Wednesday 29^th February

An auspicious day - children born today are, we have discovered, known as Leaplings.  How cute is that??

Rose Thomas (I think her middle name is Poppy but this has not been officially confirmed) was born just into the 29^th, at 1.15 AM, bringing great joy to her parents, her siblings, her extended family.  She is a splendid baby and well worth the long wait (5 days past the due date is a long wait for a new baby

I haven’t spoken to Pete since this morning, when Eva told him, to his slight astonishment, that the new baby was called “Wose,” so I’m not sure where 2XS is.

So - more news re Saiing2XS tomorrow!

Tuesday 28^th February

So - 2XS is in Bermagui.  On the way they met up with; two seals, basking, and then one seal, idly flapping its fins.

In Hobart – no baby yet…maybe she will be born on February 29^th!  Pete has a cousin, Peter Green, born on this auspicious day; even more remarkable is the fact that his cousin’s father was born on the same day of the year… what are the odds of that?  Jeff has worked it out – about two million to one…

Monday 27^th February

The World cruiseship is in Hobart.  120 residents amazed at Tropical Hobart!

2XS is in Batemans Bay, tied up to a non-resident marina.  Pete and Steve are not impressed – the posts on their pontoon are painted with creosote and they are very smelly.  Pete and Steve, on the other hand, are not smelly at all – they have had lovely hot showers in a not-very-fantastic ablutions block.

Tomorrow they expect to be in Bermagui for a couple of nights – this will be great, Bermagui is a lovely little town.  No doubt I will find out, one way or the other – Skype, phone, email – so I can tell you what they ate and drank, whether anyone was sea-sick, and whether their hats are still with them.

In Hobart – no babygirl – yet…

(By the way, my mother has, by email, resolved the issue re Ken dolls- OF COURSE Eva didn’t love Ken and Aladdin!  They are such obnoxious representatives of the male race all stiff, smug.....no prince charmings!  Jemima, four next month, cast a very scathing eye over Ken and Aladdin when she came to visit today and left them, sitting stiffly on a wooden box, and went off to play mermaids and princesses in a much more beautiful world.)

Sunday 26^th February

So where is 2XS??

Still in Ulladulla – not too much rushing about for Pete and Steve.

I gather that Pete and Steve they spent the day in part retrieving their steps to the Bowls Club in search of their hats – the loss of a Tilley hat is not to be taken lightly.  They went for a gentle walk, watched Yellowbeard (much merriment onboard), cooked Spaghetti Bolognese (Pete) and washed tea towels (Steve.)  And tomorrow they will go back out onto the big wild sea.  It was about 24 degrees in Ulladulla.

In Hobart it was at least 36 with a fierce bushfire sun.

I went to lunch at wonderful Prossers with my darling Dad and Fleur, where we counted our blessings (literally) and debated the horrors of our political situation right this moment – Labor Party imploding…

I spent the afternoon having my legs washed with a wet (clean!) nappy dipped in the paddling pool – Zoe (2) enjoyed this very much and there was much extraneous splashing and shrieking from both of us.

I was also present when poor Eva (4) was given two Ken dolls (one disguised as Aladdin.)  They had come from the local op shop and Katy had hoped they would fill Eva’s heart with joy.  Not so…she hated them!  She is a polite and loving child so she tried to grin and bear it.  But they were not really welcome in her happy cosy family of princesses, mermaids and Barbies… Tonight Katy and Jeff went for a walk after the children had all gone to bed.  The girls got up as soon as their parents had disappeared over the horizon and we had a lovely time sitting on the couch watching Grand Design with a menagerie of dolls, ballerina rabbits, teddies.  But…no Ken, no Aladdin.  I asked Eva were they were.  “I do not know.”  Oh.  “So Eva, are they by any chance in MY bed?”  “I have forgotten.”  (All of her responses were in stern, robotic tones.)  I think Eva will make a very good witness in court if ever she is called upon; she was most convincing.  When I went off to look at my bed…there, of course, were the unwanted Ken and Aladdin, stretched out stiffly, while their wanton Barbies cavorted on pillows in front of the TV…

Saturday 25^th February

This was, I think, the hottest day in Australia – it reached 40 around midday… There were a few bushfires close to town but these were swiftly dealt with but here is still a big fire blazing in the Derwent Valley.

2XS has reached Ulladulla.  I spoke to Pete and Steve, who were happily ensconced in the Ulladulla Bowls Club – they know how to live it up!  They were having: roast pork followed by pavlova, plus a few glasses of wine.  (Meanwhile back in Hobart Katy, Jeff and I sat around and ate leftovers from our lunchtime BBQ with a few glasses of wine and a few episodes of Spirited.  We know how to live it up here too!!)

When we were with Pete and Leanne, from Plan Four, Pete told us a nice story – possibly an apocryphal tale - from Fiji:

A keen entrepreneurial tourist approached a peaceful looking man who was sitting in the shade of a palm tree on a beautiful beach.  He was weaving big sun hats, and selling them with moderate success to passers-by.  The entrepreneur said, “Why don’t you employ a few people to make these hats for you?  You could sell a lot more.”  The hatmaker looked at him in bewilderment and said, “Why would I want to do that?”  “Well,” was the enthusiastic reply, “You could make a lot more money, and eventually you would make enough to be able to retire…and sit under a palm tree on the beach…” 

Friday 24^th February

2XS is at Crookhaven Bay tonight.  Pete and Steve sound happy on the phone but possibly they are hunting amongst my effects for seasickness remedies for Steve… I have told them where to find my Scopatches and have given warning that this drug has been known to cause psychotic episodes in susceptible people.  Oh joy!  Other than that all is well although I gather it is much warmer here in Tasmania than in NSW.  It is supposed to be 35 both days of the weekend – not much fun for a 40-week-pregnant person… Our new babygirl is not showing any signs of coming into the world any time soon so maybe Katy will have to sit in the children’s paddling pool for two consecutive days.

