Well yes we have left…at about 2pm. Pete spent the morning organising cars and last-minute details while I idled a bit nervously on the boat, dabbing away with spray ‘n’ wipe and the vacuum cleaner. (These two items have been conspicuous in my recent life, moving in and out of our various houses.)

Eventually Pete got back and off we went, under the bridge at a fine rate. The forecast had been a bit ominous but it was all just beautiful, with bright sunshine and spectacular clouds. I took a few photos which don’t show the spectacular or beautiful nature of the afternoon at all but never mind…

When we went past Blackmans Bay, Claire and Stuart and the children went out to the clifftop opposite their house and flashed a mirror at us. This made me laugh and cry…ofcourse….
We headed into a most wonderful technicolour sunset and anchored in Lauderdale Bay, quite a long way out because this bay turns out to be extremely -and slightly alarmingly - shallow. We can see Pete’s sister Lynne’s house, and we can even see her moving around enticingly in her kitchen – how nice if we could just pootle in and meet her for a drink before dinner. But the wind has come up and we would probably get there and back all in one piece but…we would get very wet…

So now it is time for our first G & T of the trip. We are trying out the second of the two heaters Pete bought, a nifty little yellow arrangement. The one we used last night was just wonderful and made the whole living area warm and cosy; we will see if this one does the same!

The sun is shining…well it was when I started writing but now it is pitch black and it is supposed to be the Dawning of the Age Of Aquarius out there…Planets aligning as we speak!

It is very cold in Hobart but I gather it is very cold everywhere, all the way up to Sydney at least. Pete has bought not one but two small and marvellous heaters for the boat. I think he looked at my pinched white face as I sat on the couch in the South Hobart apartment wearing scarf, boots, many layers of thermals, and realised that I would not improve out at sea in a cold cold boat… I might even start doing more than just whimpering faintly… Mind you everything has improved enormously since the heat pump has been connected and working in the apartment, and I have emerged from my frozen stupor to do some useful and practical things involving vacuum cleaner, spray ‘n’ wipe, washing machine etc etc. I have also bought more layers of warm clothing – thermal socks, merino gloves, a woollen beanie with a brim to shade the sun, should the sun shine…

And it would seem that we will be ready to go tomorrow… I don’t say this too loudly; I have been saying “goodbye” and “yes we’re leaving TOMORROW!” for a few weeks and I feel just a bit no-cred in this department…

We are spending our first night on board and the new gas heater is just FANTASTIC! I can feel the tropics already…

Saying goodbye – again – is another matter…not quite so fantastic….

We should be up and running with the wind by lunchtime tomorrow –after a few more goodbyes…oh dear… but yes ofcourse I am very keen for the adventure to begin....

And no we still haven’t gone… a few hitches still with preparing the boat but…never mind!

We are hearing the most horrendous stories of people who have set off in the past week or so. One boat got 40 nautical miles from Hobart, on the way to New Zealand, and had to turn back, battered and bruised with all on board violently ill… Another boat got part way to New Zealand and was caught in a dreadful storm. They capsized three times and – yes, a theme! – everyone was violently ill, battered and bruised, and the boat badly damaged. And my sister Monique rang earlier today to tell me that a cruise ship had just limped in to Port Vila (Vanuatu, where my niece Leah lives,) with all on board- violently ill from the rough seas between New Zealand, Norfolk, Island, Vanuatu.

Pete’s son Martin has connected a beautiful fabulous heatpump in the apartment; we are now toasty warm…so we are quite happy for the weather to get just a little bit more amenable…

No we haven’t left yet.

Arctic blast in Hobart! And we will probably leave on Wednesday in spite of this…

Today we spent a lot of time rushing about buying last minute things. I bought two nifty folding bikes, with accessories, ie helmets, security chain, tyre levers, pump. I negotiated with Stuart, one of my (many!) lovely sons-in-law. Stuart works in a busy bike shop in the city and I have been talking to him about this for a few weeks. He sent me a voicemessage on my iphone early in the day: “Hey Mark, it’s Julie. Gimme a ring.”
(So cute, my big bodybuilder Stuart, now to be known as Julie! As I am to be known as Mark…Don’t you love voice-to-text??)

