SERENITY NOW

  Last night we dined on shepherd’s pie, and played Gin Rummy (Julie is slightly ahead on points at this stage, I suspect she may have cheated, but have no hard evidence as yet…). We’re taking turns choosing a film each night - My selection this evening was ‘Galaxy Quest’ (which was a little less enjoyable than I remember) 6/10. Both retired relatively early for the big day ahead tomorrow. This morning, as the sun pops it’s head up once more, we up anchor and motor out, leaving the steep resort dotted hills of Taormina behind. We’re heading North along the East coast of Sicily towards the Strait of Messina. The strait is an infamous passage of water, known for strong changing currents, occasional whirlpools and multiple wrecks. Possibly even a vicious sea monster or two depending on who you ask. All of this should make for a good story if - by some miracle - we survive the ordeal! Despite it’s reputation I’m hoping that the passage through the strait turns out to be, as Charlie wou...

  We’re heading towards Italy from Greece aboard the jolly sailing vessel ‘Salty Ginger’. Not currently all that jolly though.. A combination of headache, seasickness and very likely PTSD from our trials by storm last year, have sent Chez into a glum downward spiral. She won’t thank me for the description, but she is currently misery incarnate. Since our arrival in Greece, Graham and Julie have been wonderful hosts. Before flying off to play with his helicopters, Graham had been cooking up a storm in the galley. (Thai green curry, pork steaks and Greek salad, and beef tacos) - all cooked to perfection and delicious! Before our departure from Preveza, Julie had been showing appropriate levels of angst over the upcoming journey - intently checking the weather models, the tides, and currents to see us safely Westward, possibly going through the Strait of Messina.. but we’ll see. Me.. well, I’ve helped Graham to successfully fix a leaky tender and a stalling outboard. Somewhat less e...

(SouthPort - Manly Marina) After leaving Southport our next home was round the back of Stradbroke island. A great spot, albeit a blowy one. Our onshore neighbours for the week were a troop of youngsters - small wooden sail boats, and neatly rowed tents. We never found out, but best guess would be: a school trip, a Christian group, or most likely Sea Scouts. Anyway, despite the less than ideal conditions, they seemed to make the most of it and enjoy themselves on shore. Same couldn’t really be said for us: boatbound, wind howling in the rigging and waves ‘ass slapping’ the transom. After 8 long torturous days, we were able to get away - an exit necessitated by a dead starter battery that needs replacing. This entailed: anchoring some way away from the mangrove entrance to Redlands City Marina (yes… the one I said I wouldn’t choose to go back to), a tender drive in, a hot walk into town, a visit to Supercheap Auto, and then an Uber back to the tender with what must surely be the heaviest...

(Sydney - Gold Coast) Well, after a four month hiatus, we are once again heading back to the boat - last seen sitting up on stilts half way up a mangrove river in Redlands City Marina in Queensland. Spending time back at Sydney home has been a joy - playing poker regularly with Charlie, bit of gardening, visiting the Montys and the Conways ..but mainly doing very little other than enjoying time away from the boat. We needed it. I’m writing this on a delayed overnight train that - allegedly- will have us arriving into Brisbane at dawn tomorrow morning - we’ll see. It was a slow journey bizarrely punctuated by a gentleman two rows back, who emitted an ejaculatorial grunt every 20 seconds. ..and (Chez advises) smelled of bad BO. Gotta love a bit of public transport! The train’s extended delay compounded into an end of the line stop at somewhere called Cassino, where at 3:30am we were transferred to a waiting bus for a 3hr drive to complete our journey. We do eventually arrive back to the ...

I may have mentioned before - I think we may be cursed. If I had to guess, I think it was done by a Romany lady from whom I’d refused to buy a ‘lucky sprig’ of lavender and rosemary, outside Covent Garden tube station in October 1997. Following on from the snake incident, there was the GPS drop outs in the shallows, then we had the Elbow Point storm… I’m starting to wonder what fresh new hell will today bring? We’re heading out from Fraser Island today - out through Wide Bay Bar. The prospect of which has had Chez appropriately concerned all week. It has the distinction of being the most dangerous bar crossing in Australia. The most perfect flat calm/no wind conditions at dawn saw some of our neighbours head out while (me at least) was still asleep. We’ve opted to head out on the next rising high tide at noonish. The wind did of course pick up to concerning levels as we waited at the bar entrance.. New buddies on Eudora (Sue and Ron) were also heading out, so we opted to follow in the...

Pancake Creek turned out to be a good place to relax after our snake encounter. After a restful day, an early night and a flat peaceful sleep, we were up again at 3:30am and off on our way to Bundaberg. Six hours later, we’re still happily gliding along, the breeze is just starting to become usable.. which is nice. Through the long day the wind picked up, making our dusk entry into the channel at Bundaberg a hand steered splashy affair. Fuelled up at the dock, then entered our berth with the normal marina associated angst and a few harsh words here and there. I then did a quick stomp up to the bottlo in Burnett Heads, getting swooped 4 times - magpie style- by a masked lapwing. I learn that angrily swiping my hat in its direction as it gets within pecking distance makes it veer away - this saves my eyeballs. Having survived that encounter, we treated ourselves to rather good fish and chips from the marina shop. The next morning both of us braved the walk back into Burnett heads - this...