Thursday 5th December 2013
So today we moved the boat to a spot in the Marina, we still have not completely finished with Quarantine as they have to send two guys out to go over the whole boat and inspect all the timber for white ants, but we are allowed off the boat, yay I can finally plant my feet on Australian soil.
And the first thing we do is hit the Laundromat, great the joys of sailing, but man did I have some wet clothes around, I think I used every towel we own over the last 4 days trying to mop up as much water as possible, but it was almost a never ending battle I tell you.
So washing on the go I come back to the boat, just in time for three marina guys to help us move the boat. We had asked them earlier if they could be available to grab our lines as we came around, as the wind and fast moving tides around here are not a good combination for this heavy vessel of ours.
One young guy jumps on board all pimply face looking like he should be still in school oh and with one very important look on his face. He says he will help us navigate in and we had two guys waiting on shore.
It was so funny I swear this young guy thought we knew nothing about boats and we were just plane too old to handle a boat like this, if we had let him he would of even take over the wheel...haha
But the funniest thing was his accent we are so not used to the Aussie slang, everything was mate, go this way mate, can you see that mate, turn her a little bit more mate, that’s great mate, a little slower mate....hahaha it took every ounce of my strength to stop from cracking up laughing....man we have been away way to long.
But we made it in once again they squeezed us into a tiny tiny spot, and we missed hitting pilings and all the other boats and are now safely tucked in for awhile.
Then our big adventure to get groceries and pick up some bits and pieces We catch a taxi to the nearest shopping centre, and the first thing that shocked us was all the cars, man it was crazy, we are so used to no traffic at all or just a small handful of cars here and there.
Then the shopping centre and the people and noise I tell you we could not get out of there quick enough, we had to catch a bus to the next shopping centre to get to an Apple store for them to look at my Ipad, well I can tell you this centre was massive, We both hated it and just wanted to turn around and leave, but with a deep breath we ploughed on man this was more nerve racking than sailing oceans.
We were just so out of place to think this was my world working in all these kinds of centres man I do not miss that one bit.
After hanging around waiting for an appointment with the Apple store, who makes an Appointment with a shop, come on guys have you lost the plot completely this is nuts, yes making an appointment with doctors and such fine, but to make one to talk to some little very important 17 years old who thinks he knows everything, man I was so not impressed.
And we got nowhere with my Ipad they say it can’t be repaired and we can buy a reconditioned one for almost the cost of a new one, or buy a new one.
We left there in search of a repair shop...haha we came across one who said they can repair it but no guarantee that it will fix it this was almost as much as the 2nd hand one. So we have so far made no progress with the thing at all.
Next stop was good old woollies, man we have never seen so much fresh fruit and vegies in years, even the stuff that was over ripe and selling off cheap, looked ten times better than what we have been able to buy, we were like kids in a candy shop I tell you.
With bags and bags of groceries we managed to get a taxi back to the Marina, which nearly cost as much as our groceries and headed back to the boat only to discover it had rained and everything, was wet, all our mattress sheets doonas pillows you name it, we had forgot to close up. Yeap once again wet beds to sleep on, this is so not fun.
Well tomorrow is another day.