Thursday 23^rd February

Ok…so I am in Hobart.  The weather is beautiful, sunny and warm, with the odd sharp gust of wind and the odd splatter off rain.  I spent a lot of time today with Eva (4) and Zoe (2) talking about: when we put a marble in our mouth/nose ear – NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!  Much merriment but…here’s hoping this was a Positive Learning Moment! 

(This has just reminded me, most horribly and with some force, of the day when I did some relief teaching at Blackmans Bay Primary School.  I was very pregnant with Michael at the time so it must have been 1980.  When I arrived, to find a keen and intelligent Grade 6 waiting for me, the teacher from the next room drifted in and said, “I think your Positive Learning Moment today could be centred upon long division using the decimal point.”  Blink…blink… I was gobsmacked and turned to the class.  “Now which of you could demonstrate for us… ummm… long division using the decimal point.”  Fortunately for me they were a clever lot and a few bright sparks leapt to the front of the room to cover the board with what looked to me a most mystifying set of calculations.  I found my Positive Learning Moment today MUCH more within my scope of capability…)

And where is 2XS?  In Kiama, on the same mooring we used last year on our way up the coast in June.  I spoke to Pete an hour ago.  He sounded very happy and relaxed – it was G & T time, and Steve, in the background, also sounded... happy and relaxed.  On their first leg, only 15 nautical miles, yesterday, to Port Hacking, poor Steve spent most of the time – oh no – feeding the fish off the back of the boat… Oh dear… I hope he finds his sea legs very soon or the next few weeks will be miserable!

Wednesday 22^nd February

So where are we now?

Well Pete is back on 2XS, making his way down to Port Hacking, with our lovely friend Steve Mason on board.

And I am in a far-flung corner of Melbourne airport, plugged in to various power points near a deserted little café.  We left the marina at 5.00 this morning and it will take me exactly twelve hours to get to Hobart from Sydney…

Kind sister-in-law Karen picked us up at this ghastly early hour – she had to take her daughter Kate and Kate’s friend Alice to their school, Wenona, in North Melbourne to catch a bus to a camp in the Blue Mountains.  I asked if they would be staying in tents and Karen laughed, slightly bitterly.  “I don’t think so!  At the fees this school charges…I imagine they will be staying four star at least!”  Karen and I discussed school camp – Kate and Alice were totally silent in the back seat, with Pete.  I think they were stupefied and stunned by their early rising, as were we all, just a bit.  Karen said she had only once been on a school trip, all by herself, to something called Summer Camp.  She didn’t question it, just allowed herself to be picked up and taken off with a whole group of girls she had never seen before.  She enjoyed it – Karen has a very nice nature and enjoys everything which comes her way – but she was a teensy bit nonplussed to be far from home amongst total strangers for the duration. It was only years later that she found out that this was a great honour – the teachers at her school selected one particularly deserving student each year to go to Summer Camp, and Karen had obviously impressed all and sundry that particular year.  She had no idea of any of this… I think they could have made just a tiny bit of a fuss and maybe presented her with an award to go along with the Summer Camp Treat.  A more anxious, paranoid child than Karen might have thought she was being punished!

I am very much looking forward to seeing my family and friends, and my beloved Tasmania, but I am very sad to be parted from Pete for eighteen days.  We have hardly been out of earshot of each other since May…

Yesterday was what my friend Ann-Marie would describe as A Hoot.  Pete’s long-lost friend Martin Cooper had devised all manner of entertainment for us.  His son Ben picked us up at 11.00 and dropped us off in Macleay Street, Potts Point.  Ben was a very nice bloke but he couldn’t stay to chat with Ancient Tasmanian Friends.  He runs a very successful nightclub in Oxford Street and is a mover and a shaker.  As is his father, big-time!

Martin and his wife, Kathy Gross, live in a a beautiful stately apartment during the week and in a beach house during the weekend.  They are both very busy.  Kathy is a fashion mogul (Harry Who and George Gross – George is her twin brother.)  We met her in the evening, when she cooked a pasta dish for us.  She is a gentle, calm person.  She and George arrived in Australia as refugees after the war when they were thirteen.  They had fled over the mountains – all of their friends and relations were wiped out in a particularly vicious last-stage-of-the war pogrom against the Jewish population of Hungary.  She didn’t know any English at all when she arrived but…she is a clever girl and very swiftly learned and became…a mover and shaker in the fashion industry, along with her equally successful brother.  No she didn’t tell us anything of the sort, she isn’t a boastful person.  But Martin is very (justifiably) proud of her and told us her story over lunch.

And what a lunch!  We went to the China Doll in the Finger Wharf building at Woolloomooloo.  We were mightily impressed and let Martin’s fingers do the walking over the menu.  His older brother Simon was there, with his wife, Sue.  They were all very happy to see Pete – they hadn’t seen him, they calculated, since 1973, and there he was, larger than life and full of bonhomie!  Lunch was fabulously tasty – we had five dishes to share and each was more delicious than the last.

