Day 197, Year 2: The Party’s Over
Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Weather: Still Rainy, Rainy, Rainy
Location: Bundaberg Port Marina, Australia
We have been here in Australia almost ten days now, and we really haven’t had to think or plan our activities during that time. I’ve barely had to cook as that was also done for us. The Port-2-Port Rally team made sure we were busy all the time, and now that the party is over, we are having to deal with reality. And at the same time, we are having to deal with constant rain. So we are approaching reality slowly, but surely, with a little dampness thrown in.
Our first attempt at reality was to go to town to do some shopping today. We first went to the in-town marina store and bought a new line for our spinnaker pole topping lift. The old one was about to fray in half, so this was an overdue purchase. We also bought 500 meters of a light weight line that we can use to “hold the place” of our major halyards. Because the UV problem here is so great, we are going to bring down all of our halyards and wash, dry, and store them out of the sun. Six months
of Australian summer sun could do in some already well-used lines, but by doing this we hope to get at least another year or two out of the lines. We were going to leave our purchases at the marina store and pick them up later in the day, but lucky for us, George of Miami drove in and offered to take our purchases back to the marina for us. Mark and I then walked across town to the Hinkler Shopping Center which houses a K-Mart, a Woolworth’s and a Cole’s grocery store, and number of other little
shops. We weren’t after groceries today, but we were checking to see if the stores here have the supplies we will need to buy before we head north from here next April. I found canned salmon, but no canned artichoke hearts. Windbird really can’t leave port without artichokes, so that is something I might have to buy in the US and bring back with me. We bought new pillows, a stack of CD’s for backing-up photos, and numerous other household items. Once we were totally laden, we started the walk
back across town. We wanted to check-out a hardware store we had seen on our way to the shopping center and then catch the bus back to the marina from the center of town. The hardware store had two things we had not been able to find elsewhere–ammonia to use as part of a cleaning solution and disposble latex gloves that we use when varnishing and painting. In the US we can buy boxes of 100 gloves for under $10, but here they are $1 per pair at the marina. They were slightly cheaper at the hardware,
but this is another item we will have to buy in the US and bring back with us. Over the next two weeks, we will check out all of the major stores here to see which of the items we need are available here and which ones we will have to order or bring back with us. We got a great start on this chore today.
The entire time we were in town, the rain threatened, but the heavens did not open up until we got back to Windbird. Just as we got on the boat, the rain started and it hasn’t stopped since. We’ll probably have about two more days of this and then the sun will shine again and the varnishing can resume. I spent the afternoon writing emails and cataloging the books we have onboard. Some will go home with us, some will go to the used book store, and many will stay. Mark finished the reinstallation
of the aft toilet with its new base. Tomorrow morning we have an in-water survey first thing in the morning. After that, we will continue to chip away at our seemingly never ending list of things to do. And as soon as the weather clears a bit, we hope to do some sightseeing in the area. There is a botanical garden, a zoo, the Hinkler House Memorial Museum, and a sight where loggerhead turtles are just now coming in to lay their eggs. Hinkler is a name that is attached to many places in this
town. Bert Hinkler is Bundaberg’s famous son and one of Australia’s greatest pioneer solo aviators, and we have much to learn about him. There’s plenty to keep us busy.
