Sunday 15^th January

We have had a wonderful and most memorable month in Tasmania.

Now we are back in Queensland, trying to leave Sanctuary Cove marina…

Oh dear and oh no – what is Pete doing??  We are tied up to the fuel wharf and he is down in the engines, with Nick, the lovely young marina boat mechanic, trying to MacGuyver the steering, which doesn’t seem to be working at all.  Well not working in the way one would like steering to work… I am happily sitting at the table with my computer and my new internet connection thingy, all working well.  It is warm, and drizzly.  My role in the steering debacle is to make soothing sounds and keep out of the way.

Other than that the boat looks well, very clean and shiny after a few days with Cam and Del on board.  They bought it a new pump for the dinghy, some white china mugs, a can opener (yes we did have one but maybe it was a bit tinny Solomons-Islands-ish…).  The fridge didn’t seem to want to work at all; I think it was sulking after a month of neglect – Cam and Del didn’t use it or turn it on.  But now it is happily doing its job, making things cold, freezing some ice for our nightly G & T.

Last night we took Tim and Sally, our Tasmanian/Gold Coast friends, to dinner, with Twyla, my Tasmanian/Brisbane sister-in-law.  We went back to George’s Paragon seafood restaurant, and it was absolutely delicious, yet again.  Pete and I had the special – lobster mornay with steamed veggies.  Tim and Sally had picked us up from the airport in Coolangatta, fed us a lovely salad lunch in their wonderful new house on the Broadwater, and lent us their ute (The Uterus again) to buy a boatload of groceries.  We did one spasm of shopping in Aldi before going back into the more familiar territory of Coles.  Aldi, as my brother Pete has always said, is like being in a different world.  Strange brands…where are they from??  Much stranger than in any of the Pacific Island city supermarkets.  I felt quite relieved when we finished in Aldi and moved on to Coles – Coon cheese, not Coan, Duck River butter, not Butterly butter… Aldi is just too Twilight Zone for my liking.

I think I will post this, ummm, post, and maybe write a little bit about our Tasmanian month, once the steering issue is resolved – I am sure everyone reading this will be holding their collective breath for a resolution of the problem.  (Steering is important…)