After lunch Sue and Simon left - Simon is still working as a stockbroker and had to go back to his office.  Poor Simon… Martin, Pete and I went for a stroll through the gardens down to the waterfront, after trying, unsuccessfully, to go to the Picasso exhibition at the nearby Art Gallery of NSW.  Martin was very put-out that it was closing in one minute – we got there at 4.59.  “Outrageous!” he cried.  “They should be open till midnight!”  Hmmm…

On the way back to Macleay Street we went to various favourite watering holes of Martin’s – the Tilbury Hotel, all very schmick, and then the Gazebo, in King’s Cross.  I was on iced water by then and have no idea why I couldn’t get out of the toilet… I had locked the door and could NOT get it open.  It was quite a nice little toilet, if a bit cramped and dark.  I breathed in and out, trying not to panic, and read all of the artfully-composed graffiti.  For example: A woman drove me to drink and I never had the courtesy to thank her.  Breathe…breathe… I tried again, no luck.  So I tried ringing Pete, and then, with growing unease, Martin.  No reception in the dark and airless little cubicle…breathe BREATHE!  The artfully composed graffiti was losing its charm… Finally, miraculously, the door popped open.  I don’t know if Martin and Pete would EVER have noticed I was no longer with them.  They were full of good cheer, sampling red wine by the glass when I emerged, shaking slightly.

Eventually we went back to Macleay Street, were Kathy was preparing her pasta dish for us.  Martin sat next to me and showed me his year-in-photos on his little Mac.  This was very pleasant and soothing.  Lots of shots of the silver sea at Big Sur, lots of dinner parties and lunch parties, lots of snaps of Martin’s good-looking children, Ben and Lucy.  Lucy is a film producer and lives in New York, in a beautiful apartment with its own rooftop garden, and an endearingly mixed-breed dog.  Her boyfriend, Jake, is very handsome, and I had a few moments of GULP GOLLY and GOSH because, there, in amongst the Cooper family snaps, was Sting.  I LOVE Sting!  In fact Sting is over-represented on my ipod… Sting is Jake’s father… “Oh,” said Martin, airily, when I professed my love for Sting.  “I’ll introduce you to him!”

We took a taxi back to Middle Harbour Yacht Club and happily went to sleep in our cosy little nest, for the last time for 18 days…

Steve arrived at Gate 49 at 9.05 and I had to board at 9.05 at Gate 55… But there was a bit of overlap time because my flight was delayed, and in fact I didn’t get to Sydney till well after 12.00.  Lovely to see Steve; I am sure he and Pete will have a great time on the boat.  I just wish I could be with them AND home with my family!  Steve is the only crew member this time and has the best cabin…when he came from Lord Howe Island to New Caledonia with us in June he had to sleep in the worst cabin and had to share the bunk with the bikes…

Monday 20^th February

We have had a very peaceful day at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club marina.  We haven’t stirred from home base.  Pete has done lots of boat jobs.  He has replaced the reefing line in the mainsail, and has MacGuyvered the TV aerial, so we can now, he says, receive 35 channels.  Won’t he have fun, with his remote control device??  The aerial, when we aren’t under way, sits jauntily on top of the boom, on top of the mainsail cover.  Very pretty it looks, like a giant toadstool in an unusual place for a giant toadstool.

I have done very little.   A bit of lying-on-the-couch, reading.  Playing Words With Friends on my iPhone… And popping out of the cabin whenever Pete needs something handed to him, or poked back into a hole, or whatever.  It has been a lovely day, warm and fine, but now…it has started to rain.  Possibly because in an hour or so we are chuffing off in the tender, across the way to Chris and Karen’s for a BBQ.  And no – we will not be arriving empty handed!  A backpack full of dirty washing will accompany us!  (I did exert myself to the extent of changing the bed linen, so was not actually totally idle today.)

We had a v lovely dinner at Cala Luna last night.  I won’t go on and on about the food…Pete has gently pointed out to me that I write more about food than I do about sailing and this blog is called….yes…SAILING2XS, not EATING A LOT OF YUMMY FOOD.  Along with dinner we had a spectacular display of thunderbolts and lightning.  A magnificent storm!

Tomorrow we are meeting up with an old friend of Pete’s, Martin Cooper.  They haven’t seen each other for possibly thirty years and they are both very happy at the prospect.  Martin is a lawyer and is very much involved with the media amongst other things – he has a huge CV, which Pete found with the aid of Mr Google.  (They know each other because their mothers were childhood friends.  When Pete and Martin were 13, Martin’s father organised a big adventure for them – they rode pushbikes (no gears in those days) all the way from Katoomba into Sydney.  It all sounds very Huckleberry Finn; I’m looking forward to hearing them reminisce.)

Sunday 19^th February

If we thought it was all GO in Bathurst Waters…well it is trebly so here in Middle Harbour…

It took about three hours to cruise down from Lion Island, and it was an absolutely sensational day – clear blue sky, warm sunshine, a flat, calm sea.  So flat and calm, in fact, that I was able to spot a small black fin, just near the boat.  No not a dolphin – a shark, about as long as my leg!  Pete’s face lit up.  “I think I’ll turn the boat around!” he said, joyfully.  "I have found a lovely place for you to have a swim!”

We came in through the Heads alongside a huge great cruise ship, Something Delicioza  (Princess Delicioza???  Maybe not…) and were then immediately in a flurry of boats, big and small, all making the most of this beautiful Sydney Harbour day.

Middle Harbour Yacht Club was as welcoming as always.  We have a place to tie up on the outside of C Pontoon, where we have been before.  Tonight we are going to dinner at Cala Luna, which we know to be a most lovely restaurant.  It has now moved from ultra-busy Spit Road to the upstairs balcony of the yacht club and it all looks very swish.  It is only open Weds-Sun so this is my only opportunity to take Pete there for dinner to celebrate the safe return of 2XS from and to Sydney – a big achievement, I think. 

