Saturday 4th February

Weehee - Port Macquarie!

We glided out of Coff’s Harbour with just a few regrets – lovely friends there – and made our way peacefully down the coast, with the company of just a few dolphins, till we got to The Bar.

A bit of heart-fluttering, a few sharply indrawn breaths and then – up and over, easy peasy.  A great relief!

We found our way to the pontoon two down from Andrew Miedecke’s and tied up.  Andrew strolled down and assured us we had a room of our own if we wanted it – or would we rather stay on board?  Well…Andrew’s house is lovely and comfortable and it is very nice not having to clamber on and off a boat in the early dawn light to make one’s way across alien house fronts to get to an early-morning toilet call… So we are installed in Ruby’s Room, upstairs next to Andrew’s Room.  Downstairs are George and Harry, Andrew’s sons, and James, his brother.  And George’s beautiful Canadian girlfriend Robyn.

James, Andrew, Pete and I went into town, to the waterfront, for dinner.  We met up with a fellow Tasmanian, Tim Shaw, who was there with a few boat problems, with two teenage boys, Alistair and Jackson.  It was all very pleasant and indeed beautiful.  But noisy!  Firstly we were under a lorikeet-infested tree  Well I LOVE birds and lorikeets are particularly glorious but my goodness a few hundred of them above one’s head at dusk – they make a racket!!  When the lorikeets had finally and blessedly gone to sleep we had a DJ in a pained kombi.  Oh Lordy…worse than lorikeets! 

We are now back at Andrew’s place.  Andrew has gone to bed; George and Harry are at their mother’s house for dinner; James and Pete are sitting by the pool with the odd cleansing ale or two.  And I am about to dive into bed with my iPad book.

Blissikins!