HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR G!....and ANZAC Day

As I write this post, its been a long and eventful day.  Right now it is 10pm and everyone is tucked up asleep...

Today was Mr G's birthday.  It has also been ANZAC Day.  I love both days for very different reasons...but also how they're inextricably linked.

For my overseas readers that may not know what ANZAC Day is let me explain.   ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corp.  This Day is a rare remembrance day shared by two independent countries.  Originally the day was set aside to remember the Australians and New Zealanders who died at Gallipoli in the 1st World War.   Now its held to remember, support and pay homage to those who've fought and died in all wars.  ANZAC Day is a special public holiday.

The day starts out with us getting up and out of bed very early.  We get up, get dressed, get Molly's collar and lead on and head out to walk to the centre of Lane Cove Village and the dawn ceremony.

The most solemn and touching part of every ANZAC Day is the dawn ceremony.  This timing is linked - again - to the landing at Gallipoli by the ANZAC troops which happened at dawn on an awful day.  They were slaughtered.  Now people from all walks of life - children, teens, young adults, women, men and those still standing with medals on their jackets - come together at dawn in every community to remember.  The motto of the day is "Lest We Forget".  The service tends to be one of remembering the people, the individuals that served.  It doesn't glorify war.  It doesn't go on about God being on 'our' side.  It glorifies the Australian sense of  'mateship'.

Not a very good shot through the crowd this morning of the ceremonial cross and the ceremony. 
There was a very large crowd there this morning.

The ceremony is followed by coffees with mates, catching up with friends and then on to the pub!  Or, if you've got the energy, a good pub crawl...a bite of lunch and then a game of two-up.  Two-up is a gambling game that is outlawed every day of the year except ANZAC Day.  Basically the patrons of the pub gather around a big circle, schooners (large glasses of beer) in hand and bet on the throw of 2 coins.  HEADS!  TAILS!  Everyone shouts and then the call "Come in Spinner" quiets everyone down as a member of the crowd is given a piece of wood with the coins to toss in the air.  The outcome is celebrated or commiserated - depending if you won or lost - all with a laugh, a pat on the back and big smiles.  I love it.

Unfortunately, this year, there was more boat loading to do - so no two-up or pub crawl.  We had our coffee and walked home so Mr G could open his birthday presents.  I gave him fishing gear and a personal life beacon - which is a little EPIRB device that can pin point a person in the water if in a Man Overboard situation.

 Then we left for the yacht club with another car load of "stuff" for our trip.  The total number of wine bottles loaded so far - 96!

All in all a very enjoyable day.

"You must be from the marina"

Mr G and I often tell the story of our encounter with a haughty concierge at a popular holiday destination.  It goes like this...

Quite a few years ago and in a much smaller and less - shall we say - comfortable boat, Mr G and I sailed from our mooring in Broken Bay to Port Stephens.  This journey takes about 14 hours give or take an hour if the weather is bad or the wind isn't with you.  We normally take at least two days - 6 to 7 hours to Swansea with an overnight and then another 6 to 7 hours to Port Stephens. 

With this particular trip we did the haul to Swansea finishing with a nice dinner and a few wines once the mooring line was up.  At first light the next day we left the Swansea bar and headed up the coast for, what turned out to be, quite a long and difficult trip up the coast. 

To cut a - very - long story short; we hit an unexpected strong headwind and building sea which meant, in our smaller boat, we didn't reach Port Stephens until dark.  The entrance to PS is difficult to manoeuvre without good local knowledge due to all the surrounding headlands and islands so we were faced with a night at sea in worsening conditions until a fishing boat came along and told us to follow him in.  Rescued!  

Once inside the harbour we anchored in a bay, drank some liquid courage and, I think, I had a good cry.  Then we went to bed a bit the worse for wear.  Next day - now this is 3 days at sea without a shower - we called for a berth at  The Anchorage Resort- a lovely little boutique hotel with a marina out the front.  As we got comfortable in our berth I suggested we make reservations for the night at their best restaurant as our 'survival' treat.  So, on the way to the showers and walking through the lobby of the hotel, I noticed the look on the concierge's face change - from efficient to disapproval.  When I asked to make a reservation at the restaurant he looked us up and down and instead of asking for our room number he put us in a box with the words, "you must be from the marina".   We still laugh about that and whenever we look particularly grotty - Mr G especially - its easy to describe what we're seeing to each other by saying, "you look like you're from the marina!".