Pete has skippered the boat to four different countries – New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea, and all the way back to Townsville and down the coast to Sydney.  He has been vigilant and careful all the way.  Most of the time, he has only had me for crew – I had never sailed out of sight of land before, and am still not the most proficient of sailors.  We have had the odd bit of engine trouble, but Pete and 2XS have been a safe and reliable team.  I have never felt in the least bit frightened – and yes this is a question everyone always asks me.  “Sometimes sick but never scared,” I always reply.  And that is because Pete has been so careful and sensible, spending hours poring over charts, weather forecasts, books, Google Earth, the whole kit and caboodle.  He has also been patient and kind with me, putting up with me never really knowing my right from my left let alone my port from my starboard… (There is always a moment or two of hesitation, which must be very annoying to someone with such a good sense of direction.)

Our journey is not over yet – we still have to get back to Tasmania – but I am going home from Wednesday 22^nd until Saturday 10^th March to help with a new baby girl, due any day now.  I will catch up with 2XS in Melbourne so I am only missing a bit of the return adventure.  But I do want to acknowledge and congratulate Pete on his magnificent effort; I have had a most fabulous and unforgettable ten months.  And – even more remarkable – I have never once got sick of Pete’s company; he always makes me laugh, makes me feel safe, makes me feel happy, keeps me supplied with G & T.  (And especially…makes me laugh!!)

Saturday 18^th February

This evening we are in Hardy’s Bay, tied up to an alien mooring and waiting for one of the free ones to become vacant.  Hardy’s Bay is very populated, and looks like a pleasant little place, with houses nestled in the trees right down to the shore.  We haven’t set foot on land but have admired it from our vantage point on the water.

We left beautiful Smith’s Creek in the late morning and had a beautiful trip out around Lion Island and into Bathurst Waters to get to this bay, which had been recommended to us by our friend Annie Currant.  Coming up through Bathurst Waters was amazing – a narrow, shallow bit of water, full of excitement.  We went around the low cliffs and were amazed at all of the water activity: fishing, waterskiing, speedboats, pleasure boats, yachts, hang-gliders, jet skis, kayaks and canoes, houseboats.  It was all GO, like a Child’s Action Book of Inner-Shore Activity.  It was a beautiful, sparkling, blue-sky day, and everyone seemed to be in a very good mood, with much waving, smiling, raising of beer cans.

As we were having our breakfast in our beautiful shallow Smith’s Creek anchorage, we had a visit from people off a nearby yacht, Pachelbel.  Chris and Greg were paddling around in their little blue canoes, and stopped to chat to Pete, who was eating his cereal on deck.  We persuaded them to come on board for a cup of coffee – Chris was a bit nervous, getting out of her canoer and onto 2XS, because she is still a bit wobbly and fearful of tipping out of her canoe into the briny, but all went well, with no loss of dignity.  After they had gone Pete said, “Isn’t it amazing how the people we meet, who make an effort to come out to talk to us, are always nice?”  Very true!!

We exchanged sailing stories, and life histories, at high speed for an hour or so, then we decanted Chris and Greg into their canoes and went on our way.  They are hoping to go on some long trips in their yacht, once Chris has managed to retire properly from her hypnotherapy practice.  Last year they had been planning on going to the Whitsundays.  Unfortunately they were unable to go because…their boat was stolen!  They have it on a mooring in Brooklyn (?) and the first they heard about it, the water police rang them  on their little farm and said the boat had been found bobbing about, all bereft and untied.  Well it hadn’t actually been untied… The people who stole it didn’t even have the nous to unhitch the mooring, they chopped at it with a hacksaw, and, cut their hands, and left blood all over the deck… They stole absolutely everything they could lay their hands on, including all of Greg and Chris’s wet-weather gear, and they damaged the engine so badly it had to be replaced.  Very depressing and discouraging!

Greg and Chris also told us that they just hate having houseboats nearby.  We had been speaking very admiringly of the houseboats, which look like great fun for a family holiday in calm waterways.  “But they are so noisy!” said Chris, despairingly.  They told us that on one occasion they were moored near a houseboat on which there was a Pirate Party, with a great deal of rum and a great deal of AARRRGGGHHH AAARRGGHHH!  At one stage the party moved to the upper deck, ie the roof, of the poor little houseboat, and the pirates flung all of the moveable objects into the sea – tables, chairs, potplants, whatever.  Splishy splash!  Oh what fun!  And oh what NOT fun when they returned the houseboat to the company they had rented it from and had to pay for all of the loss and damage… Pete and I were very surprised; we have often been in the company of houseboats moored nearby and they have always been as quiet as…well as quiet as we are…

Friday 17^th February

Once again…G & T time, writing time.  Pete is cooking an enormous mince dish, using up many of our less-than-new tins of beans, tomatoes and the like.  He has also resurrected a fairly ancient hunk of cabbage from the depths of the fridge…I am sure the meal will be delicious, and never to be repeated.  It will also be a total, and not unwelcome, contrast to my sparse chicken and avocado salads of the past few nights…

We are anchored in some soft, shallow sea grass at the very end of Smith’s Creek, in the middle of Kuringai-Chase National Park.  It is just beautiful.  A lone sea eagle just flew overhead, and there are cormorants happily fishing around the boat, with just their heads popping up, occasionally.  In the thick bush surrounding us, there are other, unidentifiable birds making very strange sounds.  The gum trees are flowering, and some are just wonderful, with pink bark and mysteriously twisting branches.  Very much like the trees in Hans Heysen’s paintings, says Pete.

I went for a swim when we got here.  It had been very hot earlier but was cooling down rapidly.  I snorkeled around for a while, spying on shy little grey fish, enjoying the beautiful, waving sea grass.  But it actually wasn’t all that warm in the water and I had to have a swift and effective hot shower when I came out.

We left our red and white PRIVATE mooring early enough not to cause offence or anger.  Pete later noticed, when we came back up Cowan Creek, that a speedy tour boat was moored there…thank goodness we had left before it turned up, with a load of fee-paying sightseers aboard!  (Cowan Creek is an offshoot of the Hawkesbury River; Smith’s Creek is an offshoot of Cowan Creek – and so it goes.)

