7th January - 2XS $$$ woes - engine all fixed and ready to go - Deloraine - Moths (Derwent)

Saturday 7th January 2017

2XS now has a perfectly restored starboard engine.  It should go like the clappers for many years.  Captain Pete, on the other hand, is suffering a bit of a decline…the bill was steep!  The mechanic, honest and hard-working as he undoubtedly is, had quoted $8,000.  Maybe a bit more.  But the reckoning, when it came, was $16,000.  The  Volvo Penta parts were fearfully expensive.  So Pete is wandering around his house with a slightly stunned expression…

He will need to open his Christmas (Josef Chromy!) wine...

Onto a more cheery topic:

Deloraine is so beautiful.  Nestled in a valley with a sleepy river, dramatic mountains, limestone caves, stately homes.  (Never mind that it gets beastly cold and fogy in winter…that is why we have insulation, puffer jackets, doonas!) 

Calstock

Pete and I loved our morning being tourists in our own backyard.  We went to the little museum and were enthralled.  I loved it because it was all very quirky and interesting and not TMI (Too Much Information.)  Pete added the museum to George and Ute’s already overloaded itinerary…

Jimmy Possum chair at the museum - I loved these chairs!  Indestructible and comfortable!!)

The little Moths are out on the river, darting about on their foils, looking so very pretty in the sparkling sunlight.  I am very relieved that Hobart has put on delightful weather for the championship…It is hot, clear, glorious.  (It could very well have been sleety, cold, grey…our climate is VERY changeable.  And you will never – I hope – hear a word of complaint from me about it.  I love it all, the hot, the cold, the sleet, the wind, the unpredictable nature of things.  I loved my years in the tropics, having 2XS adventures, but a hot unvaried climate isn’t my natural happy place…Bring on the weird four-seasons-in-one-day theme!)

A Pete Harmsen photo