Another beautiful morning in Paradise, Australia, but chiiiiily. Here in Stonehaven bay, Hook Island, there were 24 boats anchored for the night, and lots of parties on various boats. Mary had an early morning swim, despite the threat of jelly fish.
10.00hrs We slipped the moorings and motored over the 2 miles to Langford Island and picked up another public mooring, this little Island was covered with small green trees and had a 1/2 mile sandy spit running SE from one corner, the sand was just a beautiful golden color, but not as nice as Whitehaven Bay which had if you can remember, a beautiful white sand, so fine it was like icing sugar. Langford Isl. also had a great selection of coral reefs for diving and snorkeling, and the surrounding waters were so crystal clear.......
We only scraped the bottom of the rib once as Niall and Skipper rushed ashore with the emergency medical bag to rescue Mary who had a 6" long open wound she received in the water, Shark or coral, we will never tell. The wound was so deep, that skipper nearly nearly collapsed again. Last time this happened was when he saw Fats in the emergency unit at the hospital in the Cook Islands, with his newly acquired "Cook Island Tatoo". We rushed Mary back to the boat, where Niall and Aileen cleaned up the horrific wound and proceeded to sew up the wound with surgical tape.............Ohhhhhh my gawd! Can they be considered Surgeon's now?
Later, after all the fuss died down, and Mary was relaxing on the deck with her leg in a sling hanging from the boom, Skipper and Niall continued and finished installing the SSB radio control unit in the Nav Station, and then proceed to look into the Generator again. So now, we have returned to being ordinary electronics engineers, and we agonized over the possible causes of this engine failing to operate. For 2 hours we hummed and hawed, we looked at every square inch of the flywheel looking for the magnet that controls the MPU, but failed to see the friggin thing. It was like looking up the elephants hole again wondering if we could see or solve something. If it wasn't so serious, it would be comical. Bleedin boats, but we love them!!!
14.00hrs We slipped the moorings once again and headed for Butterfly Bay just another 2 miles away, and on the northern side of Hook Island. It took an hour to get there as the current against us was very strong, but then the weather was just beautiful, and Butterfly Bay was everything we expected. High tree covered hills surrounding the horse shoe bay and turquoise waters. The bay had lots of turtles, who regularly came to the surface and waved at us.
We picked up a mooring, (good job we arrived when we did as 10 mins later all the moorings were occupied). 30 mins. later we had a visit from two couples from a catamaran close by. They were enquiring about our ensign and it turned out that one of the women (Noleen) was from Synge street in Dublin and has lived in Australia since 1974, we had to invite them on board for a few drops of vino, and end our own "Off the drink" promise......... promises are just made to be broken... We had a good laugh with them for an hour or so...
18.30 hrs Aileen (yes, Aileen) did the dinner, and as only Aileen will do, got out the cookery books and followed the instructions to the inch. She did "Pommes Lyonnaise" with Austrian Cabbage and sour cream and other stuff, plus steaks cooked to order. However, as we have no generator at present, and the boys were busy doing other things, she completely flayed the batteries with the cooker in preparing this wonderful feast. Yeah! it was excellent, and again as it was so chilly, we ate in the "Royal Saloon" and had some catching up to do on the wine.
Oh! I forgot to mention, Niall and Skipper replaced the hinges on the fwd, toilet hatch, long over due. Later, Skipper did the blog, and we all had an early night. No cards, no games, no DVD's ................. just the scratchers. ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZZ
That's if for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)