Fw: Goings on in the Boatyard

Zoonie
Tue 12 May 2020 00:08
 
 
Goings on in the Boatyard

We spent a total of forty five days in Lockdown in the boatyard and I will remember those times with pleasure for the people we got to know, the discreet freedom the rules allowed us to move around, exercise and explore and the work we completed.

Rob applied his usual thorough and loving attention to the jobs Zoonie asked of him. He serviced the windlass and by fitting a new switch and with a little help got it running again. The ten winches were taken apart and cleaned and re-greased ready for action. One needs sunglasses now to view Zoonie’s hull in the sunlight and her coppercoat Rob has touched up where necessary. The propeller is covered in a very flattering anti-foul layer of Prop Speed to help send her speedily on her way when the time comes and the bow prop shaft is a pretty shade of blue anti-foul which he used on Darren’s advice instead of the copper so there’s no risk of electrolysis on the metal work.

Our working days were often sprinkled with pleasurable chats with John and Carole and David and his lady wife Peter and Craig, a local police detective who would come down to his pretty yacht whenever he could find a few hours or even minutes free from work. We were chatting to John and Carole one afternoon when Craig swept into the yard to measure something on the hull of his 1978 thirty foot pre-osmosis family cruiser, which is now getting the refit he has promised her for years. I called across jokingly “Three foot six inches!” and got the desired result, he came over to join us. Having just come off duty he was wearing all the regulation equipment and someone said, “Good grief Craig you look like a Christmas Tree!”

He concurred and started going through all the gear loaded into pockets on his bullet proof vest and belt, then after more banter he turned sideways and asked, pointing to his uniform trousers, “Do these make my bottom look big?” Well I couldn’t resist that one, could I? “No, your bottom makes your bottom look big!” He has chatted with us many times since, so all is well.

On May the first the Federal government published the first easing of lockdown in that up to ten people could meet socially provided they maintained the requisite one and a half metre distance all round or four square metre distancing rule; so then two significant things happened for us. First I felt free to plan a birthday get together for Rob with our friends Kathy and Jeremy with a walk followed by a picnic which you know all about and second Malcolm and Christine invited us to come and stay with them on their 160 acre life-style farm/station near Kojonup, off the main Albany to Perth Highway. Despite loving our lifestyle aboard Zoonie and partly as an alternative to the visit home we would have been enjoying, as well as an opportunity to spend lots more time with our dear friends Malcolm and Christine, we promptly accepted and set a date of arrival for a few days hence.

There was a mighty early winter storm brewing in the Southern Ocean to the west of us and we wanted to stay with Zoonie until it was passed, as much to assure ourselves she would be fine when more came along to batter the coast while we were away up country as to ensure she was ok on this occasion.

The day before the Windy App suggested it was due to hit we decided a long walk was called for right to the end of Middleton Beach, a walk that would take around two hours. It was yet another lovely day with little sign of the impending wild weather. A dog was so enthusiastic about retrieving the ball in the sea, he was breaking through rollers and swimming well beyond them to grab the bobbing red object. Four ships were anchored in the Sound, the most we had seen, sheltering and ready to move in to Princess Royal Harbour and their mooring. The crew would have to stay on board, I thought, more folk a long way from home in these troubled times.

A more mundane thought we shared was would the loos at the far end of the beach be open. Our loo at the car park near Zoonie had been open all the while, albeit the hand wash had been taken away and a notice stuck on the wall to the effect that the move was due to theft and vandalism, of which there were no signs at all. The loos were no longer washed regularly either, two odd moves when we were being told that additional handwashing and cleanliness was necessary to help stop the spread of infection, but then we know these government agencies work in mysterious ways don’t we.

Piles of seagrass had been washed onto the beach in the far corner providing comfy mattresses for the local seagulls to lounge upon and bulldozers and earth moving vehicles were re-shaping the sand in front of a seawall in the process of being built. And the loos were open! Well the doors were open, so in I trundled through the windblown leaves to find that opening the doors was the first stage. Maybe tomorrow they would sweep and clean and then, on phase three, pop some loos rolls into the receptacles!

There were going to be two blows and by bedtime that evening Zoonie was beginning to wobble in her cradle. During the night it rose to thirty knots in our sheltered yard, surrounded by low trees, buildings and other boats, so it must have been a lot stronger at sea. I remember Zoonie’s wobbling waking me while it was still dark and thinking this is like a night journey from Upminster to Ealing Broadway via the District Line on the London Underground, including the bends.

The next morning it was calm, eerily so, as the centre passed over us. The barometer had dropped 19 millibars to 995 and a thunderstorm complete with rain and hail joined us for breakfast. During the day there were sudden gusts of wind up to 40 knots and we were relieved to talk with Kathy and Jeremy who had moved from their exposed outer pen mooring in the yacht club to a mooring buoy in the northern end of Oyster Bay, not far from us, where they were sheltered. They will leave before long and head around Cape Leeuwin and on up to Shark Bay to warmer climes as they have no heater on board and winter is approaching. We will keep in touch and look forward to the next time.

 

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