These past couple of weeks, as we're running around getting ready to move to the boat, I've been feeling like I look like I'm from the marina every day.

I'm rarely out of sneakers, faded jeans and a sweater with a few dog hairs stuck to it and I've taken to going out without mascara (which is major for me). 

Yesterday as I was rushing through Lane Cove I noticed a lovely dress in the window of my favourite shop.  As I stood there peering into the window I caught my reflection and, for that minute, it made me wince.  I looked like one of the "old" women I used to see in the grocery store on my way home from work.  You know the ones - in your mind you think, "bless her, she must live alone".  How did I get to this?  I guess my priorities have shifted from presenting myself as a professional woman to just being comfortable and functional.  Right then and there I promised myself that I wouldn't make this new "look" a habit.  I'm definitely taking dresses and nice shoes when we go on our trip!  I'm not going to slip into allowing this to become my new uniform!

Anyway.  The preparation is moving ahead nicely for the cruise.  Last Sunday Mr G, Molly and I worked on the boat all day and moved a lot of gear on.  Of course Molly is there as we jump on and off the boat much of the day.  We were exhausted at the end.  They quickly passed out when we got home - me, I made dinner. 

Disappearing up my own butt!

At various stages in my life I've been told I'm 'anal'.  I looked the term up this morning and, apart from the obvious mention of the body part, there is reference to an "anal characteristic".   The dictionary describes this characteristic as, amongst other things, meticulous.  Taking that further I looked up meticulous and found its defined as taking or showing extreme care about minute details...and then....  Well, I think you get the picture!

So its with these characteristics that I approached the planning and preparation stage of our little cruise north.  In the past week I have...

• Filled all prescriptions for antibiotics, pain killers, etc. 
• Separately boxed the prescription medicines from the over the counter things like aspirin and then organised the general stuff like bandages, tweezers, and other "stuff". 
• Labelled and numbered each box.
• Prepared a chart naming each medication, how its to be administered, the box its located in and documented any possible side effects.

Here's the chart.  Impressive don't you think? (Although the picture didn't turn out that well.)  I didn't actually develop the chart...I copied it from one handed out at one of our seminars.

Next I've organised the navigational charts.  Mr G had them all - and there's a lot of them - spread out on the spare bed...for weeks.  He was planning on rolling them up and writing on the outside what they were and what was covered.  Not good enough!  I found plastic envelopes that fit the folded charts perfectly so I labelled each chart and then arranged them in order of use as we travel up the coast.  I plan on labelling each envelope with the charts inside.  I've also purchased every recommended cruising guide on the area!  My handiwork....

Yesterday Mr G and our friend John, who is a brilliant electrician, finished installing the new inverter so we can have toasters and electric kettles and hairdryers while not in a marina.   And, next week, we're having a wi-fi data box installed to ensure Internet coverage at least up the coast of Australia.  We're also having a representative from the club do a safety inspection of the boat and the gear so we can obtain a NSW safety certificate/sticker.

There's a lot to this going away on a boat for 7 months!

Next week I'm focusing on cooking some soups and casseroles for the new cryovac machine and freezer.   Not sure how much will get done today though.  Its pouring rain and pretty cold outside...perfect for snuggling on the sofa with Mr G and Miss Molly and watching a movie or two.

58 Bottles of wine in the hold; 58 Bottles of wine......

I suppose you can tell a lot about people by the contents of the holds, nooks and lockers on their boat...or by what they load on first.  For us it was 5 cases of wine all out of their boxes, wrapped carefully and individually in bubble wrap and placed in enviro shopping bags before sliding carefully into the bottom of the wet locker.  And that is just the white wine!  The red and the beer and the whisky are still to come.

Mr G, in a surprise moment of packing enthusiasm, got stuck into wrapping the bottles while I prepared dinner on Saturday....all the while saying that we will struggle to find places to put them.  He was adamant that this 58 was IT! and we'd just have to do with this lot.  A Scot by birth and a procrastinator by habit, Mr G looks at bulk items of anything and just sees money and hassle.  It's not immediately clear to him that a week or so sheltering behind an island with a strong wind blowing and enjoying the company of other yachties will rapidly deplete the alcohol stores.  Also, its not as clear to him - as to me - that when his wine runs out he's not going to swill mine!  It takes me 2-3 days to finish a bottle of white and for him a bottle of red is gone in a sitting.  So more alcohol is most assuredly coming!

