2200+ Miles there and back .. and a sad discovery

Roslyn Bay Marina as viewed from the laundry.  The laundry is always one of the first places you go to when you arrive in a new marina - that and the showers!

Arrived in Roslyn Bay Marina yesterday at 2pm after travelling well over 2200 ocean miles!  Good Grief .. Holy Shit .. and all the other exclamations I can come up with and still stay nice on the blog.

It is hard to believe that we're here - back where I started this extraordinary adventure 5 months ago.  Time has past so quickly in one way and in another way it appears to have gone as slowly as accumulated ocean miles.  And let me tell you time goes very slowly when you're out at sea traveling in a small boat!  Sometimes the boredom and/or anxiousness about getting to your next destination can be hard to manage.  It can be quite beautiful or boring or exciting - such is the nature of this kind of sailing.  There was a time that I would have considered the possibility of traveling over 2000 miles in a small boat on the ocean as utterly inconceivable.  Yet here we are once again in Roslyn Bay Marina.

But the jaw dropping coincidence ... fluke ... odd happening .. is how we've managed to leave here and get here in the same situation, only reversed.  When I arrived back in June I was at the end of my recovery from a broken foot and still tenuous about walking around the marina and getting on and off the boat.  Now, arriving months later, George is doing the same!  

The Captain getting ready to climb on board using his free foot and his knee to get up the side ladder. 
YOU COULD NOT MAKE THIS UP COULD YOU?

It's great being here.  Our good friends Megan and Brian live here and when we're at home in Sydney we only ever get to see them on special occasions.  Last night they came down to the marina around 6 to say hello and we laughed and told stories and had a wonderful time!  We're certainly looking forward to a lot more time with them while we're here.

Megan came to the marina early this morning to take us to the local hospital to see if we could get someone to have another look at George's Achilles tendon and also re-do the cast which is in appalling shape.  The Skipper - my husband - is a stubborn and hard headed man.  He will not use his crutches or stop walking on the cast.  Now, after a few weeks and lots of sea miles out of Cairns the cast has lost all firmness and its a dirty mess.  The hospital put another cast on today and gave us a referral to a orthopaedic specialist for tomorrow morning in Rockhampton.  It will be interesting to see what he says.  When they removed the cast this morning his foot was working reasonably well and he didn't seem to have pain so maybe the injury wasn't as bad as originally thought.  Here's hoping.

The Sad Discovery

Last night, before Megan and Brian arrived, George took a walk down the marina finger with his cane.  I know, he's not supposed to be walking but what can you do?  He came back excited and told me I had to come and have a look!  Our previous boat - Southern Aurora - which we had for 8 years and George loved so much was here, in this marina.  We hadn't seen her since we sold her last in 2009.  The years we had her were good and she was loved and polished and cared for with the same intensity that we give to Southern Belle.  The sad discovery is that she hasn't been cared for since.

Her sails are torn, there is about 6 inches of growth on her bottom, she's dirty and really bashed up - like someone has driven her drunk into things - all down the side.  It was heartbreaking to see her like that.  George was particularly disappointed and angry.  So sad and so unnecessary to not take care of what was once such a lovely boat.