Day 208, Year 2: Marketing, Varnishing, Sewing, and Oiling
Date: Sunday, November 18, 2007
Weather: Very Rainy Night Clearing in AM; Mostly Sunny Day
Location: Bundaberg Port Marina, Australia
Tt was another “get it done” day–not too exciting as you can see from the title to this log, but a lot of work got done. I got out of bed and immediately put another coat of varnish on the aft head floor and the teak shower grate. Before I finished the shower grate, Paul and Marie invited us to go to the Sunday Market at the Shalom College (Catholic high school) in Bundaberg. We needed to buy some things for our Thanksgiving dinner, so I finished the varnishing and along we went. The terrain
here looks like Kansas, but instead of wheat fields forever, it is sugar cane fields. There are also huge fields of various vegetables and cantaloupe. The cantaloupe is now ripening, but many crops have just been planted. In another month it will be summer here, and the rain we have been having has brought everything to life. On the way to the market we saw the most beautiful Poinciana trees I have ever seen. This tree originated in Madagascar but has been spread to tropical climates around
the world. We saw these trees in the Caribbean and in various places across the South Pacific. But none were as beautiful as the ones we saw today. These trees have a flat, wide-spreading crown and the flowers are a bright red, although sometimes bright orange or scarlet. The tree is also called a Flamboyant or Flame Tree. We stopped in a residential neighborhood on the way home from the market to take a picture of one particularly beautiful tree.
Back at the marina, it was back to work. I thought I had the handrail on the port side ready to oil, but on closer inspection, I could see that I had much more sanding to do. And then I had to do the the starboard rail. Just when I thought I was finished, I looked back at the hand rail on the other side of the boat and I could all kinds of places that needed more sanding. Mark came to the rescue and helped me. Otherwise, I think I would still be out there sanding away. I had hoped to stop at
4 o’clock and go for a walk to see the neighborhood kangaroos that hang out in the fields around here, but we decided to wait until tomorrow so I could go ahead and get one coat of oil on the handrails. There was still more to do, but it was put on hold until tomorrow. Varnishing after dark just doesn’t work! Paul and Marie did go, however, and they saw one beautiful “roo.” Maybe we’ll finish early tomorrow and get to go for that walk.
Mark spent his afternoon sewing seams on our Dorade box covers. They were made with special thread that is supposed to be UV resistant, but every year some seams have to be resewn. There is a thread that we can buy here that will last forever, but it costs about $250 a spool. I guess it should last forever at that price. Mark also got the new tarp we bought last week put in place over the boom. It is there to protect the cockpit from direct sunlight and it looks like it will do the job.
Just one week from tomorrow we will be headed to Brisbane by train and then on home by plane. There are so many things I still want to see here before we leave, but boat work comes first. Tomorrow will be another busy day.
