the water anywhere near as much as I do. “Ow!” he yells. “It’s COLD! I hate this!” I splish and splash about, joyfully gushing about how good the cold water is for our general well-being, in what must be a fairly annoying way. So imagine my surprise as I watched Pete this morning darting around in his back-and-silver wetsuit, showing no signs of cold or misery. He didn’t find the flipper but came out expounding about the beauty of the fish he had seen, and the general balminess of the water. Is he going to turn into a regular coldwater swimmer?? We will see!!!

I had my Birds of Australia book at the ready this morning but I didn’t do very well identifying any of the seabirds we saw. I was certain that some of them were albatross, but the book seemed to be indicating that they were petrels. Never mind; they were extremely beautiful, and made me happy whether they were albatross or petrels… We also saw one solitary seal, which was lolling about in a very relaxed manner near the big fish farm between Maria Island and the mainland. Obviously a very happy feeding ground.

We are tied up to the jetty in Triabunna until at least tomorrow because Pete is getting a bit of welding work done, by a cheering young (it is for sale, if you are after a cray boat...), so getting on and off involves climbing over two lots of rails with a bit of a leap from the fishing boat to the wharf. We have managed this with no loss of property, and have even managed to heave our bikes over to dry land. Weehee what fun!

Triabunna is a lovely little town, particularly in this very beautiful weather. The streets are wide and flat, perfect for bike riding. And our new bikes are just fantastic; I am wildly enthusiastic about mine. It is so easy to ride, with smooth, easy gears, and it goes like the wind. We rode past some young children being picked up from school. One of the boys, about 8 years old, ran out into the road after me, shouting, “I love your bike! I WANT your bike! Come back!” while his mother shouted, “Get OFF the road Jayden!!”

In case you are not familiar with Triabunna, let me tell you it is NOT a tourist town. It is a
items. For example, a full-sized pot-bellied stove, completely white, made of felt…

Tonight we are having dinner at the Triabunna pub, which is about 20 metres from 2XS and which has a lovely roaring fire and a cheery barmaid awaiting us (we checked it out at lunchtime).