We went back past fabulous Lion Rock – a wonderfully sphinx-shaped island at the head of Broken Bay, which Pete and I always admire most extravagantly – and cruised slowly down to Pittwater.  We tied up to the end of a pontoon at a big marina – Royal Prince Alfred, maybe??  They were very pleasant there and were perfectly happy for us to tie up for as long as we needed to go to the chandlery to replace…ahem…the gas cylinder for Pete’s life jacket.  I was also looking – my eternal quest, it seems – for a letter box, and the receptionist at the marina removed my problem by offering to post Holly Scott’s 6^th birthday card forthwith, on her way home.  These random acts of kindness!

A man on D Pontoon helped us tie up, and followed us to the chandlery, where there was much repartee with the very pleasant shop owner.  (They were competing for our laughter…)  I asked his name, because he told me he is a boating journalist, and I think I have completely forgotten it – Bruce Pollard??  Pollan??  He also has a business renovating wooden boats.  I was going to Google his published articles so…if this rings a bell, please tell me.  (Googling is not, as they say, a happening thing in Smith’s Creek.  No reception at all.)  Anyway, we are very grateful to him, because it was his suggestion for us to go past Refuge Cove and up here, to gorgeous Smith’s Creek.

Wednesday 16^th February

Happy birthday Eva Thomas – 4 years old today!  And having slap-up fish & chips at Mures to celebrate.  Nothing better than fish & chips and strawberry sorbet!

And happy birthday to her Uncle Michael, 31 today and preparing to party up bigtime in Townsville tomorrow night.

We are moored near a beautiful little beach in Broken Bay – Little Patonga.  It promised a free mooring but…the only mooring here is bright red and white and says, in big bold letters, PRIVATE MOORING.  There is also a PRIVATE JETTY.  Oh how we long for Lake Macquarie!  It is not far from getting dark so we have tied up to the mooring, hoping a big red and white boat doesn’t roar up, angrily, to reclaim its lovely big heavy mooring in the middle of the night…

We spent the morning in Wangi Wangi, on another blessedly free big solid jetty.  A nice peaceful little town, with a bike track along the waters edge.  We rode past The Dobell House and came to an abrupt halt – how lovely, maybe we could have a tour?  But no…it is only open at the weekends.  The house is where Sir William Dobell did most of his paintings, from 1920-1970, if I read correctly.

There were a couple of old codgers (by old codgers I mean they were about our age…) ambling around a shabby looking houseboat on the jetty, which is right outside – you guessed it – the RSL Club.  (Many of these jetties, free and delightful, are in close proximity to gambling clubs…ulterior motive…)  Pete looked at them darkly and said, “We had better lock the boat when we go for our ride.  Those two look as if they are not long out of prison, and will probably be back there soon.  Recidivists if ever I saw recidivists!”  I disagreed.  “Nope.  They are drinkers, and their wives have kicked them out, so they have to live on this houseboat.”  Well a bit later, when the club opened, there they were, installed at a table under the trees, settling in for a long drinking session.  So…maybe we were both right…

We were a bit sad to leave peaceful Lake Macquarie.  We were farewelled not by a sea eagle but by a pair of wedgetails, wheeling about overhead.   A flock of pelicans on the shore were behaving in a very unseemly manner, scrambling around a man cleaning some fish and throwing out the odd scrap – did they think they were tiny graceful seagulls, for goodness sake??

We went under the Swansea Bridge at 12.00 again, once more very happily holding up traffic on the Pacific Highway for a good three minutes.  It was a beautiful day, about 30 degrees, with a gentle bit of wind, and we cruised past Lion Rock at about 5.00, right on schedule to get into Broken Bay.  Not far from Sydney now…

At about 3pm Pete was reading on the couch while I sat at the helm.  Up ahead I could see churning water – what could this be??  A mini maelstrom??  Danger??  But no…it was a huge school of dolphins, great big pale grey ones, churning up the water as they dashed towards the shore.  Pete came out to admire them, and they wheeled around and came back towards the boat.  About ten of them swam along in the bow wave, leaping out occasionally to cover themselves with their own personal rainbows.  Just glorious!

I know I often witter on about my difficulties finding postcards.  I do this because I try to send my seven-soon-to-be-eight grandchildren a card each every week.  I got a text from Katy, mother of birthday girl Eva, this morning.  Apparently Eva was “reading” my latest postcard to her little sister, who I hope was very impressed.  Now my postcards to the children are very boring.  I usually write, “Hello, we are sailing, I went swimming, we saw some dolphins, it is hot/cold/raining, love Bardy.”  But not on this occasion…According to Eva, I wrote:

I will send you and your family postcards for the rest of your life and if you like chocolate then I will give you that too and it will make your heart beat so fast because you will love it so much.

I wrote back, That is SO funny, and Katy replied:

Yes it got even better.  Your heart burst at one point and evidently you have lots of amazing activities planned for the whole family.  She ended with, “Well that is VERY kind of Bardy!”

Oh my goodness how can I ever live up to that??  I had better have some chocolate frogs in my pocket on my return to Hobart!!!

(It is actaully Thursday 17th am..no reception in Little Patonga Bay...)

Wednesday 15^th February

Rave review follows…

Our Lakeside Café turned out to be a terrific find.  And how lucky we were to turn up there, serendipitously, on one of the few evenings of the year when it is open – Valentine’s Day!  Usually it is only open for lunch.  Word must have got around, because there was a steady stream of Romantic Couples, all dressed up, ready to enjoy their Lakeside Experience.

