19-21 June - Nhulunbuy to Elizabeth Bay - new generator

Thursday 20^th June

We are anchored in Elizabeth Bay, about forty nautical miles from Nhulunbuy, in a small flotilla of five boats.  We all left at much the same time, came into this big wide bay, and spent a crazy hour or so ducking and weaving, with the occasional sharp shout, amongst the pearl raft buoys.

And here is Settlement, scooting down the coast.

It is OK here, but very windy and everybody is keeping a very close eye on their anchors – we do not want to drift off into the big wide bay amongst the black buoys…

All is well.  Or not quite…I am still all the colours of the rainbow and just a bit achey.  And what has gone wrong?  There is always something going wrong, on a boat… And this time it is our inverter.  It has been so reliable, quietly plugging away in its little cupboard, charging up our many MANY gadgets – two computers, ipad, ipod, phones, cameras, cordless power tools, modems… All the things we need on a daily basis.  Pete tried to pull it apart while we were on our way but the waves tossed us about too much and he had to give up.  He sighed quietly and started again once we had anchored but it really is, as he says, buggered..

But – serendipity!!  At the Golf Club market on Sunday Pete had talked to a bloke selling appealing little generators.  He had kept Keith’s card and – yes!   After just one or two phone calls, using the satphone, one has been delivered to us just now, by kindly young chaps on big sturdy Hama Pearl II, bringing supplies and crew to the pearl farm.  Not only serendipity but also…synchronicity.

Friday 21^st June

We had our curry dinner party on board Settlement last night, to celebrate Andrew’s birthday.   There are five boats here now – four cats, one monohull, all bound for the Indonesian Rally.  (One of the cats, Pedoja, actually has an on-board cat, a large, happy tortoiseshell – I must get a photo of her, reclining on her very own boat.)  We all pootled across to Settlement in a variety of dinghies and had a wonderful evening – lovely food, lots of chat.  What could be better?

Tania (from Pedoja) and I did have a bit of a winge, mind you. She too is finding it very difficult not being able to swim.  Neither of us would ever choose to live in a hot climate where the sea is totally out of bounds.  I asked her if she thought it was very crocodiley here in Elizabeth Bay.  It doesn’t look like croc habitat at all.  Well maybe not, she said.  But as they were dropping their anchor they saw a very big shark.  And NOT a nice friendly reef shark!

(I am doing this blog on Settlement, per kind favour Andrew and Sue’s WiFi…They have all manner of good systems on their boat, just slightly better than ours.)

I think we are leaving tomorrow, to go through the Hole In The Wall – between islands – and to what is reputedly a nice anchorage on the other side, across the top of Arnhem Land.  I don’t know if I will be able to do any blogging so I want to say…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FELIX a bit in advance…

Felix Cook is turning three and he is, I say with no bias at all, a most delightful child.  He is bright, funny, kind and loving and puts up with a lot of discomfort because of his many MANY allergies.  I think most people would be cross and crabby, not being able to eat this and that (dairy, fish, wheat, eggs, nuts amongst the many items on the forbidden list) but he takes it all as it comes and goes with the flow.  An admirable little blighter!