Sunday 4th
December 2016
Pete and Michael are still in Breakwater Marina (Townsville.) The engine is ready to go back into its hold;
the sails are fixed and back in place.
But I don’t think they are quite ready to leave for Urangan yet… There
was (*cough*) a bit of a flood… No need to name or shame but somebody (not a
blood relative of mine…) left a tap on when the connection was dodgy and while Michael
was at a friend’s house and Pete was on the Gold Coast, somebody on the marina
noticed that 2XS was leaning heavily to the right…a Trump supporter! No…a flood!
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| Chantal and Fredy |
Poor Michael has spent many hours in he heat pumping
out the water from the starboard side, and emptying the cupboards. Pete got back from the Gold Coast and made decisions
which must have been very painful to him.
He HATES throwing away things which might still be useful…Out went two
broken printers which weren’t working properly even before their immersion, and
out went my little sewing machine. It
has done a valiant job. I bought it from
Chantal and Fredy (SV Micromegas) a few years ago for $30 and it has been worth
its weight in gold. Towards the very end
of our time in the Louisiades it seized up.
I had been doing lots of mending of very dirty clothes…maybe it just got
too full of gunk! Having a swimming lesson
in Breakwater Marina finished it off for good and it is now landfill.
People in the Louisiades wear their clothes until they
are so stiff with dirt they are a sort of splattered khaki colour. In their defence, they don’t have much water
to spare, and soap is a rare commodity. I
set myself up as a mini laundry/mending service and got a great deal of
pleasure from sending people off with clean-ish) clothes all mended and improved.
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| Cleaner! |
Sarah got a dress I had been saving for ages, donated by
Eva (Hobart) when she was four. It was her very favourite
bit of clothing and I made sure it went to a particularly nice little girl. Sarah on Rossell Island was the winner!
Girly, on the left, scored a pristine white top from
Grace (Launceston). Her many brothers
also got new clothes and tennis balls.
When Pete and I walked around to the village on the other side of Bagaman
Island we saw the twins on the beach, rushing and out of the waves and through the
bush, hurling the balls at one another and wearing their Thomas the Tank Engine
t-shirts.
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| Girly & family |
(Everyone who got new clothing also got a cake of soap…and
yes I know all of this mending and washing and giving of new clothing is a very
small temporary bit of assistance but…it made everyone happy; it is good to
spread the love!)
Meanwhile I am here in Hobart. It is beautiful – sunny
and warm, with the odd bit of cool breeze blowing down the mountain. I am having lots of quality family time –
making up for so many months away…
Many kids say
the darnedest things moments…Trying to wrangle Rose into the bath last
week, I found her marching off down the hall wearing a Christmas hat. “So who are you, Rosie?” I asked, and she turned and said, cheerily, “I
am Fake Santa!”
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