Journal Entry – May 26th – 30th, 2007 Week One in OZ

Author: Pam

This journal entry represents the epitome of hitting the ground running and that is just what we did once our feet hit the ground after sixteen days at sea. After our glorious first full night’s sleep in more than two weeks, we crawled out of bed and headed out to meet Phil from Humanware to attend the Association of Blind Citizens of New South Wale’s Technology Expo. The Expo featured adaptive technology for people who are blind produced or sold by the four vendors in the Sydney area. It was held in the building owned by the Association of Blind Citizens of NSW, a neat old house with a beeper and tactile tiles at the gate. Our participation was informal, we chatted with many of the people who came through the door, including two teachers of the visually impaired. We were still pretty tired, but hopefully we were at least somewhat coherent. We went to dinner again at the Cruising Yacht Club, Scott of course wanted half of the items on the menu. It usually takes him a few days to reacclimate to the idea that he will get his next meal and it will not be out of a can.

On Sunday Phil and his partner Jan came over to Starship laden with a lovely picnic lunch. It was a very relaxing afternoon and we probably bored them with all of our Tasman yarns. At 5:00 David and Donna Marshall arrived to take us to their house for the promised home cooked meal. We had met them on Friday evening and within moments of meeting Donna she had extended a gracious invitation to dinner at their home. Bernie and Kate Dixon were also guests and we all shared a meal of the best roasted vegetables and pork I have ever had. It was a delightful evening full of many stories and much laughter. It was decided before heading back to the boat that Scott would go sailing with the Tuesday Men’s Sailing Club and I would spend the day with Donna, their grandson and our pile of laundry.

Monday we finally walked further than the Cruising Yacht Club and walked up to the Edgecliff Shopping Center and poked around in the grocery stores, our first reconnaissance for provisioning. We bought a weekly train pass and headed out to the internet café, with a stop at the golden arches along the way. We only had an hour to check email and then we headed back to the boat to meet our new friend Nick Reward for dinner. We had met Nick a few days before leaving NZ as he and David on “Ilyana” were preparing to leave on the rally to Tonga. Nick picked us up and we headed to King’s Cross, a neighborhood in Sydney near by the boat and notoriously known as the “red light” district. Like the Tenderloin in San Francisco you could say it is colorful, but there are also some very nice restaurants that have taken up residency. After buying a bottle of wine at a Bottle Shop (many of the Sydney restaurants are BYO) he suggested Italian. We sat down and he began to read the menu and once he had read Bratwurst and Schnitzel it became clear we had ended up at a German restaurant. We were all still fine with the cuisine choice and had a very nice dinner sharing stories about the Tasman and their passage to Tonga.

So, Tuesday came and with two bags of laundry David picked me up and took me over to their house for the day. And the day it took to do all of the laundry, in between playing with Taj, the youngest Australian I have met so far. Scott’s day on the other hand was spent aboard “Free Spirit” David and Donna’s 35’ wooden (timber) boat celebrating the 300th outing of the Tuesday Club. There are around ten members and we have been told the youngest is 70. They showed Scott a wonderful day on Sydney Harbour and he was treated to a trip to the Sydney Fish Market for prawns, fish and chips and he even ate two oysters. The later being unprecedented. Donna, Taj and I met them at the Cruising Yacht Club for a libation and were regaled with the enthusiasm of the fun they had, but no details were shared, because these Tuesday sails are all about “secret men’s business.” Comfy under the heat lamp, Scott and I decided to stay at the CYCA again for dinner.

Wednesday morning we headed up to Cole’s and Audi’s the supermarkets in the Edgecliff center and finally bought some groceries, I was absolutely craving a salad. We got back in time to quickly eat some lunch before we piled into “Intrepid” one of Sailability’s racing boats and headed out on the Harbour with Bob, Bill, Steve, Don and Malcolm for my first race. The winds were very light and variable making certain legs of the course difficult. Unfortunately, the team did not do as well as their standing record of nothing less than second, it was agreed it was probably due to the Americans on board. The members of Sailability have been wonderful hosts and a really nice group of people to meet and spend time with.

Thursday morning we headed up to Edgecliff again to the Westpac bank to finally pay our last bill in New Zealand. We did a couple of other errands and then ran back to the boat to meet Ivan, the mechanic who was coming by to finally bleed the engine. He arrived at noon and spent an hour and a half attempting to get the engine started. He finally decided the starter battery needed to recharge over night and it would be best if he came back the next morning with a large wrench to manually turn the crankshaft, the engine was not turning over on its own. After he left we were feeling a bit discouraged, we were hoping the problem only needed the expertise of a mechanic and that Scott didn’t know the finer details of bleeding air out of the fuel system. After several attempts to start the engine, including Ivan’s idea of cross feeding both the house and the starter battery, the voltage on the house batteries spiked to 19.65, which is dangerously high. Ivan did not know why this was happening, said we needed an electrician and then left saying he would be back at 8:30 the next morning. Yikes! We walked down the street, ended up in a power boat sales office and inquired about an electrician. The guys working there were very nice, they referred us to Craig and let us use the phone to call him. It turned out he was actually four boats away from Starship and said he would come over when he finished the job he was working on. He was there by 4:30 and fairly quickly determined the master battery fuse had blown. We paid Craig on the spot and found out we are not in Kansas anymore (or New Zealand). Feeling a bit discouraged we finally cooked our first meal on Starship in Sydney, BBQ chicken and salad. We headed out after dinner to spend some time at the Internet Café across town and came home at 11:45 totally exhausted. What a week!