Many hands

When we were in Albany, B5's wife Maxine, advised we girls that she had found Sturgeron to be the best sea sickness medication she'd used during their cruising years.  This confirmed what we had heard from other sources. Our mission was to get our hands on same!

On 6th January, I'd made an online order. 9 packets of 15 pills. 3 packets each. That should keep us topside, vertical and awake for whatever weather we encountered. We all lamented how Kwells and Travel Calm, even when taken in fractions, made us drowsy. A full pill knocked us out cold. This Sturgeron sounded like the stuff we'd need. It was less urgent for me as I'd been given some US equivalent (even better reportedly) by Andrew and Carolyn as a farewell gift. Sweet, but after 10 days and the tube empty... then what?

So the order was placed and better still, it happened to be 'on sale' at the time from the on-line chemist, so for the princely sum of $45.23 we would be saved from Mal De Mer! I gave the Esperance PO as the delivery address. We'd be there in a week or so. TICK job sorted.

We spent 12 days in Esperance. Visits  every other day to the PO to claim our parcel gave way to phone calls. Still nothing. We left without any clear plan what to do if it arrived after we left. I consoled the girls that I'd share my 10 pills of the good US stuff for the Bight crossing. At least this was a 'Plan B'. In the meantime I was looking at the mail tracking site - the trail went cold on 8/1/2014 with the parcel apparently at the overseas handling facility. The message never updated. A check of the website said it should arrive inside 15 days and in any event not to bother the company until 20 days had elapsed. I would need to contact PayPal within 28. Dark thoughts.  Clock ticking, the Esperance Big Ben a reminder each day DONG, DING, DONG.

We left for The Duke of Orleans Bay on Australia Day. That was day 20. I decided to wait until after the long weekend, just maybe the 3 day long weekend might give enough extra time for the package to arrive. Still no plan as to what to do if it had arrived. Package in Esperance, sailors at The Duke -LOL!

The phone call made on Wednesday 29th revealed the package had arrived only that day. I told the PO person how pleased I was because this contained seasickness medication for our Bight crossing. I'd have to get back to them with a method of collection. Did they have any suggestions? No. Leanne, by this time very motivated, had sensibly phoned the caravan park to ask if they could receive mail items for us in their mail bag. Another call to the PO to request if the package could please be delivered via 'The Duke Caravan Park' mail bag was met with proper procedure and protocol. Did it need to be signed for? No. Well that was something. It would technically be a redirection the voice said flatly. Great! What is the cost? Can I pay by card? Well no, we don't have that facility. Can I pay at collection? No. But it's our seasickness stuff! It was 4:55 pm. Home time 5:00 pm. A conundrum. Two brains at each end of the call thinking "What to do? What to do?". The result "Mmmm oh oh ummmmm I'm putting it in the bag now, OK".

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

This is what all the fuss has been about.

A UK on-line site, handled by an Indian name and poststamped Malmo, Sweden. Our small world.

I was told later by Wendy, one of The Duke's owners, that the plan nearly got unstuck at the 11th hour. The vehicle that is used daily to go into Esperance for the mail etc.. broke down on the way and except for the fact that they knew about our package they would have skipped the collection for the day! The kindness of strangers is shown in multiple ways every day!