We moved Southern Belle into a berth at the RPAYC on Sunday to start the loading process.  There's so much to do to be ready to leave on the 5th or 6th of May.  Somewhere I read that..."if you wake up with nothing else to do on or to your boat then you're dead so it doesn't matter anyway".  Well, we certainly aren't dead at this point!

Also this past weekend we attended two more seminars at the yacht club for the Coral Coast 2013 (CC13) cruise.  Sunday's seminar was all about Hunting and Gathering while in the tropics.  It covered things like gathering coconuts.  Did you know that over 200 people a year are killed by falling coconuts! 

The seminar also covered fishing.  I've never been a fan of fishing - from the boat or anywhere else.  Its too much like a blood sport to me and it hurts me to see something struggle and be killed right in front of my eyes.  Sounds silly, I know, but its just how I feel.  I don't like all the blood either.  Well the seminar was full of pictures of blood and gore.  Mostly the gore came from pictures of people with fish hooks stuck in various parts of the body.  Yuck.  Mr G always tries to fish off the back of the boat but he gets bored quickly, reels the line in and says, "they're not biting".  So we never had to put up with the gory thrill of a kill on board.  Unfortunately I know the time will come.  I could see the blood lust in Mr G's eyes in the seminar as slides were shown of prize catches.

More packing and buying and forms etc etc etc today.  All this planning is good.  It keeps my mind off worrying about the journey at sea with just the two of us....and leaving Molly.  Just typing that makes little bits of my heart break off.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY - Is the music to blame?

It's been a long time since I rock-and-rolled
It's been a long time since I did the Stroll
Ooh, let me get back, let me get back, let me get back
mm-baby, where I come from
It's been a long time, been a long time
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time
Yes, it has

Led Zeppelin - 'Rock and Roll' from 1971
 

For some reason Led Zeppelin has been scorching the speakers in my car for the past week.  I'm not sure why I pulled out the CD, but since first sliding it into the car stereo I haven't given it a break.  It made me think about the teenage blast of music that may have/must have shaped my life.

When I was growing up my Father - bless him - used to look at me and shake his head whenever I did something, to his mind, so alien and strange he couldn't understand what or where it came from. You see, I embraced being an adventurous and open minded Hippy early on.  He and my mother were in their 40s when I came along in 1950. They had already endured the hardships and horrors of WWII.   Shaking his head he would say, "it's because you were a 'late in life' baby isn't it?".  

I wonder if the music of the time had a lot to do with it.  Are we the result of our generation's music or is the music the result of the generation that makes it?  Do the themes, the beat, or the music scene mold us into what we are and what we become?  I'm not sure.  I think it goes both ways.  Whatever the answer I sure was lucky to come in to the world when I did.

The music at the time of my teens - the 1960s - was new, free, sexual, wild and, in many cases, full of meaning.  In the early years of the decade the US was going through the Civil Rights movement and I lived it first hand at my church and high school.  In both cases the old segregation was being broken through forced busing.  Old standards were being busted.  The music provided the theme and background for a revolution in how to think about and treat each other.  Songs like "The Times They Are Changing" by Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke's "Change is Gonna Come" and The Impressions "People Get Ready" gave me and the world early bedrock for supporting human equality and liberal open mindedness.

Then, in the later years of the 60s, fuelled by opposition to the Vietnam War and a revolution in thought the gates of free love, and free life were blown open with electric soul and psychedelia!  There was so much amazing music.  Music that moved every part of me and our world.  From the raw sexuality of The Rolling Stones (my all time favs) and Led Zepplin, to the mindful Crosby Stills and Nash and Simon And Garfunkel and on to the mind blowing Cream, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd and the in your face John Lennon... these were the groups creating the music of change.   Wow, just writing it all down its hard to believe it all happened in one decade and I was there.

These ideas from the late 60s provided the values and life style our group lived and embraced into the 70s.  Of course there were sex and drugs and rock and roll...that was the really fun stuff!  But there were also endless nights and days where we debated current events and thought about the possibility of creating a better world.  So here's the question.  Is the music to blame for my broad-mindedness, my green beliefs and my tolerance (of everything except the Australian Liberal Coalition party) today?  Did the music make me .. or did the times .. or was I born this way?  Who's to say, but I'm sure glad whatever happened it happened to me.


