Well yep we are still in Port Stephens. We have however moved to Nelson Bay Marina from Peppers and are awaiting our repairs to our Motor.
Prior to leaveing we met Paolo and Patrizia of yacht Swansong. They are on there way up to Camden Haven with a group of other yachts from Sydney. If we had not had our motor problems we would have joined them with sail as Port Macquarie is only an extra 3-4 hours on from there stop and it would haqve been good company along the way.
Caught a bus into Salamander Bay on Sunday to have a look around. The shopping center there is very big for this area, probably comparable to Rockdale Plaza in size. Did a bit of shopping caught a bus back. We had originally thought of walking it but glad that we made the wise choice of the bus as it was one of the hot days and further than we had thought.
Monday we moved the boat over to Nelson Bay D'Albora Marina. We where given a berth up the end where all the charter boats are. There was a walkway gate right behind our berth so I had to take the dingy of because it would have hit the gate, and the berths here are very short so we couldn't move any further forward. We asked the marina to move us but it wasnt going to happen as Derdrie " the marina receptionist" was about as helpfull and a wet paper bag of hot shit, and a pesonality of a bowling ball, said NO. Only to be told the next day that if we didn't move our dingy from the next pen we would be charged for another berth. Left Elaine to go and sort that one out, funny enough they found us a new spot, a bit further out but away from all the charter boats , which at this time of the year is a good thing.
Met a Guy called Rusty he was cleaning a 70ft cruisers teak decks, So I asked what to use , as it turns out Napisan was the go and a hard scrubbing brush. As I had neither of these it was off to the shops we went, at least we were in walking distance to most things. Finding a hardware was a bit diffiicult, asked an old guy in the street, unfortunately he was from Queensland and just on his last leg of his caravaning trip around Australia. He did however offer to drive us to Bunnings, we would have to squash into the front seat of his car as he had pulled the back one out to make room for his supplies as he travelled around. After a bit of a chat we decided we would keep having a walk around and gave the lift a miss.
Met a guy from Tassie Peter Keating. He had built a castle in Tassie and was quite an accomplished sailor and was taking his boat to Adelaide as he had sold it to a guy there and had to have it there by January. He had his 36 ft Hunter tied up to the local public wharf and was sitting there sharing some curdled home made Baileys with a guy name Glen who was from Gilgandra. Now Glen was in a wheelchair and was a farmer, and had been a paraplegic most of his life. I was offered a drink of the curdled stuff but declined that so Peter gave me some of his Rum that he had got sailing the Panama Canal, which had quite a kick. Poor old Glen was a bit pissy so I am not sure how he was going to wheel chair it to the local bowling club as it was about 2 k away and thats where his family was waiting. Time for us to head home as it was starting to get a bit cold. Walking back along the beach we came across 2 Sting Rays in the shallow waters along the beach, I got close enough , up to my knees in the water to get some good pics.
Caught up for breakfast with Terry Dumphy and his family on Saturday morning after our walk to Bunnings. By the time we got back to the boat it was mid afternoon. Elaine decided that we should do some washing. So after 3 loads we got back to the boat, showered and headed of to Chinese for Dinner. And not bad either.
Another Visiter this morning. Steve, Elaine's General Manager dropped by for a coffee. He lives up here on the weekends and stopped in to entice Elaine back to work.
Tomorrow being Monday I am hoping that the parts for the motor will be in and with any luck by Wednesday we should be all up and running again. Then I can start to have a look at the weather again and see when we can blow this popsicle stand and head off to Port Maquarie, I am on a first name basis with Marine Rescue and the Marina up there as I have emailed them that many times with our changes in travell plans.
Our budget is looking quite poorly as the weeks on the marina are chewing into our funds. So if any of you would like to help support the "Rod & Elaine Lazy Bastards Trip" please let us know.
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