The set menu had lots of very tasty options, including a Seafood Tower of awe-inspiring size and splendour.  Fortunately, they were all sold out in advance, otherwise I am sure we would have ordered one – they were for sharing – and maybe we wouldn’t have been able to eat every single delicious mouthful… We watched as a few were sent back with the odd item uneaten.  We were greeted by our very pleasant host, Ray, and we enjoyed our complementary sparkling wine and carefully placed red rose.  (Sad to relate my red rose doesn’t like being on 2XS, it is wilting dramatically…never mind, it gave us great pleasure for a few hours.)  Pete had mushroom arancini with rocket and parmesan salad – no we didn’t know what arancini were but now we know they are fried risotto balls and very delicious.  I had peach, prosciutto, bocconcini and basil, which I liked very much – what’s not to like??  For our main courses Pete had an enormous tenderloin steak with mashed potatoes, port jus, mushroom something or another on top, and I, predictably, had Atlantic salmon with asparagus, peas, potatoes, beurre blanc, all perfectly cooked.  The lovely young waitress came out with two dessert plates and my eyes opened wide – TOO MUCH FOOD!!  Fortunately, only one of the plates was for us – they were special Valentine’s Day Sharing And Caring tasteplates.  Chocolate tart, a small and wonderful meringue with fruit salad, and a lemon tart thingy.  We staggered back to 2XS very full and happy…

In the morning when I was wandering back from the toilets – this free jetty offered all sorts of amenities as well as access to a lovely restaurant – I met up with Ray, on his way to work.  He had come to look at 2XS – he is a sailor, and has a Beneteau 43, in which he hopes to cruise to the Pacific Islands with his wife and 5 year old daughter, Vienna.  He had a cup of tea with us before going off to make coffee at the café and we had a lovely time laughing and swapping sailing stories.  His worst story involved being tipped right over on the wild and scary bar at Ballina, with an extremely nervous, not to say terrified, friend on board.  Yes they are still friends which attests to Ray’s sterling qualities as a human being – it must have been an awful experience.  Ray’s copy of Cruising the NSW Coast – the Alan Lucas sailingbible– is now three times its size, all swollen up with Ballina water.  Not only did Alan Lucas suffer – all of the electrics on the boat were blown and Ray had to sail back down the coast – no they didn’t get into Ballina – in the dark with no computerised chart, and an even more terrified-than-before friend trembling at his side.

(By the way – Murray’s Beach was gorgeous.  It is a new “community,” recently built, with architect designed houses, all very environmentally friendly and in keeping with the bush and the lake.  Whoever has developed it – Stockman’s, I think – has put in a lot of very pleasant infrastructure, to be enjoyed by the likes of us.  There is a rambling path along the waterfront, very nice for a short-ish bike ride, soft green grass down to the water’s edge, a discreet little kiosk and toilet block.  And – on the ladies’ toilet…a sign saying, Sorry, this amenity is closed due to vandalism.  Who??  Why???  WTF????  Sigh and sigh again…. Why would anyone ever vandalise a toilet, for heaven’s sake?  We all need a toilet from time to time!!!)

We left Murray’s Beach this morning and made our way to another free place to tie up – a big solid wharf in Belmont, on the Pacific Highway.  (Not sure where we were actually – some of the signs said Belmont, others said Lake Macquarie City.  Take your pick!) 

We rode our bikes up and down the streets and along the waterfront and bought some ginger beer and a new Dolphin torch in Coles.  We know how to live it up – we shared a 12” Subway roll near Coles, bought on Poor Old Pete’s seniors card so we got an eighty cent discount.  Wee hee!  Our shared roll was actually very nice, heaving with healthy salad items and a bit of melted cheese.

I went into the big newsagent nearby, looking for postcards.  “Oh well…we don’t really have any…only these…”  A nice girl led me to a shelf with a small pile of hopeless postcards.  One of them had a triptych of people playing didgeridoos and having a corroborree.  Not very typical of Belmont, I thought.  And the other one had a big red kangaroo and a jaunty message; Welcome to Ayer’s Rock!!  We are a long way from Ayer’s Rock – and how many years since it has been known as Uluru???  Hmmm…

On the wharf we were tied up next to a big yacht, Namadgi.  Some of the sailors came over to help us tie up and we were soon engrossed in conversation about sailing, about Tasmania.  Namadgi belongs to the Canberra Ocean Racing Club… The boat lives on Pittwater and a syndicate of 20 people take turns cruising up and down the coast and out to new Caledonia and Vanuatu.  Frank Lehman is a former Tasmanian, an old Hobart High boy from the 50s, and his friend Sam Hughes (known as Safety Sam) has been on the Sydney-Hobart Yacht race committee for many years.  The other denizens of Namadgi were: Bill, Judy, Margot and Beth.  They were very nice people, cheery and hospitable.  They invited us over to look at their boat and to have a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate tart before they rushed off to get under the 12.00 Swansea bridge opening.  Pete and I are always interested to look other boats.  Monohull yachts are nice, ofcourse but…they are so narrow, and so tippy, compared to a catamaran.  (Or catamerang, as Margot told me, with great amusement, as an acquaintance of theirs always says.)  One of them (I won’t say which one, she might not want her name in cyberspace in this context,) told me she is the only member of the crew ever to get seasick.  I asked how she copes.  “Oh,” she said, nonchalantly, “I just vomit into a bucket.  The others all eat and drink and laugh at me, and they empty the bucket for me.”

After our little jaunt around Belmont, we took 2XS for a lovely sail around the lake.  There was just a bit of breeze, so we were able to sail around with just the headsail up, no motors.  Bliss!  I took the opportunity to go and lie on the nets, with the headsail as a sunscreen.  It is surprising how little time I have spent in the nets, lovely though it is to do this.  If there are waves, you get very wet up there, and not in a good way.  And if there is a brisk wind it isn’t very pleasant.  And if the sails aren’t up – it is much too sunny.  Today it was just perfect.  I lay there very happily with a bottle of ginger beer and Stephen Fry talking about English grammar on my iPod.