A group shot - some of the neighbourhood in the early 70s.

"WALKIES" - Not floating yet.

The morning quiet at home can go from lovely and calm to a high level of excitement with just one word - "Walkies!".    Suddenly a yawning dog still curled in her blanket is wide awake, barking and running to the front door.  I love the commotion of it all...it makes me smile.

Going for a morning walk with my dog Molly is an activity I treasure....more than ever now that the 6 month sailing cruise is getting closer and closer and closer.  As I strengthen my resolve to take this plunge - so to speak - and sail through unknown waters - for us anyway - I'm trying to focus on the things that allow me to experience a state of Mindfulness.  With all the lists and, "what ifs", and "WTF am I doing" going on in my head right now its good to have some time to just BE.

This is what getting out the door looks like .....

As I get ready Molly follows me to every room, just to make sure I haven't left without her and I'm moving as fast as possible.  I can't even go to the toilet without being supervised.  I know women with small children experience this constantly...but does my dog really need to be watching!

When we finally make it out the door Molly pulls ahead on the lead intent on sniffing every piece of grass and tree trunk.  Someone we used to know said in doing this she was, "checking her emails"...   'Who's been here since yesterday', 'what's been going on', and 'did another dog have the audacity to pee where I peed!'  And then the re-marking begins.  I'm always amazed that my little dog can have enough pee inside her to mark all 3.5 kilometres of our morning walk!  A miracle of nature.

About halfway through the walk we come to the BIG HILL!  It may not look like much in the picture but its quite steep and I like to do it 'power walking' style.  So I let go of Molly's lead and we power up it together with me never stopping or slowing down until I reach the top. 

Our hill.

Back to Mindfulness.  I've been reading a book recommended to me called, "The Mindfulness Breakthrough...A Revolutionary Approach to Dealing with Stress and Anxiety".   The book states that - when we are being mindful, we are choosing to notice the details of our experiences , just as they are  in the moment without judging or trying to change them in the first instance.  As a control freak this is where I come unstuck - especially on the boat and dealing with Mr G.  There are exercises all through the book teaching you to stop, breathe, and experience what's going on...just to notice....not control, or change, or manage.

So I worked at it in our walk yesterday and these are the things I discovered and enjoyed and saw when I didn't have the constant mind noise going on in my head.

My neighbour has a beautiful garden!

A rainbow lorikeet looking out from a grevillea bush... not afraid of Molly and me and certainly
not leaving his meal just because we were passing. 

A beautiful, huge, stunning gum tree at the bottom of our street that had just finished shedding its bark.

And the tibouchina trees just starting to bloom.

Lovely walk.  I intend to keep practising this Mindfulness thing and hopefully it will help me get through the coming times on the boat - at night - in the dark - with the wind blowing in the rigging.  Times when I would much rather be at home in my bed!

 

 

 

Friday night in 'da club' ... Plus - Inverter? or Converter?

There was a time - too many years ago to recall - when a Friday night in 'da club' would mean too much fun (of the naughty/feel awful the next day type) and too much dancing.  Those were the days when Saturday would mean hugging the toilet bowl as I threw up too many wines and my knees would ache from dancing.  Things are much more sedate at this point in time...and I can't say I'm at all sorry.

The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club...with a little Miss Molly in front.

The 'Alfreds' from the water side.

On this past Friday night we went to another kind of 'da club'... the Alfreds Yacht Club ... for the monthly First Friday dinner.  Staid behaviour aside there are still enjoyable times to be had.  Now that we've been to a couple of these and we're becoming more involved in the activities of the club, each dinner is more and more enjoyable because we know an increasing number people.  With only a month or less to go before Coral Coast Cruise 2013 departure a lot of the participating boat owners sat at the same table for this Friday's dinner.

