Pete up the mast – haircut – Adriano Zumbo – sailchute – Jeep Tommy

This morning first thing – fortunately AFTER I had had a soothing cup of tea – we had an exciting little time on 2XS. Pete needed me to winch him up the mast so that he could attach a halyard (I won’t go into details…) I had to hoick him up and let him down TWICE. Yes there is an electric winch but…I had his life in my hands at the end of a slippery rope, wound twice around around the winch, and once, for good measure, around my waist. And there high above my head, in a faint but threatening breeze, was Pete, looking, from where I stood, about the size of a large koala. I couldn’t bear to look up… I did not enjoy this at all…

At 9.00 Karen, my wonderful sister-in-law, came to pick me up. I had asked her to help me with a hair mission – my hair grows like a weed, and I really had to get it cut before leaving Sydney. Pete said he could cut it, with his Leatherman scissors, but…I was (strange, that,) not attracted to this idea. I won’t bore you with details, but Karen’s choice, Marcello, was very professional, and did just what I asked and wanted. I am hoping to have hair which doesn’t look as dreadful in the tropics as usual…it goes what Pete calls “frantic” in hot, humid conditions, and my usual hairstyle, which requires blow-drying and smoothness, just doesn’t work. So now it is shorter and more layered. Pete likes it very much, so all is well – thank you Karen, thank you Marcello!!

Karen and I had coffee in Manly afterwards, then a nice little stroll along to the next beach. It may be cold but the beach was full of people surfing, swimming, cavorting on the sand. On the way back, we stopped at a small corner shop on the Corso. Karen said, “They sell the very best macarons in there!” I love macarons so I was in there like a shot, to find, to my joy, that I was in Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie! (Masterchef watchers will know who I am talking about with such admiration!) The shop was totally packed, elbow to elbow, with people buying beautiful delicacies. I elbowed my way in – SydneyGirl nowl! - and bought 6 macarons and three quiches.

We went back to 2XS via Karen’s kitchen to pick up a thermos of (delicious!) vegetable soup so we had a most fabulous lunch of quiche and soup sitting on the deck. Chris was already on 2XS – he had done his 150 kilometer training bike ride for the day – so I was no longer on up-the-mast duty. (Thank God…This has to be my least favourite 2xsJob.) I very happily got some soapy water and devoted myself to a much more pleasant task – scrubbing the marks off the starboard side of the boat. This mightn’t sound like fun, but it was very satisfying because the marks were big and ugly – proof of our rough but safe times tied up alongside fishing boats such as Devocean – and they responded (surprisingly) very well to a bit of warm soapy water and a green pot scourer.

By the time I had got all but the most stubborn tyre marks off (Devocean had big used tyres for fenders) Pete had a new person on the boat – Phil, who runs a parasailing business. He is now also selling parachute-type sails for yachts – sailchutes. They are new on the market; if Pete buys one it will be the third one sold in Australia… So off we went, onto busy BUSY Sydney Harbour, to test out a sailchute! WEEHEE what fun!! I was very attracted to this new toy; it was bright and pretty – beautiful in fact – and it belled out in front of the boat in a most satisfactory and elegant manner. By the time we had to pull it back in, the sky had darkened and a bitter, cold rain was making its presence felt. But – never mind! I was very keen to pull in the cords. I had watched the promotional film on the computer, and I knew that the cords need to be made into a chain, like crocheting. Just my thing! We got it all stuffed back into the bag, with the cords beautifully chained, just as the rain came down in earnest.

So now we are happily ensconced in the cabin, with the heater on, playing with our computers and idly chatting about how much we loved the sailchute.

Tonight we are going back to Chris and Karen’s for dinner. Karen’s parents, Maureen and Tommy Hafey, are arriving for the weekend from Sydney. Tommy is in a TV ad at the moment. You may have seen it. Jeep is turning 70 this year, and they have recruited Tommy to be the face and body of Jeep. It is a great ad – there is Tommy, flexing his muscles, swimming in surf, running on beaches, and talking about how you don’t have to give up on fitness and life just because you are seventy. He looks fantastic! And…he is not in fact seventy; next year he will be eighty! Karen said her father is delighted; he got a new Jeep, for this work, and he is now driving around Melbourne hanging out the window hoping people will say, “Hey! Isn’t that Tom Hafey the Jeep Man!! The footy legend??” She wasn’t all that impressed with the film crew… It was very cold, and they kept wanting to do more shots of Tommy in the surf. “Just go back in, mate, we need another camera angle!” The crew, ofcourse, were all rugged up in polar fleeces, and there was Tommy, valiantly diving in and out of the surf in Speedos, getting colder and colder… he nearly got hypothermia!