In the late afternoon we cruised back into Belmont and tied up to yet another big sturdy jetty.  The shire of Lake Macquarie is very generous with all of the free moorings and lovely available jetties.  I think this one belongs to the Belmont 16’ Sailing Club, a huge affair on the shore of the lake.  Pete went in to ask if we could tie up, and he was told we were more than welcome.  There were several shows advertised – tomorrow night David Campbell is performing, and on Saturday – Ganggajang!  Too bad we are leaving and can’t go to either performance, I am sure it would be great fun to go there.

We have just had a chicken salad (I made a balsamic vinegar reduction for Pete, having swiftly googled the technique, because he liked the one he had at Lakeside Café so much) and we have watched My Kitchen Rules.  Oh the bitchiness!  Oh “Reality” TV!!

Tomorrow we will be in Broken Bay, nearly in Sydney.  Lovely days…how lucky are we.

Tuesday 14^th February

Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all…

We are going to what is called a café but what looks like a very posh little restaurant, all starched white tablecloths and a 4-course special dinner, on the banks of Lake Macquarie.  But not till 7.00 so there is time for G & T and blogging.

We left our mooring at Shoal Bay early, still not sure if it was a public one or not… It did seem to have some vaguely yellow leftover writing on it that might once have said PRIVATE PROPERTY KEEP OFF!!!  But now it just said SMUDGE BLUR.  So it was ours for 12 hours, from 5.30 till 5.30. 

The trip down to Lake Macquarie was beautiful, and not too long – we got to the Swansea Bridge at 12.00, just in time for it to open, majestically, for us.  So satisfying, holding up a long line of traffic.  We cruised down the coast through big flocks of muttonbirds, and then, so wonderful, into a large school of dolphins – Pete thought there were at least a hundred.  Small groups of ten kept coming at the boat from different angles, diving under, meeting up with another group of ten or so, diving off, merging, and finally leaving us behind.  Or rather, in front.  Fabulous moments!

Lake Macquarie is – of course – very beautiful, another large inland waterway, lined with beautiful forest and small cheery towns.  We first anchored at an island, Pulbah, I think, where I had a swim.  I tried to spend time with some sea creatures but only saw a few large vertical shellfish, attached firmly to the sand, and two small pale shallow-living fish which were terrified at the sight of me.

The anchorage was extremely shallow so Pete decided to head off across the lake.  Half an hour later, we arrived at Murray’s Beach (more a rocky foreshore than a beach, but never mind.)  There were several free moorings, and a large, welcoming jetty with big solid bollards.  Just the thing – and no signs saying PRIVATE PROPERTY KEEP OFF.

It is very peaceful here.  Birds tweeting prettily, a few pelicans gliding just over the surface of the lake, and – yes of course – a lone sea eagle disappearing into the treetops.

I have just finished reading, on my iPad, How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran.  Has anyone else read it?  I read some comments about it on mamamia.com.au and opinions was very divided.  Extremely divided, in fact!  I loved it, thought it was very funny, very clever, a new perspective on feminism.  And before that I read 11.22.63 – Stephen King, a huge book.  I was sad to have finished it, was very engrossed in the world of the 1960s, and in the cleverly managed time-traveler theme.

Monday 13^th February

Late G & T time again…

We are now moored in Shoal Bay, poised ready for an early getaway tomorrow morning.  We are heading for Lake Macquarie, slowly inching our way down the coast to Sydney.

I am sad to have left Fame Cove.  I just loved it, so peaceful, surrounded by thick forest and rocky little beaches.  It was beautiful swimming there, in the smooth brown water.  I have been told that usually the water is not brown, it is a gorgeous turquoise, but at the moment all water close to shore seems to be chocolatey, from all the heavy flooding rain.

We seem to have missed a huge storm in Coff’s Harbour.  I saw it on the TV news – a big black cloud swirling down onto the town, trees, crashing to the ground, water gushing down the streets.  Oh lordy!!!

And how does the BBQ look, I hear you cry?  Well…it looks just glorious.  Shiny and gleaming.  I wish I had taken photos of it before it got The Treatment.  Ghastly, it was, with grease and grime and hideous blackness.  I can’t claim credit for the splendour that now perches on the back of the boat… My project was taken over by two men with power tools!  Pete and Leanne arrived around 10.00 this morning, for a cup of coffee, after they had moored near us in beautiful Fame Cove.  Leanne was quite happy to sit and chat, not so Pete N. Or Pete H… They watched me scrubbing away delicately and within minutes I had been just as delicately moved aside.  Pete N went back to his boat to get big weapons – a power sander with attachments.  Pete had already removed the big greasy yucky lid, and I kept on working on that on my girly side of the deck, with moral support from Leanne.  I used bicarb with white vinegar and then Jif, and a paint scraper, and several green scourers.  It was all GO on 2XS!

Eventually all was perfection.  Pete and Pete relaxed over a beer, and poured some white wine for Leanne and me.  I encouraged Pete to cook the carbonara he had been planning for the evening meal, and we had a delicious lunch – possibly our last meal together until we meet again in Tasmania…

We were very much pestered by virulent March flies – how offensive, it’s not even March!  A less than charming feature of Fame Cove, these flies… Pete H and Leanne are very attractive to all bitey insects, and the two of them played a lively game of March Fly Tennis, batting the flies from one side of the boat to the other, with the occasional startled squawk as a random fly landed a vicious bite.  Pete N and I are largely immune to bitey creatures, especially when delicious people like Pete H and Leanne are around to attract them, but every now and then one of the flies would have to temerity to bite US!!  Oh the horror!  On the other hand, and much more beautiful and desirable, we had a pair of sea eagles lazily drifting overhead.