It was very interesting to talk with some of the couples going up the coast ... to hear about their plans and their boats.  I discovered a number of wives are flying in to key destinations instead of doing the every day sailing.  I must say that thought has crossed my mind.  The idea of not having to endure the night sailing and the bar crossings up the New South Wales coast does appeal to me greatly.  But, I'm not going to let Mr G down, I WILL do this and I WILL LIKE IT!  I'm doing this whole journey as much for me as for anyone or anything else.  What a great accommplishment to sail up the east coast of Australia and then over to the Louisiades Islands - wouldn't miss it for the world!  Next time though, the possibility of flying in to a lovely warm Queensland destination for some tropical island sailing without any rough weather or other hassles certainly remains - in my mind at least - an option.

As far as getting the boat ready, Mr G and our friend John - who joined us for the First Friday dinner - spent all day yesterday installing an inverter or converter on 'Southern Belle'.  The reason I say 'or' is because I've always called it a Converter because it converts 12v electricity to 240v electricity.  I think that makes sense.  Mr G used to correct me but I've worn him down and now he says it too....sometimes.  John, who is a very good electrician, corrected me with the term Inverter...and explained why it is technically called that.  Blah, Blah, Blah enough of that technical stuff!  We now have one so I can run my hairdryer plus we can use a toaster, charge my new computer and phone and even run the washing machine while on our trip.  Luxury!!!!

Men at work...lovely new blue converter!



The whole cabin was a mess..and Miss Molly and I were confined to the v-berth.
 It was raining outside and work going on inside ...so we stayed put.

There's a busy week planned next week.  My focus will be finalising the meds kit, provisioning and comms plans.  There's really only 3 weeks to go before we move on the boat.  Whenever I think about that my heart starts to hurt ... I think about leaving Molly.   I have to keep pushing that way down in my psyche or I will cry.  Now - and way too much.

Boats, Planes - No Restaurants (sigh) - and Seriously Getting Prepared

Well the Easter weekend is over.  It turns out these past 4 days marked a change in pace for us in preparing for the cruise.  Now that we're just a month away from leaving I find I've accelerated into full blown organisation mode.  And, if nothing else, I'm good at doing just that!

To begin this post on a more peaceful note a few last looks at the weekend just past...

Here's me in the galley about to prepare dinner.  When we're on board we don't suffer from a lack of food...or even a lack of good food!  The boat has great refrigeration - 3 fridges actually - so I can pack and plan a good healthy meal every night.  I think this particular night we were having grilled chicken on the BBQ with 2 kinds of salad.  Nice.  The challenge with going away will be to keep as much as possible fresh for up to 4 weeks in some cases.

Our usual ritual when in the National Park is motoring down to the Cottage Point Kiosk to have mid-morning coffee and a piece of their excellent apple and walnut bread.  One of the public moorings puts us just opposite the Cottage Point Restaurant which means we can watch the boats and seaplane arrive for the lunch crowd.

The restaurant is just up the little ramp from the boats.

The seaplane arriving with a load of diners for the restaurant.  Great way to experience the National Park...and to avoid being breath tested on the roads!

I love this little restaurant.  The food is good - kind of fine dining - and the outlook is spectacular.

Sadly with our trip plans, and with the propensity for Mr G to cut all "extras" out of the budget, we didn't have a meal there.  This cruise is costing quite a lot of money to get up to speed with everything needed.  So I can only look at restaurants and sigh..and then keep cooking dinner at home.  The rewards will be great once we get up to the Whitsunday islands and beyond but it would be nice - just once - to lash out on a great meal.  Like I said - big sigh.

The weekend was not devoid of lots of social fun.  We ran into some friends - Mark and Kim - who returned from 6 months sailing up north at the end of last year.  They passed us in their boat one afternoon so we motored over for a beer and ask them about their trip.  If you judge our coming cruise with their experience then we should be in for a good time...with some nail biting times as well.  They raved about the 6 months they spent and said they couldn't wait to do it again. 

We also joined the Yacht Club crew - 24 boats in all - for one night.  It was fun travelling between a few boats, joining them for conversation and drinks and sharing stories about experiences.  Unfortunately we couldn't join in some of their plans because Molly wasn't allowed ashore in the parkland so we only stayed one night and then moved on.

Now that all that enjoyment is over we're getting down to it with prep for the trip.  I have gone into full LIST mode.  So far 3 lists and counting.  To Do for the Boat, To Do for the Medical Kit, and To Do for the House Handover.  Stay tuned though, I'm sure there will be more.  I've been at it all day and now I'm going to move into the kitchen for more of my own cooking (sigh again).