Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Settling down !

Finally, I found a marina not too expensive (still expensive) under the Gladesville Bridge and not set up to accept live aboard. So, no showers, no laundry room, no wifi, but still we get electriciy, water, toilets and easy access to the boat. My wonderful Vodafone USB broadband stick works sometimes and sometimes not. If I want to have a reliable connection for financial transactions or similar jobs, I have to go either to the municipal library or to a McDonalds or equivalent. It's better than no internet at all but I made the mistake of storing some important documents on the boat's computer and it complicates things a little bit.
Sunday morning, Gail took us to a tour of the downtown and of a shopping center not far from their home. Peter was not feeling well at all, having been hit by food poisoning, and barely making it through the day. In the afternoon, I went with them on their cruiser to go get a man named Jeff, aged 92, who had been racing the Sydney Hobart race in 1947 aboard Peter and Gail's ketch which had been built around 1930 and is anchored right behing where Papy Jovial is moored. I felt very privileged to be able to hear first hand the stories that Jeff was recording for a short documentary aboard the ketch.
Monday morning, I did a long internet session at Peter's home. Then Gail came to get me around lunch time to drive to Hertz and get the rental car that I will keep during my stay in Sydney. After that, I went do some shopping and came back home.
Tuesday morning, we sailed 1.8 miles to move in to the Gladesville Bridge marina and get organised. I found at the marina (which is a working marina) a technician who will try and take care of the leaks. Then Peter came to take me back to Tennyson Point where I had left the car. Then I drove back to the boat to pick up Debbie and go to the library for Internet and to the super market to prepare dinner.
This morning, the day did not start too well. I found the freezer switched off and I had to throw away all of its content, mostly fish that I had bought in Auckland. Also, it turns out that the forward hatch had suffered from being closed with a genoa sheet caught between the hatch and the deck. Hopefully it will not be too serious. We shall see.
Today anyway, I have to deal with income tax, driver license renewal, and so on. After that, I plan on becoming a tourist again.

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