Wednesday 24th November

James Headlam on board - off to beautiful Whitehaven Beach!
How lucky are we...

And welcome to the world:
Electra Monique
To Mark and Leah, In Hobart, soon to return to Vanuatu

Tuesday 23^rd November

Yesterday – was it Monday??  Am I still in Island time?? – we left Townsville at dawn.  Sad to be leaving this nice little city, our friends and family.  But it was great, and yes it is time to move on; southern latitudes beckon.

We did about 65 nautical miles down the coast.  Not much wind, calm sea.  So we took turns lying on the couch.  Pete mostly read his book with occasional lapses into SnoozyWorld.  I listened to the first four of my new downloaded podcasts from Radio National.  Very interesting, they all were.  I heard the first few words and the last few words of each one… As soon as it would start getting interesting, I would completely lose consciousness and lie there, snuffling gently through my nose.  I would only wake as the talk about Aboriginal art, or solar power technology, or the French origin of English words was coming to a conclusion.  I would sit up briefly, turn the little ipod panel to the next podcast and…back to SnoozyWorld.  So tomorrow I can listen to them all again!

We anchored in Upstart Bay, which seems like a very pretty little shacky community.  The water didn’t look very inviting, but this is definitely not crocodile territory – too steep and rocky – and the stingers haven’t come this far south yet, so I went for a swim.  No hope of persuading Pete into the sea, he was very happily reading his book and sipping his anchoring beer.  The water temperature was just perfect, refreshing and revitalising.  But there was no visibility at all!  I swam in to shore and could only just see my fingertips.  Not so very interesting; I wanted to see clear blue water, coral, fish, giant clams.  Never mind; we will be in the Whitsundays in a day or so.  Pete’s son James is joining us for five days; he loves snorkeling and I am very much looking forward to swimming with him and hearing his enthusiastic chat as he powers along the reef.

23^rd November

Another early start – we left Upstart Bay, which Pete told me, after my swim, is also known as Shark Bay – at 5am and arrived in Woodwark Bay at 3.00, the perfect time to anchor.  Sea eagle in the sky, turtles in the water, all very lovely.

I went for a swim and had almost zero visibility.  I could have been holding hands with a turtle and neither of us would have known.  There was coral; I know this because I swam right into a bommie and hit my head.  The water was a lovely temperature but not being able to see is a bit daunting, so now I am on dry boat, with my computer and a cup of tea and a snoozing Pete.

Only 18 miles to Hamilton Island, where we will pick up James tomorrow.  I hope we have better visibility in the islands…poor Pete will be driven mad by the sound of James and me complaining…

Mission Beach Adventure

While we were waiting for Michael to return to Townsville from his mysterious army manouevres in Brisbane, we took the opportunity of hiring a car and driving up to Mission Beach, to visit Pete’s friends Peter Salmon and Maddie De Merxhausen.

Hiring a car was surprisingly difficult.  Either nobody answered the phone, or Computer Said No, as we made our way through the Yellow Pages for car rentals.  Eventually we got a car, from a small local company called AABA.  They picked us up at the marina and took us to Outer Woop-Woop near the airport to fill in the forms.  I thought we would be in the office for ever and EVER.  The manager was a wall of sound… He just didn’t stop talking.  He had many opinions, and told us all about his family history, how they escaped from the Communists in Poland, how he gave 4 years service to the Australian army, how some car rental companies try to rip off their customers…on and on it went.  I could feel my fillings start to throb and my attention start to wander, but, eventually, we got out with our sanity intact and a nice little yellow Getz to drive up the coast.

It is a long way – two and a half hours, by Queensland measurements – they don’t tell you how many kilometres here, just how many hours.  It is a very big state… We took a lot longer, because we stopped at Frosty Mango for an ice cream and loitered to look at cyclone damage here and there.  The devastation is still apparent, but this is Northern Queensland, the tropics, and everything grows back fast and green.  I saw a forlorn little fibro house on stilts on the side of the road.  At first I saw the sign attached said, HOUSE FOR RENT, but no…it said, HOUSE FOR REMOVAL.

