2nd June - computers - boats

Sunday 2^nd June

Today we have bobbed about at anchor, still off the Wongai Hotel on Horn Island.  Happy people are buzzing past us in powerful little tinnies – going fishing I suspect.  Tomorrow is a public holiday in the Torres Strait Islands, for Mabo Day, so festivities are probably already beginning.

Pete has spent most of the day struggling.  Not, this time, with copper pipes and narrow spaces, but with his computer, and his superannuation fund bookwork.  There are occasional cries of despair – WHY does THIS document print, but not THAT one?  I, on the other hand, have also had a bit of a struggle, trying to get my new printer to be accepted by my own computer.  It all happened, in the fullness of time, but it was a very s-l-o-w process.  But all is well and we now have a functioning scanner and photocopier; no more begging kindly people in marina offices to do us just one BIG favour…

There is a boat near us lying at a strange angle.  When the tide goes out, it is stranded way up high on a sandbank, but at the moment it looks as if it is at rest, lying nearly on its side.  (I am strangely attracted to rusty or wrecked boats... They always look so brave and jaunty, staying afloat, or as balanced on the sand, as well as they can manage.)

Not quite as flamboyantly beached as this one, near Portland Roads…

In amongst my photos is a beautiful close-up of a water lily along the Blue Thong Path.  The brackish little pond has not been turned into a pig wallow, so these flowers bloom away happily.  So lovely!

We have been invaded by a whole tribe of infuriating little flies, which have somehow found 2XS.  Usually we are safe; flies don’t seem to like to cross the water to get to us.  Pete and I are spending a lot of time swatting, and waving, and doing little anti-fly dances.  Not so lovely!!

Oh and here is a photo of Pete's latest Sourdough Fiasco.... We have decided that it looks like a very useful item for plugging up a leak in the boat, or maybe for fothering a sail... But we threw it into the sea, in tempting wedges, and not one single bird came to peck at it... But has he given up yet?  NO!!!

Birthday Accolades:

Today to Gavin, my very first son-in-law, an integral part of our family for just about twenty years…

If you ask anyone who has been taught by Gavin, their faces will light up.  They all say, GAV?  He’s a LEGEND!!  He is a quiet, determined and generous person, fiercely competitive at whatever sport he is involved in, but totally relaxed and calm in his personal life.  He is greatly loved and appreciated by family, friends, colleagues, students.