Let's Go Shopping.

It has to be said that we are having to approach our provisioning a little like a military campaign. This is no different to the residents of Scotland Island BTW. If we are going ashore, what can we achieve while we are there? Answer: the rubbish run, the laundry AND the shopping. Firstly we set off to the mainland across the channel in the 'tinnie' with the rubbish, the laundry in our sailing bags and the fold-down trolly to drag them on, coming ashore at the Commuter Wharf at Church Point. Depending on when one arrives, it can be VERY congested and we are extremely grateful to Peter and Debbie for loaning us their aluminium runabout (tinnie). Our tender, being an 'inflatable', would not survive the crush for even an hour. The Wharf is a floating jetty and every time a boat comes, goes or motors past the resulting 'wash' causes the whole lot to ripple like a Mexican waive and all the hulls crash together and strain against one another. Poor 'Marilyn', would finish up torn apart and not just sporting more spot patches. Once 'parked', we head for the bus stop to take the bus into Mona Vale. If we think that we have any postal items, we'll call into the little Letter Post Office on the way.

 The Commuter Wharf

Bonus! The Kindle arrived.

 

Once we arrive in Mona Vale, The Bloke is dispatched to drop off the laundry and then he is free to buy a paper and have a coffee while I attend to the shopping. This has to be achieved in the minimum time possible (The Bloke's unwritten rule) and my eventual arrival with 'the shopping' is always met with rolling eyes. We haven't located a coin operated laundromat here but the Laundry above the Aldi is excellent and the Philippino girls are super helpful and cheerful and the whole lot processed and folded by the time the shopping is completed. Rather than attempt to load the laundry plus shopping onto a bus, we call a cab to drop us back to Church Point. Phew, what a luxury!

The various shopping bags and laundry bags are then dragged down to the Wharf and loaded into the 'tinnie'.

Now to drive across the channel and back to Zofia and play 'Pass the Parcel' from 'tinnie' to yacht. Ooops, mind the gap!

 Labeling the cans before stowing them in lockers.

This is followed by 'the grand unpacking' and stowing of all the laundry and the groceries etc... Now, are there any questions about what we do all day?

In a Tight Spot.

The picture probably says it all: The Bloke's off colour. In fact he's been pretty crook for a week. I wish it was only Man Flu but it's been the real deal. It's unlikely that he'd even have noticed if I had worn a little Nurse's outfit ...Yup, just that crook!

Infection control.

The Medical Box was plundered for remedies. First, for the Betadine throat gargle and paracetamol, Vics Vapour Rub, lozenges and cough mixture. After 4 days, out came the big guns - the AB's.

Yellow Jack or 'Lima' Signal Flag indicating 'Contagion'

To assist with The Bloke's recovery we decided that a couple of days at the yacht club would be a help. A bit of pampering with long hot showers, using the fan heater at night (and giving the hot water bottles a rest), easy access to a washing machine etc...all looked to be a good idea. Luckily, a pen was available, but now we are 'in' we are not sure how we did it.

Does this make my bum look big?

Zofia sitting between the poles using up all the real estate provided!

Bloke to the Rescue

A late Sunday lunch at the Waterfront Cafe at Church Point was enjoyed in the company of Martin and Carolyn. Luckily we'd booked, as it's very popular and the 3pm sitting was the best we could manage. Since it was as nice a winters day as you could imagine, our seating on the waters edge was very pleasant.

Carolyn and Martin were pleased with the oysters

The Waterfront Cafe looking festive as we motored away

We arrived to collect the 'tinnie' from the Commuter Wharf just in time to hear a despairing cry ~ "Oooh, nooooo"!! A lady had knelt down to unlock and untie her her boat from the hitching bar and in the process, dropped the padlock into the water complete with both the padlock and boat keys! Dilemma. How to get home? All the little motor boats and runabouts here are the equivalent of a car for mainland people. It's not as if you can call the RAC to come and help. The light and temperature were completely unsuited for a quick dip to try and locate the padlock and keys from the sea bed below. "No problem" chirped The Bloke, "I'll tow you"!

