Sailing around the World ( presently in Hook Island , Whitsunday Islands, Australia, )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 7 Aug 2010 23:32
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Saturday 7th August
2010
You know something, Everywhere we go and each
destination has its very own identifiable features,
Australia is certainly well known as having the
best collection of the worlds most venomous creatures, but the " Jelly
fish "
now these are something else, There is the well
known " Box Jelly Fish" and a host of others, Tiny little beggers, but
deadly,
They are so small that you can hardly see them, but
one sting from these things , and you are history.. ohhhhhhh my
gawd.
The net result is , NO SWIMMING, unless you are
wearing an anti jelly fish suit. even though Mary and the skipper went for a dip
a few
days ago. However, there are not so many of them
around at this time of the year, as its winter, Still , frightning
stuff.
It was a very windy night last night, and we were
happy enough to be on the Marina,
07.00hrs, Skipper did the emails and the bleedin
blog,,,, As we said before, the blog is like being married or having dogs, you
always have
to keep them in mind and they need attention every
day. Still , it could be worse, we could be at home with nothing to
say............
09.00hrs Phil, the local Raymarine agent
called to us at the request of Chris from Mackay, He said he would take
away the E120
and have a look at it in his workshop and let us
know what the problem was.. ( Hope is eternal ) and would
return on Monday
with his advice, He will also connect up the
new SSB radio , which Chris brought up from Mackay, but did not fit it as it
would not fit into the
space that the old one lived in. So, Skipper
and Niall said they would fit the thing in somehow and all Phil will have to do
. is connect the wires.
In the meantime, Niall and Skipper fiddled with the
old chart plotter in the Navigation station, and low and behold got it
working,
so now , at least we have a chart plotter that
works with a GPS. and ( as we said in an earlier blog )it can be used as a back
up in the event of any more trouble with the expensive , latest technology , E120 feckin thing. ( actually,
the E120 is fantastic, it just got screwed up by Raymarine appionted
technicians, )
The SSB,, would you believe, the new unit that
Chris brought up from Mackay and did not install, only works in Australia, and
needs
a new programme for anywhere beyond the Australian
territorial waters, Christ ! and he knows only full well that we are
sailing around the world,
What an Idiot ! Everything seems to be 2
steps forward, and then 1 back.
Lets be positive,, Never a dull moment,
10.30hrs We all rambled up to the hotel and had a
coffee, before returning to the boat and setting sail to Hook Island, about 14
miles away
to the east,, The weather was beautifull, and
we had a spanking breeze on the starboard beam,, 25 / 30 knots. and a fairly
flat sea,
That beautifull torquise water and only a few
whales to be seen, Still we were sailing along with 2 reefs in, at 9
knots,, great sailing..
ane we were like a bunch of happy
bunnies.
We passed an ARC " amel " heading north, obviously
heading for Cairns, It looks if we may not get there now, as time is
running
out over the snags. We also met the Ruud's ashore,,
they are from " Ronja " and are always pleasent company.
They are not going any further, when they have
sailed the WhitSundays, they intend to take their boat to Sidney and have
her shipped home to
Norway, while they do a bit of touring of
Australia, before returning home at the end of the year.
14.30 We picked up a public mooring in
Stonehaven Bay on Hook Island. There was no way that the mooring line was
ever going to break,
it was at least 4" thick, which made it difficult
to attach to the boat, but we were secure. and especially as the notes in the
book says
" do not peg anything onto the side of the boat, as
the wind whips down so hard from the mountains,it sucks all loose items
overboard "
including cushions, sunglasses, books,
etc.........
We all took naps for a while, even though it was
chilly,
16.00hrs, Skipper, set about installing
the SSB radio,, this entailed a lot of timber surgery, but after 2 hours ,
it was securly bolted in place.
It took all the skippers architectural skill to
figure out how to get it into the space. but succeeded
eventually.
We so love boats,
Niall did the dinner, An Indian Fish dish
with rice and chicken for Aileen,
When he was finished cooking, he went on and on
about the whole thing, You would think he had just cooked dinner for
the " Taj Mahal ", but thats thats our
Niall, Its probably the legal background.
However, it was all wonderfull food,
Later, we watched " Andrew LLoyd Webber " in
Beijing.. A DVD of a live performance in the " Great Hall of the
People "
A fantastic show,, and we thoroughly enjoyed
the performance.
It was a really starrey night, with all those
millions of dancing stars winking at us down below on our lovely " A Lady
"
Boy, it was cold,, ohhhh my,, it
was really chilly.
So eventually, after a dry night ( Water night only
) we hit the scratchers,
ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thats it for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde, ( skipper
)
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