Mission Beach, when we finally arrived there, is very lovely. But…once again, you can’t swim there, no matter how warm, sparkly, blue and inviting the sea might look.  It harbours all manner of dangerous beasties of the sea… So the water is just a scenic backdrop.

Pete and Maddie’s house is absolutely beautiful.  Maddie designed it – she is an architect, and very talented if not very good at blowing her own trumpet.  Here is a woman who really needs an agent to promote her!  The garden is glorious, lush and green and full of beauty, in spite of the ravages of cyclones and wild pigs.  The house was finished quite recently, and her design proved its worth in the cyclone, which hit Mission Beach, as we all know, with unbelievable ferocity.  Pete and Maddie hunkered down in their laundry-wardrobe area, with Baggins The Dog, opened the doors to let the wind rush through the breezeway, and waited it out.  The house had a few minor bits of damage, with trees crashing down on the roof, but basically it remained serene and intact.  The garden on the other hand, was whipped into a frenzy.  Maddie had lots of before and after photos, so we could see what had happened.  To us it all looked just beautiful, but Maddie is still mourning the big trees which toppled over, the thick vegetation which sheltered their house from the world.

We slept on land for the first time since August; it felt very strange, not being in our little 2XS cocoon.  Our bedroom was beautiful, with louvered windows and a nice cool breeze.  Our bathroom was absolutely lovely, all open to the garden.  So lovely to stand in the shower with Maddie’s beautiful leafy jungle-like garden close at hand.

The entire house is a work of art, and it is indeed full of works of art, books, beautiful comfortable furniture, all very casual.  Maddie and Pete have obviously been collecting beautiful objets for many years – old Chinese doors, picture frames, things which please the eye.  We were very happy staying there.

They had been invited to dinner that night, and we were very fortunate to be included.  We drove down the hill and up the hill, not very far away, to neighbors, who live in Mission beach six months of the year and the other six months in Marbella (Spain.)  Very nice, hospitable people, Chris and Georgie.  Georgie is an irrepressibly cheerful woman, full of joie de vivre.  And a most wonderful and accomplished cook.  She took a shine to me because when I went to help her with serving up the entrees – delicious stuffed mushrooms – I knew the reference Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.  She said nobody else has ever known what she was talking about.  We sat outside near the pool, and Georgie (seemingly) effortlessly fed her ten guests an absolute feast.  The stuffed mushrooms were perfect, and the main curse was extraordinary – rice cooked with raisins, with an amazing chicken and watermelon curry topped with almonds and mint.  And dessert – which I didn’t think I wanted – was a chocolate mousse cake, too yummy for words.

I sat next to a very nice old codger called Richard.  He and his wife Janet have been married for 17years. Neither of them had been married before, and they were, I think, very surprised to find each other when she was 50 and he was 57.  I asked where they had met, and he said it was during race week in Melbourne, and he met her at the races, and the following day at the polo.  As you do…(I would have been very impressed with Janet, Richard and Georgie when I was a little girl, because I was inordinately fascinated by poshness.  Not much poshness came our way, in Waddamana or Mt Nelson, but when it did, I was wide-eyed with wonder.)

We were, ofcourse, the last to leave.  Janet had fallen asleep at the table and had been ordered off to bed by her concerned hostess.  (Janet and Richard were house guests).  Steve and Vicky (local real estate agents) had caught a taxi home.  And Pete and Pete were happy as could be to sit outside with another bottle of red wine.  Chris, our host, was a very nice man, also very wide awake, and I don’t think Georgie ever gets tired.  Maddie and I sat quite silently, watching the dogs, Baggins and Bella, frolicking on the lawn.  Maddie, a gentle soul, is always silent in company; I am less so, but I had run out of energy and very much feared I would fall asleep with my head in the ashtray.  (Yes, very surprising, at least three of the people present were heavy smokers.)

