Saturday 11 February

A Nelson Bay Day…

We didn’t get up early.  Pete was up all night, it seemed.  First he realised the toilet wasn’t flushing properly, just about bedtime.  It took him ages, with his head in a cupboard, fixing whatever it was, with a few grievous wounds to the head and a few choice moments of very judicious swearing.  Then, way after I had drifted off to SleepyBoboLand, he was up and about again, changing the mooring ropes, with much lively scampering of feet on the deck.

When he finally arose from his slumbers, we had a big brunch – bacon, eggs, hash browns.  Pete Newman from Plan Four arrived halfway through this excessive repast.  He had plans for 2XS, involving the spare solar panel.  Within minutes 2Xs was awash with fine shavings of metal, soldering irons, two men huddled in arcane pursuits.  Pete Newman is SUCH a wiz!!  MacGuyver par excellence!

My contribution to proceedings… Well at one stage Pete H decided he had to take the dinghy in to shore, to use the facilities.  And could I please pop his life jacket into the boat for him, thank you very much.  I found it and dropped it lovingly into the little boat…oh dear splishy splash it went, into one of the puddles lurking in the bottom of the boat…it had been raining bountifully… Pete’s life jacket is a hi-tech model which, I discovered with a mixture of alarm and amazement, inflates at high speed at the least hint of…moisture…dampness…puddles in the bottom of the dinghy… Was Pete alarmed, amazed, charmed?  Well no…he was very very unimpressed.  I haven’t seen such a look on his face since the day, about four years ago, when I dropped two bottles of gin into the briny, never to be seen again.  (It is all actually very annoying because these life jackets inflate once and once only, whcih is probably why Pete was so...ummm...cross.  We have to buy a new gadget to get it back up to speed, and the lifejacket shop in Nelson Bay is – not open this weekend.)

Apart from that contribution…I sanded the other oar, and it is now varnished, Coat #1.  And then I went for a swim.  I had seen other people with snorkeling gear and I thought, good-o, fish to be seen.  I splashed in and it was all very refreshing and green and pleasant.  I swam five strokes toward the rocks and looked up… I was facing back towards the boat.  OK – five more strokes – facing the beach!  When I finally turned the right way, I was in a series of whirlpools…and then in a slipstream taking me very swiftly towards the point where, yes, there were lots of big silver bream, smaller fish, golden seaweed, rocks, oyster shells. Wheeee!!!  But where next?  Out into Port Stevens Bay, which is – I am not exaggerating – bigger than Sydney Harbour!  Not a good idea… I turned and tried to swim back to the boat – not a hope, even with my huge great flippers.  OK, swim in to shore.  This was easy but…to wade in to shore I had to cross rocks which were either slippery or covered with oyster shells.  Sigh sigh… I did it all very carefully, wobbling slightly.  Two young women (Pete Newman would have described them as being happy) were sitting on the little beach, watching me with sympathy and interest.  I gave them a brief explanation “Tide, rocks, oysters, slipperiness, can’t swim back to boat…” and they smiled lovingly as I clambered off back across the rocks and onto the beach, where I could walk back to a good position for swimming back to 2XS.

In the afternoon Pete and I took the dinghy (oar-less for the moment) into the marina, where we were allocated a place to tie up.  We were amazed by Nelson Bay – total HolidayWorld!  Whale Watch, Dolphin Watch, Party Boat, Dinghy Hire.  All go!  Subway, Hogsbreath Café, seafood restaurants, tarot card reading, apartments, resorts.  And I have never even heard of Nelson Bay… We bought a few supplies at the supermarket and made our way back home to 2XS to prepare – Pete and Leanne coming for dinner!

They have just gone home.  We really enjoyed having them here. 

Pete is watching a weirdo program – who is this interviewer?  He has David Beckham on at the moment, and they are singing Big Girls Don’t Cry together.  I am watching out the corner of my eye while I write this…