Day 194, Year 2: Sunday Market and a Port-2-Port Dinner
Date: Sunday, November 4, 2007
Weather: Still Very Sunny and Warm with Lots of Wind
Location: Bundaberg Port Marina, Australia

Bundaberg Port Marina is a little more than ten miles from Bundaberg, so we always have to take the bus in. No buses run on Sunday, but the rally chartered a couple today to take us all to the Sunday market at the Shalom College (secondary school) on the outskirts of Bundaberg. It was a good food market with lots of other things for sale and the prices on fresh vegetables were much better than at the stores in Bundaberg. Mark and Gerry talked the bus driver into taking them on into town to the
marina area. There was a little marine trade show today and they just couldn’t miss that. We were all back at the Bundaberg Port Marina by noon and I launched into the projects on my radar screen. The wind has really picked up and there was a perfect mare’s tail in the sky above us with a mackeral sky on either side of it. We hear that very strong winds from the south are coming tomorrow and definitely the clouds in the sky were a little unusual. But back to the work at hand. I continued to
soak and then rinse lines that were hanging in our anchor locker all season. They hang in the locker in such a way as to drape slightly on the chain when it is all pulled in. That means they get dirty with bottom muck that comes up with the chain and that is what I am cleaning off. I then sanded and put a second coat of varnish on the cap rail around our cockpit. Mark wired up the solar panel he bought yesterday at the “monster bilge sale” and worked on reorganizing the things that go back under
our v-berth and before we knew it, it was time to go to the Port-2-Port dinner. We were all supposed to dress up for this one and if there had been a prize for Best Dressed, it would have gone to Bob of White Swan. He had on a white tux jacket with tails with back short pants, topped off with a devil’s horns headband. He was “stylin.” We were all treated to complimentary Dark and Stormy drinks made of Bundaberg Rum mixed with Bundaberg Gingerbeer. They actually sell this drink here pre-mixed
in cans and it is very popular. We had oysters on the half shell and a wide assortment of appetizers. Dinner was great and it was followed by live music by Nostalgia. We had fun dancing to music from the past, and in fact, I can still hear the music, so many are still up in the rally tent dancing and having a great time. Awards were given after dinner and Anna and Clyff of Koncerto that beat us in the boule semi-finals were the first place winners.

Tomorrow we leave early for a tour of the Bundaberg Rum Factory, the Gingerbeer Factory, and a huge hardware store. We will return in early afternoon just in time to sand and varnish the cap rail a third time and then attend tomorrow night’s sausage sizzle.