Eventually we went home.  Maddie and I went straight to bed while Pete and Pete stayed up very happily till somewhere around 3am.  They were bright-eyed and cheery in the morning and we spent a very happy morning in the cool and breezy house. I went out at one stage to hang out the washing and found, as I stepped outside, that it was actually almost unbearably hot out there in the world.  I gave a startled cry or two as the sun beat down fiercely on my unprotected head.  It must have been twenty degrees cooler inside the beautifully designed house.

Pete cooked us a beautiful lunch – steak and salad and as soon as we had eaten, it was time to GO GO GO out into the hot hot hot world.  Pete and Maddie were going north to Cairns, to pick up Pete’s son Ollie, and we were going back to Townsville.  With another stop for icecream at Frosty Mango…

22^nd November 2011

Oh the joy of being able to get online anytime…My little Bigpond Elite NextG thingy glows joyously with two blue lines, any time I want it to.  Bliss!

Pete is doing his banking, and he has asked me to look up flights, from Brisbane to Bowen – he has A Plan in mind.  I am quite good with this sort of thing; Google is my friend and normally I would have had the answer within minutes.  But…Computer Says No!  One of the flight sites says there are no planes from Brisbane to Bowen (they are lying.)  And the other one insists that what I REALLY want is Melbourne to Brisbane, no matter what I type into the useful little boxes.  So I have resorted back to Google – flights Brisbane to Bowen, I typed into the space provided.  Aha!  We know exactly what you want, said Google.  Here is the address of a very nice, tastefully appointed brothel in Brisbane.  I have, for the moment, given up.

(By the way, is anyone out there??  I have had a few emails indicating that a few people have noticed our return and have caught up on our adventures, but mostly there is a resounding cybersilence… This is OK; I am, after all, really writing this blog for ME ME ME, but…I would love to get a few more emails or comments…The loneliness of the long distance writer…)

Last night after work Michael arrived, bearing big trays of most wonderful fish and chips.  He also had a cube of XXXX Gold beer for Pete, a toaster for the boat and, best of all, a fish filleting knife for me.  He stayed until quite late, for a school night, and disappeared, eventually, off into the balmy Townsville night to prepare for another army day tomorrow.  Sharon, my ex-Tasmanian niece, also came, and we had a very pleasant time chatting on the deck in the dusk.

While Michael was here, we got an email from Katy in Hobart, with lovely photos of my “grannies.” Michael replied to this - he calls Katy Kay - , and I asked if I could put his email up on my blog.  He was a bit puzzled – WHY??? – but gave his permission, so here it is… Michael has a very distinctive writing style… (By the way, Pete says I have never mentioned that Michael is my son.  I was a bit nonplussed – surely everyone who reads this knows me, and knows I have a Michael, dear to my heart, youngest of my 4, born in 1981??  But maybe not…)

Great photos Kay, Mum is up my way with Pete, has been good to see them.  Especially before all of you.  Went on the Boat to Magnetic Island on Sunday & me & one of my mates heard a sneeze & asked each other if it was the other person.  We then looked around & saw the mythical creature known as a mermaid in old sailor folk lore, it was a Dugong.  Pete didn't believe in them & he was com'n back in the boat & actually managed to catch a glimps.  Had a 2 second swim as I hate the ocean especially when I can't see, you couldn't even see an inch under the surface!!  When Nicky & the boys were up here we went to Magnetic Island & I braved the water to protect my nephews from the reasons I don't like the ocean.  I swam on the outside with the open water to my left, so that if something came it would go me & not one of the boys (Nicky's on her own).  I have since found out that the creatures I was protecting them from, actually hide in the shore bit & pop out to attack stuff swimming by, so without knowing it, the boys were unwillingly human shields for myself.  Mum is good & so is Pete.

Here's Mum, Ur favourite brother.

A tribute to Rachel

Rachel has flown back to Tasmania.  She will be back at work on Wednesday, in lovely Fullers Bookshop.  While she was with us, she taught me how to use Twitter – oh what fun! – and I have just seen that our new friend Kerrie, from Mary Who Bookshop, picked her up from the Magnetic Island ferry terminal and took her to the airport.  As Kerrie would say – Tweet Success!  (Kerrie quoted many instances of Twitter being helpful with book sales, connections, friendships, discoveries, when Rachel and I were lurking around her beautiful shop.)