I am thrilled with the idea of bikes; we will be able to pootle off to shops, or along country roads, when we arrive in foreign parts, rather than having to trudge around marinas faintly searching for supermarkets and bottle shops.

We also scuttled out to Moonah, to Anchor Wetsuits, where Pete bought me a newfangled lightweight rubber number, with matching boots, black with silver stripes. He came into the changeroom to help me heave it on, and cried, “How attractive you look! Sharks will LOVE you!”

The credit card got a further workout because I also bought a little Sony camera, hoping to be able to download photos onto my blog. What will I take photos of?? Birds? Pete in the bilges? Me in my layers of merino and polar fleece?? Aha wait and see!

It is very cold in Hobart.

BRRR!

No longer a gentle autumnal feeling; this is the real thing.  So yes…we will be cold on the boat.  But I am feeling more confident because I have unpacked my clothes and stashed them away in various convenient shelves and hanging spaces and I have many sets of thermals to wear so all will be well.

We have also started to sort out the food on 2XS so we can go on our last supermarket mission with some sort of useful information in our heads.  Some of the food has been evicted and is now sadly languishing in a big cardboard box, waiting to be donated to some unsuspecting family member.  A very big bottle of pickles; many half-used bottles of arcane sauces not really suited to boat cooking, a third large jar of peanut butter.  Quick and easy is what we need.  I am watching Jamie Oliver as I write; he is whizzing some sausages in a blender and turning them into…sausage meat.  This is going to be used to create a fabulous pasta sauce; now he is zesting half a lemon.  Lovely cooking but…not sure if we will be able to achieve anything of this sort on the high seas…Tins of tomatoes, baked beans, tuna, cup-a-soup for lunches, that will be our style for a while.  This is not quite true, ofcourse.  We managed to cook lovely meals last year, when we were stopped on anchorages or on marinas.  Some of our thoughtful friends and relations have given us chocolate, always sustaining, and Ann-Marie has very cleverly given us a seed sprouter, to protect us from scurvy.

No not leaving tomorrow…probably Tuesday, possibly Wednesday… My brother Pete says some terrible weather is coming to the East Coast of Tas and that when we see the weather map, we will huddle in Hobart until the weekend.  I will keep you posted…(Terrible weather for us, that is; weather which brings a smile of total joy to my big strong surfer nephew Will!!)

We are supposed to be leaving on Monday...but this is not now likely to happen.  A few setbacks with improvements and changes to the boat... So I don't yet have an actual life-at-sea story from this year but...here is another bit from 2010....

While we were on the Gold Coast last year, Pete needed things done to the boat.  So on Monday we left early and made our way up a complicated maze of canals and river to the Gold Coast Marina.  Well no not the Gold Coast Marina, actually…we were in the wrong place and had to be directed to ummmm the Son of the Gold Coast Marina about 600 metres further up the river - can’t remember what it was called… but I did spend many hours there. 

A collection of men swarmed over the boat, and one hapless young chap spent most of the very hot day down a hatch doing exhausting things to one of the engines.  $1800 later…it wasn’t fixed… poor Pete was very upset, but brave, about this set-back.  We made our way back in the gathering gloom…this was NOT FUN.  I was in charge of finding the red and green (and sometimes yellow) markers, and had to cross them off my map with a marker pen.  This was all reasonably OK until it got so dark I couldn’t see the map; I also missed many of the markers.  And I kept shining my little flashlight in Pete’s eyes (no NOT on purpose) which made things very difficult for him and which also made him - ahem – quite cross.  At last we found our way back to our area.  Aha!  I was quite confident I could see the big house on the corner; I could recognise the silhouette of the Norfolk pines, and the shape of the house.  Very confident, I was.  “This is the opening to our canal!” I trilled.  Well no…it wasn’t…it was a nasty little dead end and we had to back out.  At last we did find it and we did get back in time to have a shower and go out to Cav’s Steakhouse for dinner.