Day 215: Mackay, Australia – 09/08/10

I have a really lousy night’s sleep again.  I do wish this would stop.  Anyway, we are both awake early – Mike needs to get organised as the guys are coming to hook up the generator.

They turn up at around 9 am and get to work straight away.  I am still just in a tee-shirt when Rosemary and Bill stop by (with Jim) having got back from Sydney last night.  They had a great time and hearing about it made me look forward to going all the more.

Rosemary needs to go shopping and offers me a lift with her and Matt so just before lunchtime we go.  It’s great to see Matt again.  I’ve really missed his cheerful face.  We start off in a hardware/home shop.  For the first time I see things I would really like to buy for the boat, nice kitchen things, throws and rugs and lanterns – lovely, yummy stuff, all completely impractical for being at sea, which is why I don’t give in and buy them, but they are lovely to look at.

Next stop is the liquor store.  Having tried my NZ Marlborough SB wine box and discoverd that it’s good, I buy a few more.  Then it’s the mall – more grocery shopping.  I have the embarrassment of having my new debit card declined and Rosemary ends up having to pay for the lot.  I promise not to run away before giving her the cash back.  I now have no working plastic apart from American Express.  My new debit cards for two accounts don’t work, and my new visa card failed to turn up before Johanne left the UK and is now sitting in my flat, 10,000 miles away.  Great.  Mike has his wish.  I can’t spend money!  There is a god – and he’s male!

It’s quite late when we get back and getting all the stuff back to the boat is a bit hairy.  It is right at low tide which means that the walkway down to the floating pontoons is extremely steep, almost vertical it seems.  Having loaded all the groceries into a huge trolley, Matt has trouble hanging onto it and it threatens to run him over.  Luckily, Joe comes along at the right time, and with me helping too, we manage to get it down the ramp without it running into the water taking us with it. 

Walking along the pontoon, I suddenly see a large ray in the water.  It’s black with blue polka dots and a tail of about four feet.  It flaps sedately through the harbour, graceful as anything.

As I approach the boat, I see a smiling Mike and water spurting out of the port side of the boat, and hear a rumbling noise.  Our new generator works!  Hurray!  Not only that, but Mike has switched on the water maker and that has survived the long rest from water making.  Double hurray!

Mike has arranged for us to meet Keith and Clare, an English couple we met in Raratonga, for a drink, but when we arrive at the bar they are not there.  We are late and wonder if they have gone somewhere else, so wander around looking for them.  Mike goes to the yacht club and I go to their boat, but they are no where to be found.  Eventually we go back to the bar, have a drink and order pizza, then head back to the boat to do battle with the banks using Skype.  One says there is no problem with my card and no reason why it shouldn’t work, and the other says we have to wait 24 hours for funds that we transferred to appear and be available.  Sigh!  It’s our money, guys!