We so enjoyed having Rachel on 2XS.  She was always helpful and cheerful, was able to entertain herself or entertain us (well me in particular…I do love talking about books etc etc…)  If she ever wants to crew on another boat, I know Pete will write her a most glowing reference.

She stayed on the boat while we were in Mission Beach, and then took herself off to a backpackers hostel on Magnetic Island.  She was a bit dubious about this; the advertisements for the hostel had lots of beach babes in bikinis frolicking on a giant plastic pillow.  Not really Rachel’s sort of thing…We came home to a sparklingly clean boat with a new bottle of gin, a big bottle of tonic, and two limes awaiting us in the galley.

On our last day together, Pete did some serious work re-connecting with his cyberspace obligations while Rachel and I played with water ie scrubbed the decks, galley, bathroom.  Great fun when fresh water is available through a hose and not out of our precious tank supply.  Rachel spent ages scrubbing the outdoors carpets, which were particularly horrid, covered with bird poo and bird vomit from a dear little hitchhiker bird who spent the night recuperating on deck before flying off into the moonlight, somewhere near Willis Island.  Rachel did such a good job, down on hands and knees with a scrubbing brush.  She hung the big heavy carpet over the rail to get more of a hosing, and then a bit of sunlight to dry it off.

Some hours later I wandered around the deck and said, “Rachel do you think we should put the carpets back down now?”  Well yes, great idea. But…where was the big mat?  She looked at me in some horror and said, “You are joking aren’t; you?  Not a funny joke, mind you.”  Well no this isn’t what I would consider a funny joke either… Our big carpet had slithered silently down into the muddy waters of the marina… We peered anxiously over the side, but visibility is nil.  Pete took it all very well and said that the next morning he would get the power dive thingy out and would go down to hunt for it.  He didn’t think we would find it; it could have floated around quite some distance before sinking out of sight.

The next morning, bright and early, there was Rachel, moving purposefully around the deck looking for my wetsuit, her mask, flippers.  She was going in, no matter what!  Yuckerella…not such a pleasant task.  She dived down a few times and felt her away around the surface of the mud, unable to see anything.  The mud is very deep here.  Some of the workmen on a boat in the marina told us, encouragingly, that usually things which fall overboard are gone forever, down down into the depths of the silt.

But Rachel was on a mission.  She went forwards and backwards, swimming blind and feeling the unpleasant mud with her dear little pink fingers until – Eureka! She came to the surfaced clutching a corner of the big, heavy, muddy carpet.  Success!  We were all thrilled to bits.  The carpet got another big scrub and clean and then was immediately put back where it belongs and where there is no danger of escape overboard.

Thank you Rachel!  You are welcome aboard 2XS any time.

Monday 21^st November

Townsville is a beautiful city, especially the city centre, which has gorgeous old buildings.  Big, elegant pubs with wide verandahs, nothing too badly desroyed or modernised.  The suburbs sprawl out for miles and are, well, suburban, but everyone we talk to is very enthusiastic about living here.  There are lots of parks, pools, free facilities.  And for us the best feature – welcoming and hospitable family and friends up and down the region!

The downside: it is very hot, there are beautiful beaches and waterways but…they are inaccessible because of beasties of the sea, big and small.  I am looking forward to getting further south away from the stingers and the crocs.

We have been able to spend a bit of time with Lindy, John and Sharon, my ex-Tasmanian in-laws.  They welcomed us very kindly and have lent us their big strong car.  We left Michael’s big strong but less useful ute (ie 2-seater) with them.  Michael was our chauffeur and guide.  We were particularly impressed with Castle Hill, a big rocky prominence in the centre of Townsville.  Normally I would have wanted to walk up there – how pathetic, driving, and not taking the opportunity for exercise.  But…it is, as I keep saying, VERY hot, and Castle Hill is a big bare rock, with no shady trees.  If I had tried to walk I probably would have had to be airlifted off the side of the hill, a tomato-faced puddle of a person.  Much easier to glide effortlessly up the steep road to the summit in airconditioned comfort.  The view from the top is breathtaking.  We were able to get our bearings and look 360 degrees around a big chunk of Northern Queensland.