We were very happy to see Leanne. I have asked her permission to tell you why they weren’t with us in Fame Cove last night… They were stuck in Nelson Bay, with Leanne in hospital.  After our cheery dinner together they had gone back to Plan Four…and NO Leanne did NOT have food poisoning!!!  It was NOT our festy pre-clean BBQ; it was a bad pain in her arm…a scary symptom!!  Pete N took her off to hospital quick smart, from their mooring in Nelson Bay.  She was diagnosed with angina and given some medication, and put to bed, in a ward where she had to share a small space with a very noisy old man.  Lovely.  Pete went back to Plan Four, where he went straight to bed and straight to sleep…not realising he had left his mobile phone with Leanne… At 9pm the doctor came to see Leanne, to tell her she was discharged forthwith.  She tried to explain she was on a boat on a mooring in the bay, and that she couldn’t reach her husband, but nobody seemed to care very much.  They did have to courtesy to call a taxi for her… The driver was a curmudgeonly fellow, as drivers sometimes, unfortunately, are, and he showed very little interest in getting her to anywhere very useful.  Eventually he dropped her on the beach, possibly within earshot of Plan Four.  She stood there, somewhat fruitlessly calling out to Pete, who was in SleepyBoboLand.  I think this is absolutely disgraceful, that Leanne should have been cast out into the dark night of Nelson Bay, with no help at all.  She is a resourceful woman and took herself off to a not-very-nice motel, but – this is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!

On a more cheery note… I have just talked to Michael, in Townsville.  He was cooking his dinner – he is on a low-carb diet… “I had better go and finish preparing my curry, Ma,” he said, as we wound up our conversation.  “I just have to add the feta, olives and anchovies.”  Oh goodness what a curry it will be!  Beef and capsicum, with a mountain of steamed veggies, and…olives, anchovies, feta…

Sunday 12th February

Six thirty – a late G & T time for us. 

We are moored in a most beautiful bay, Fame Cove, in the vast and wonderful waterways of Port Stephens.

We left Nelson Bay this morning, hoping that our friends on Plan Four will be able to join us tomorrow.  On our way here we stopped a couple of times, to check out the lie of the land.  So to speak… We picked up a mooring in Salamander Bay and toyed with the idea of going ashore to a twice-monthly market.  Yes…no…no… Next stop was Lemon Tree Passage, where we tied up to a small slim floating jetty, full of keen fishing people.  There was a wooden swimming jetty alongside, where a small but dedicated group of boys ran and jumped into the water all day.  Delighted shrieks every single time.  Every now and then another group of potential swimmers/jumpers/divers would saunter up the jetty, bikini-clad, to check out the sea.  Yes….no…no… The boys had it all to themselves.

Lemon Tree Passage was lovely.  More of a retirement town than Nelson Bay.  We went into the small chandlery where the people were excessively friendly and helpful.  I had spent the morning, as we cruised along the lovely waterway, embarking on a major project on 2XS – bringing the BBQ back to it former shiny glory.  The woman in the chandlery was very sympathetic and sold me some fine wet-dry sandpaper, which might work on the blackened hotplate.  But what she recommended above all other cleaning products was bicarb soda and white vinegar, which is what Leanne from Plan Four had suggested as well.

But how to get to the supermarket?  The general store next door turned out to be an ex general store, bereft of goods.  Mrs Chandlery said we could easily ride our bikes to Coles – fifteen minutes at the most, she said.  Otherwise, we could ring a certain number and a “hire car" would take us to the Tilligerry RSL Club for $2 each.  We could have a drink there and then sneak out to Coles, a few hundred metres away.  This sounded like a good plan, and within minutes we were in the “hire car” with an elderly, talkative driver.  It was a beautiful drive through lovely, peaceful forest, which should have been, but wasn’t, heaving with koalas.  It was quite a long way – we would never have done it in fifteen minutes, on our bikes, in the heat.  We were very grateful for our “hire car” avec chauffeur.

Not so grateful for the Tilligerry RSL Club, where we were honour bound  to stay for a drink, if not lunch.  Not lunch, we decided, quite swiftly, after taking in the gloomy atmosphere.  I think the architect who designed this building must have found it hard to create something quite so dark and miserable, in such beautiful green surroundings.  The RSL Club in Laurieton, in stark contrast, is smart and bright and attractive, in spite of being infested, as are all of the clubs, with gambling machines (aka Work Of The Devil.)

We drank our beer/lemon squash and crept out the back door to walk to the supermarket, alongside a nice little river full of birds and splashy fish.  We stocked up on – yes – bicarb soda and white vinegar and scouring pads, along with a few nice things like nectarines and baby spinach and went back to the dreary club for another drink before calling our chauffeur to take us back to Lemon Tree Passage.

We had noticed an enticing little fish and chips shop not far from the boat.  Flathead and chips for $9.80 – never mind that it was 3.00, too late for lunch, too early for dinner.  It was a delightful mid-afternoon meal whatever one likes to call it.  Other than a few biscuits and cheese we won’t need to eat again until tomorrow.

We arrived in lovely Fame Cove around 4.30 and tied up to one of the sturdy free moorings.  I sent a happy few minutes smearing bicarb and vinegar paste all over the BBQ then retired with a cup of tea for a brief but satisfying nap on the couch.  When I woke, it was still very warm and sunny and the brown water of the bay looked most enticing so I popped in and swam around the boat, which improved my health and disposition immensely.  Not good to be so sleepy and sluggish so early in the evening…