Stairway to Heaven - Scotland Island, New South Wales, Australia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 31 Mar 2010 12:24
|
33:38.387S 151:17.533E
On the 17th of February, we left Ron and Robin and
continued north up the coast past Sydney (we looped back to Sydney a
few days later as you will see) to Scotland Island, where we stayed with
Terry and Chris for two nights. We had met this set of friends-of-friends
before, when they assisted John and Sue with their last big sail on Storyteller
IV from New Caledonia to New Zealand in October of 2008, so the usual
embarrassment/trepidation associated with barging into someone's home and taking
full advantage of the accommodation to meet the needs of a
semi-handicapped person was at least mitigated by the fact that we were
already acquaintances.
Picture 1 - Blowhole on aptly named Blowhole Point
in the town of Kiama just north of Shoalhaven Heads.
Picture 2 - This is Terry and Chris's gorgeous
three-decker home on Scotland Island. Only accessible by water, Scotland
Island lies in a long, narrow bay called Pittwater. Due to its
proximity to Sydney, Pittwater is positively crammed with luxurious waterfront
homes and boats, lots of boats. There are marinas here and marinas there
and for the overflow of boats that didn't make it into a marina for one reason
or another, there are about a million moorings scattered into every corner
of the bay with a few hangers-on in the form of anchored sailboats placed
precariously in what space is leftover. Scotland Island, however, with its
serene and stately overgrown cottages backed by tall forest with only one dirt
road leading through it, is a piece of heaven.
The only problem was this. Sue and John, in
an effort not to scare Don, neglected to tell us that in between the dock and
the main living floor of Terry and Chris's house is a massive set of
winding stairs. Yeah, about fifty very pretty, slightly uneven,
sometimes curvy, sometimes wooden, sometimes stone, sometimes steep, sometimes
not-so-steep, stairs. If there really is a stairway to heaven,
then this is probably what it would look like. And Don thought Ron
and Robin's measly set of fourteen wooden stairs was scary.
Luckily, Don was fortified with a little beer since we took the time to have one
at the marina/general store/cafe where Terry and Chris picked us up in their
runabout. So this time I didn't feel any fear seeping out from under Don's
skin as he stared up at what lay before him, this time it
was only determination creeping out. That, and relief
that six foot plus Terry was there to act as support in case a
fall-back position was needed along the way. In the picture, part of the
stairway is hidden behind the boathouse, so keep that and the fact that we were
aiming for the second floor of the house, in mind while trying to picture
the challenge that lay before the one-legged, crutch-swinging,
semi-incapacitated convalescent.
The rest is history. Don made it up the
stairs without a hitch, never touching down on his bad foot per the doctor's
orders, and only stopping to breathe once or twice. Once in the
house, he didn't leave until the next day at lunchtime when we made the
long pilgrimage back down the stairs and into the runabout to have a mini-World
ARC reunion with John and Irene from the boat Southern Princess at a local
restaurant (they live just outside of Sydney). Then it was back up the
stairs again until the next day when we left.
Pictures 3 and 4 - Polly want a cracker? This
is a sulfur-crested cockatoo. A hungry sulfur-crested cockatoo. He
(or she?) visited often while we were out enjoying the view from the second
floor deck of Terry and Chris's house. Picture 4 is the same
bird, but with his crest standing at attention. Usually a cockatoo's
crest is in this position when they touch down - if you aren't quick
with the camera, you get the less impressive crest-folded-up view as in
picture 3.
Picture 5 - More of the view from Terry and
Chris's second-floor deck. Note the zillions of moored and anchored
boats in the background. Sitting here made us feel right at home since the
view wasn't all that different from many we've had from our own cockpit -
just a bit more elevated, is all - more like the view from Storyteller V's fly
deck. Terry and Chris spend about half the year here and the other half on
their catamaran, Sedna. Sedna is in New
Zealand at the moment and Terry and Chris plan to do the
New Zealand-Fiji-Vanuatu-New Caledonia-Australia loop this year
starting in May. They originally bought their boat in France about five
years ago, and are in the process of sailing it back home.
This season will be their last homeward-bound leg. A very
similar story to that of John and Sue and Storyteller IV, their recently sold
Beneteau 57, which they bought in France at the same time and cruised the
Med for a while with Terry and Chris on Sedna and John and Irene on
Southern Princess before crossing the Atlantic with Southern Princess
in the ARC rally to join the World ARC rally in St. Lucia. I've said
it before, but the small size of the boater/cruising
world continues to surprise us. It's our estimation that at any given
time, there are only about 350-400 boats circulating the globe. By the
time we are done, we will probably have bumped into (hopefully not literally)
almost all of them more than once - whether it be at sea or on
land.
Anne
|
