Wednesday 25^th January

And oh how it has rained! 

All night and all morning.  We felt as if we were living inside an aquarium.  Well a strange aquarium with water on the outside, but I hope you get the concept.

At 7.30 I squelched my way over to the ablutions facilities and I am not so sure why I bothered with a towel at all…

When I came out, wearing, fetchingly, Pete’s big bright yellow rain slicker over my nightie, topped with a very wet Tilley hat, I met a couple, sheltering from the rain on some plastic chairs, with their dear old Weimaraner.  They are living on a small yacht in the marina, and they have to take their dog off every so often for his own ablutions.  They were very keen for an early morning chat.  Julie is originally from Tasmania, and is in fact a granddaughter of our former premier, Eric Reece.  A very lovely grandfather he was she told me, and I can well believe it.  Chris asked me a bit about 2XS, and was very relieved to hear that we use it a lot, as a boat, and as a small floating home.  He said that lots of the boats here in Sanctuary Cove sit here in pristine splendour, and rarely go out past the Couran River.  Recently Chris and Julie were invited onto a luxury yacht for a glass of wine.  “Good-o,” said Chris, “We’ll bring a bottle of red.”  Oh no that was the wrong offer!  “We only drink white wine on the boat,” said their host.  “Red wine might stain the whiteness…”

We spent the morning watching the downpour.  At twelve the rain eased a bit and Pete took me to lunch at George’s Paragon Restaurant where we once again had a most delicious meal.  I had an appointment at the medical center at 2.15 to have my stitches out.  This was NOT fun but the receptionist/nurse was a pleasant woman and we had a nice chat about grandchildren (hers are Amber and Madison.)  Stitches in my wrist, in case you need to know.  I had my yucky growth thingy cut out when I was in Hobart.  This after about eighteen months of treating it most nonchalantly.  I did take it to various doctors and nurses over the year and a half it was growing gaily on my arm, and had it treated with dry ice quite a few times, unsuccessfully, and then burnt out in Vanuatu.  This was successful for a while but the horrid thing grew back with renewed vigour.  I took it back to my local Hobart Medical Centre in January where it was greeted with a startled squawk by the owner of the practice.  “Why haven’t you had this seen to before?” he said, crossly.  “You have almost left this too late!”  Well I manifestly had tried, as he could see by looking at my computer record, so he stopped being cross and swiftly cut and stitched.  I had to ring him yesterday, to see the results of the pathology tests and it is all good news.  Yes it was a nasty cancer but yes he got it all and now it is gone forever.  No more ugliness on my wrist!

After that we climbed into The Uterus and went off to various boaty-shops looking for this and that useful item.  A cup of tea with Cam in Runaway Bay and then back to 2XS to replace the throttle cable.  This was, I think, a mammoth task.  Pete is very handy and competent but it took him a lot of dark muttering from the depths of various parts of the boat before it was all done.  Well, nearly all done…Yes I did help, marginally, but pulling and pushing here and there as directed, and by debating whether various cables were (ahem) red or orange.

I stopped writing yesterday at about four.  We were on our way, via various boat-y shops and a provisioning trip to the supermarket, to Tim and Sally’s.  On the way we had a lightning visit to Sarah, one of Pete’s daughter Nicole’s closest friends.  Sarah is a beautiful girl and she greeted us happily and warmly, as if unexpected guests at 5.30 was JUST what she wanted on a rainy afternoon.  Her three lively children, aged 7, 5 and 3, were leaping in and out of the swimming pool in the rain.  What was causing them even more joy and delight than the pool, however, was a small splashy flood on the back terrace.  It did look like so much fun I almost stripped off and joined them sliding around in the puddles.  Sarah was very pleased because we had come in person, she said, to RSVP to the invitation to her mother Kay’s 70^th birthday party on the 26^th of February.  She made a tick on her list and poured us a reviving glass of white wine.

We arrived at Tim and Sally’s at 6.00 instead of 5.30, and found Sally in the splendiferous kitchen cooking up a storm.  She had decided against Chinese take-aways and had prepared a fabulous roast dinner for Cam, Del, Amy, Pete and me. 

Yes we will have to leave the Gold Coast soon, before we wear out all of this wonderful hospitality…

And when are we setting forth??  Well we spend a lot of time anxiously looking at weather reports and listening to alarming and/or reassuring accounts of what it is like Out There beyond the Broadwater… Nick at the Harbour Master’s office says, “Don’t go, mate.  There are 5 metre swells out there!”  And Chris, my brother, cautiously mentioned that the rivers in northern NSW are in flood and that this might make things just a bit difficult for getting into anchorages or marinas.

But right at this moment the rain has stopped, the wind has abated, and all seems quiet on the eastern front… We will reassess tomorrow.