Christmas Cove

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Wed 23 Jan 2013 11:40

Position:  35 43.13 S   137 56.08 E

Alongside Christmas Cove, Kangaroo Island

Wind:  East sou’ east, F5  Fresh breeze

Weather:  sunny and mild

 

Today’s mission was to get John to Penneshaw where, tomorrow, he will catch the ferry back to the mainland and the big smoke of Adelaide.  Winds were forecast to be fresh from the south east for the day but, on the premise that in temperate regions winds are lighter in the morning, we got underway at 7.40.  We motored out of the shallow entrance to American River and out into Eastern Cove, where we set sail and close reached to Kangaroo Head.  Beyond this headland we were out into the infamous waters of Investigator Strait.   The wind freshened and the seas steepened as the wind drove against the ebbing stream.  We reefed down and with the assistance of the ebbing tide soon covered the short distance to windward in two short tacks to the small picturesque sanctuary of Christmas Cove.  The entrance was narrow and the waters shallow but presumably the Cove had been dredged when a new marina was built, and we were snugly alongside by 10 am. 

Then came the downer of the day, the heads (nautical jargon for toilet) had become blocked.  Initially I naturally suspected the Johnny come lately on board as being the guilty culprit, but I was wrong.  After dismantling the messy smelly mechanism it turned out to be a choked up Joker valve.  John left me to my woes, seeking out the ticket office for the ferry back across the Strait. I will not lead you, dear reader, through the intricacies of unblocking a nautical head, but shall leave it to your imagination to commiserate with my patient Zen line attempts to make the intractable tractable.  And now it is done.  A large bucket of bleach has since been brought into action to disinfect the heads and contaminated surround.  Since then we have explored Penneshaw, a highlight being the local museum.  Here we found artefacts from early Kangaroo Island life, and a curator who was one of the students of what was the school in which the museum is housed.  Not that things must change altogether too quickly in KI, because the new school lies only a few hundred meters to the south of the old school building.

This evening we have enjoyed another game of pool, where John has evened the score from the previous night’s competition in the “Shed”.  Now, after a relaxing meal at the local hotel, it seems he is itching to even the score in the field of Chess.  He patiently bides his time while I update the blog.

All is well.