22nd January

Sunday 22^nd January

Yesterday we abandoned 2XS on the sandbank and spent the late afternoon and then the evening with Cam and Del in Runaway Bay.  Cam’s delightful granddaughter Amy was there too; she is ten now and I enjoyed showing her Scrabble on my iPhone.  She was very taken with it and very speedily found the Best Word (cheat) function.  I very nobly pretended that I REALLY did believe she had come up with words like optimus and zebu.  I did unkindly say, “Goodness, Amy, zebu!  Great word, great score.  But…Do you know exactly what a zebu is?”  But most of the time I went along with it. 

We had a wonderful seafood feast – Moreton Bay bugs, prawns, oysters from the Hawkesbury, and fish fillets for Amy and Del who weren’t all that keen on the shellfish.  Cam kindly drove us back to Bum’s Bay, where we were able to wade out to 2XS, still standing proudly on the sandbar.  This morning the tide was very high and we were able to float on out of the bay as if we had never been grounded.  (Or sanded…)

We are now – guess where?? – back at Sanctuary Cove Marina.  This time we have a berth just a bit closer to the bathroom facilities, which is very pleasing to me.  We can’t head south yet.  Something needs to be fixed on the steering, and in any case the wind is blowing entirely the wrong way.  Conditions out there on the ocean, or so we hear, are Not Good.  There are worse places to be stuck than Sanctuary Cove…

Cam, Del and Amy were here this morning, visiting Tim and Sally at the nearby boatyard, where they are doing hard yards on their beautiful boat, which has A Problem which needs much backbreaking labour.  They met us at 12 and Cam very kindly shouted us lunch at a lovely café – Sanctuary Cove Village is all stylish little shops and cafes and restaurants.

After lunch, Cam got the car and said, “OK, everybody get in.”  Del and I started to move towards the car and then I, suspiciously, asked why…2XS was only a hundred or so metres away – why were we getting into the car??  Pete and Cam looked at me with big round eyes.  “Well we are going to look at Tim and Sally’s boat, of course!”  I baulked at this – I have seen Tim and Sally’s gorgeous boat, an Alaskan, all gleaming woodwork and stainless steel, and I have admired it immensely.  At their place, tied up cutely to a pontoon.  I did not want to see it up on a hoist, with its poor beleaguered underbelly in full view, and with poor beleaguered Tim and Sally scrubbing and painting and sanding.  Nor, did I imagine, would Tim and Sally want us standing around gawking and not being able to do anything helpful.  I dug my heels in and said to Del, “I would much rather wander around and look in the shops.  What about you?”  Oh what a difficult question…she scampered around to my side of the car, eyes bright, and within seconds Amy had slid out of the back seat and was standing firmly at our side.  Pete and Cam looked so bewildered – how could we prefer to wander around looking in lovely little boutiques to standing in the hot sun looking at Tim and Sally’s boat on a hoist???

As it turned out they had a perfectly lovely time watching Tim and Sally do the hard yards, while the breakaway group enjoyed itself in a perfectly pleasant and mild manner.  We looked in every shop, admired every item of clothing and footwear, gasped at prices - $459 for a pair of denim shorts!!! – and had a delicious icecream while sitting and listening to a very nice singer called Rhydian Lewis.  (I have his card – he “specialises in Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Dean Martin and Paul Anka.”  Ofcourse!)

In the late afternoon Cam, Del and Amy went home.  I bought Pete a beer and sat him down to listen to Rhydian, for whom I bought a cup of coffee.  He came and talked to us after his gig, and told us about the fabulous pool at the Hyatt, just around the back of the marina.   So Pete and I got back on the trusty bikes and rode along the path to the Hyatt Hotel grounds.  The pool looks gorgeous – crystal clear blue water, with a white sandy bottom and (fake) beach.  There doesn’t seem to be anything preventing the likes of us from sneaking a swim so maybe tomorrow… I actually have my eye on some Jets bathers in one of the boutiques – pink and white check, very fetching – in Jets bathers nobody would ever suspect I wasn’t a Hyatt guest, would they??

We were on a mission to go to the supermarket, so we rode off along the beautiful winding Sanctuary Cove avenue, with its hauntingly beautiful flower sculptures, huge banksias, symmetrical palms.  We became aware of a path running parallel – aha, a bike track!  I am so law-abiding I immediately wheeled my bike through the bushes so I would be on The Correct Path, and Pete followed shortly.  It was a lovely wide concrete path, winding its way picturesquely through…oh no…a huge golf course… At first we were entranced – kangaroos!  Oh look!  Another one!  And another…dozen!  They were fabulous, many with big joeys lolling nonchalantly half- in half-out of their mothers’ pouches.  Big grey ones, big red ones.  And all equally fascinated by the sight of us.  They stood up tall and gazed at us, with their big ears pricked.  “Oh look!  People on BIKES!  Oh the horror and the scandal!”  Because we soon became aware that we weren’t supposed to be on the course at all… A few people pulled up in their golf buggies and said, “You’re not supposed to be riding on the course, you know.”  Well yes… but how could we get OFF the course??  It was such a maze of tracks.  By the time we finally burst out of Golf and Kangaroo World I think a dozen buggies had veered towards us to shoo us away…

Once back on the right track we found a big Coles supermarket and bought a few items.  Now we are happily back on the boat.  It has been very hot – no more need for my ugg boots, they are back in the cupboard.  It has been raining, and it is now a very pleasant temperature.  I just had a lovely hot shower in the (nearby!) amenities block, and Pete is listening to the cricket.  All is well in 2XS World.