The Bloke saving a damsel in distress

Oddly, this wasn't the first rescue mission during our time around Pittwater. Twice now, The Bloke has jumped into our tender to tow kids back to their parent's boats after they'd been hooning about (and being annoying which is probably why we'd even noticed them) and then had a problem with the outboard motor, finding themselves suddenly drifting off with the tide. In both instances, the kids have been between 10 and 12 years of age and not wearing a PFD of any sort. When delivered back to their parents, they'd not even noticed their children missing, let alone that they were in distress. And even if these supposed responsible adults didn't indicate any gratitude for his efforts, I think The Bloke did a great job!

Taken by a Stormy

We didn't originally anticipate spending so much time around Pittwater but lingering has not been a hardship. In some ways it's a luxury to fall into the rhythms of a place. Having even bought a local bus pass (Opal Card) is a sure fire sign that we are here a tad longer.

The Cruising division of the RPAYC have a monthly First Friday get together (we spoke at one 2 months back) and this month was a meal and dance. Peter and Debbie, our mooring hosts, urged us to join them again so we popped over to their house for a shower to spruce up suitable for 'company' and traveled with them across Pittwater in their Commuter Boat to the club. We ended up having a sleep-over as neither of us were in the mood to jump into the dinghy on return and get back to Zofia. Enough transfers for one day we'd decided! We felt less guilty in the knowledge that 'our' bed hadn't been stripped since our last sleep-over. We were 'expected' and complied with the invitation.

The food and company for the evening were great, even if the music was more suited to sleepwalking and the First Friday 'event' is always followed by a 'cruise' the next day. Of course any number of boats greater than 'one', and traveling in the same direction, constitutes a race so 'presentations' in America Bay needed to be made and a 48' catamaran offered the perfect platform - quite literally, for 30+ sailors.

 RPAYC Cruisers on moorings everywhere.

Most of the participating boats left from RPAYC at 11am while we left from 'our' mooring off Scotland Island with Peter and Debbie, as crew, a while later. Conditions were great for racing/sailing, particularly after we'd come out of the lee of the Island and we arrived with the bulk of the fleet despite our delayed start and different route. The Bloke made Peter the tactician in deference to his local knowledge and in an attempt to keep him off the winches to prevent him from aggravating his bad back. Debbie and I managed the winches through the multiple, multiple tacks. The Bloke was well pleased with our performance. He'd worked us like navvies and we earned our rum ration.

The day was epic, finishing up with 8 guests on board for a meal on Zofia. Everyone contributed to the meal of course but we discovered later that we had made an additional contribution, going through half a tank of water doing the washing up. If only I'd remembered the sea water tap to do the rinsing. Doh!

The Bloke wearing his Stormy on a recent trek

During the various boat transfers etc over to the cruise leader's gorgeous 48' catamaran (a Fountaine Pajot Salina 48) which caused acute Bofed (Boat owners foot envy disease) in many participants, we wore our Stormy jackets. They are spray jackets with an inbuilt PFD. They make for less fuss getting about in our dinghy as the jacket and life vest are a single item and easily worn or removed. We wear them a lot: on board and ashore. An impulse buy while we were in Tassie, they've proved to be a 'favourite' amongst our boat kit.  We suspect there could be some orders placed through the RPAYC Chandler for some of these. The RPAYC Cruisers were fascinated and quite taken by our Stormys!

 Cruise over. 

Judy and Martin on Gooniwindi II, taking Peter and Debbie home

Vivid Memory

It wasn't immediately obvious to everyone that Cronulla, although technically 'not Sydney', is definitely on the outskirts and a part of the conurbation. Consequently Amy was a little slow realising that her arrival in Sydney for a work related conference would mean she was only within cooee of where we were. It didn't take long to organise a train trip into the big smoke to meet her 'after work' and take her out for dinner.

The Sydney Vivid festival was being set up and we had the chance to pose in front of one of the displays in Martin Place after dinner just before they barricaded it off. So lucky on many fronts and we now have genuinely Vivid memories of Amy.

 The Bloke with Amy

Martin Place getting set up for the Vivid Festival