Lindy and John have recently moved into a big residential facility in the outskirts of Townsville.  They are very happy there, and showed us around, before feeding us a delicious feast.  Their house is spacious and comfortable, one of 400 in the facility.  In the big amenities block there is a restaurant, gym, swimming pool, hairdresser, clubrooms, pool tables, bowling green.  John is going to join a bowls team; Lindy is going to do yoga and water aerobics.  The instructor for both of these activities, she says, is a very fit and lithe 82 year old resident…

Michael lives in his favourite suburb, Douglas.  He has a comfortable apartment there and says it is the best part of Townsville.  Close to the army base, the hospital and the university, it is a very pleasant leafy suburb with winding streets and lots of greenery.  Not as much as before the cyclone, apparently, but still – it is leafy!

Our boat guests took us out to dinner last night, in Palmer Street, which is The Restaurant Strip.  We had the option of eating crocodile steak but…I ate chicken.  The city centre, as I have said, is really beautiful, with big spacious pubs lining the streets, but there are very few shops.  There are a few clothes shops, and the very lovely Mary Who Book Shop, but otherwise the shops have been shunted out to shopping malls in the suburbs.

We aren’t sure when we are leaving; either this afternoon or tomorrow.  It depends on wind and weather.  I have no idea whether there will be internet access at our next few anchorages.  I have learned just to go with the flow re this sort of hiccup in my cyberlife, after so many months with intermittent and dodgy access in the islands. 

Sunday 20^th November

Snapshot: We are bobbing around at anchored in Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island (aka Maggie.)  I have just been for a refreshing if brief swim in the chartreuse green sea, visibility almost nil.  This was very brave; I have been told by more people than, as Pete would say, you could jump over, NOT to swim in this area.  Box jellyfish. Irukanji stingers, sharks, crocodiles await me.  Apparently.  The Townsville region is very beautiful but I would never live here – for six months of the year the warm, inviting sea is out of bounds to humans.  And for the other six months there is still a great likelihood of a close encounter with a very large saltwater croc.  They are everywhere; recently they found a three metre bigboy swimming around happily in a small lagoon on the army base, just behind the officers’ mess.  A similar sized one was removed from Magnetic Island just last week.  It had been spied, by some fascinated and startled tourists, cruising alongside the ferry into the dear little bay where people disembark for a nice relaxing tropical time.

On deck, and occasionally plunging into the bay, are Michael and his friends Luke and Adam.  Adam’s wife Jean is relaxing on the bench – she is a very hard-working chef and I think she is very much enjoying just sitting on the boat, not needing to do anything at all.  Pete is sitting at the helm, looking very happy with a beer in his hand.  He and Jean are dry; they haven’t felt the need to challenge the crocs and jellyfish.  In a while – no hurry – we are going to go in to shore and have lunch, but for the moment everyone is very happy and very mellow.

Our guests all stayed overnight – Luke slept on the couch, the others had cabins.  They were all up until 3.00am, eating chips and dips and drinking beer.  And occasionally thundering across the deck with big noisy feet.  Pete and I lost our powers and crept off to our cabin around midnight…

After a relaxing hour or so on deck, we went in to shore – two trips in the tender.  Jean, Luke and I went first, and sat happily in the shade waiting for the others.  They arrived looking very pleased with themselves – they had seen a dugong!  This was a very good moment for Pete; until this very moment, he hadn’t fully believed in dugongs.  To him they were akin to the bunyip and the Loch Ness Monster.

Friday 18th November

It seems very silly but...I am too tired and too busy to write, now we are back in Australia.

We have driven to and from Mission Beach, for  fabulous 24 hour vistit ... more anon.

And tomorrow my BigBoy Michael is coming to show us his us own Townsville Experience.
Lovely to be here, all is well....