Wednesday 7^th March

All is well in Hobart.  It is mild, slightly on the cool side, but…no gales, no storms, no flooding rain.

In 2XS World, on the other hand… Pete and Steve are very cold and very wet.  They have arrived at a marina (very expensive, says Pete, sadly,) in Queenscliffe and everything is sopping.  Apparently water came into the cabins and…oh no, this is too tragic…all of our pillows are very wet and will probably go mouldy and will probably need to be thrown out.  This is not quite as tragic for Pete, because all he demands of a pillow is that it is flat enough not to give him a crick in the neck.  Whereas my relationship with pillows is much more intense and much more fraught with difficulty.  My pillows on 2XS are:

·         a wool pillow, quite firm and lovely for leaning against while reading, which Steve made for me with his own fair hands in his own little factory on Flinders Island,

·         an also-ran pillow which is sometimes used to keep the cabin door from banging but which I also use for resting my knees or my book when necessary,

·         and my pride and joy, a fairly new and expensive feather pillow which can be plumped up into just the right configuration to give me a happy night’s sleep.

So imagine if you can my current distress…

While Pete was on the phone, Steve was at the washing facility in the marina.  I heard him coming in, saying, bleakly, the washing will take until midnight.  And the towels aren’t going to dry in the dryers.  Pete thinks a divorce is imminent…but they decided to have a glass of wine and continue backgammon-to-the-death until all of the washing is done and dusted.  Or done and dry… In the meantime wet towels are draped all over the boat, adding to the general ambiance of cold and damp.  (“Stinking cold and wet” are Pete’s exact words.)  The carpets are soggy, too, squelchy and cold underfoot.  As well as this, it is, says Pete, “blowing its tits off.”  “Oh dear,” said I, smiling at Elsa and sipping my tea in Katy and Jeff’s warm, cosy, dry house…

Pete and Steve were going to have a nice meal in a restaurant but this didn’t happen and they ate fish and chips instead.  This would have made me very happy but Pete doesn’t like take-aways and doesn’t love fish and chips as much as I do so this was not a big treat.

Oh I forgot to say – they have run out of gin although they stocked up on groceries in Cowles (in the north of Philip Island.)  On the plus side, they will be in Docklands marina tomorrow, right in Melbourne, so they have done very well.

Coming over the bar into Queenscliffe was apparently quite hair-raising, with the wind blowing a belter and big following waves smacking them up the bum.  There was an Easterly wind and a low tide but the water was still running the wrong way so it was all, I gather, just a bit difficult.

On the plus side…they saw hundreds of dolphins, in big schools churning the water.  There were albatross, and huge rafts of mutton birds, and seals a-plenty on Seal Rock.  As well as this, Pete Attenborough is sure he saw a whale spouting.  (He is very good at spotting whales.)

But if I weigh up the phone call could I say 2XS was a happy cheery boat tonight??  Probably not…maybe after some restorative wine and some fierce but fair backgammon games maybe a rosy glow will descend upon Pete and Steve in Queenscliffe.  And I am going off to my dry little bed with a nice big glass of water, some games of WWF (Words With Friends) to entertain me on my iPhone and a pleasant book to read.  And while yes of course I miss Pete very much maybe I am glad I don’t have to lay my head on a damp pillow and try to find a dry spot in a soggy bed right this minute.