Blue *rsed flies no more

It’s five months since the Matey finished work (ten months for the Captain, who required post-surgery recovery time). We have embraced the relaxed lifestyle — no more buzzing around …

It’s a short bike ride to the West End where there is a lovely (clean and sparsely populated!) 50 m lap pool at Musgrave Park. Matey arrived at 11 am one Sunday morning to find the pool completely empty – she wondered if it was closed. But no, overcast weather keeps the folks away, apparently. Bliss! Matey has been contemplating how this could be in the heart of Brisbane in a residential area on a weekend. Unheard of in over-crowded Melbourne. Captain puts it down to ‘mining money’ but this pool dates from before the mining boom, and Matey thinks surely a lot of that dosh would be used up in roads (greater distances, fewer people and seemingly an even stronger attachment to cars and 4WDs than in the south, if that is possible). Thoughts anyone?

Saturday morning trips to the market are a regular feature of life at the moorings. The West End market has fruit, vegetables, fish and the usual fare of jewelery and clothes as well as coffee and tasty treats. Many of the boaties make the trip up the river for supplies, so the market can be quite a social gathering. Some weeks transport is by dinghy, some weeks we ride bikes.

En route to the market.

Captain enjoys a coffee at the market.

Captain has a wind problem

It seems both the wind generator and regulator have issues. Captain is currently investigating and Matey may be forced to acknowledge that Captain’s radar for malfunctioning equipment is in fact impeccable and he was not experiencing post-purchase dissonance. TBC …

The rich tapestry

We linger on in Brisbane River, getting to know the locals and surviving a sweltering scorcher (just) – good practise for the tropics when we finally get there (though Matey doesn’t feel any need to rehearse surviving mosquito bites, which she is also becoming well practiced at). Sadly though the crew was struck down by pestilence while languishing in the heat, which made it slightly more difficult to bear. Captain initially suspected scurvy (induced by too much plonk and not enough fruit and veg) but it turned out to be just a cold. Matey then insisted on garlic rations, despite Captain’s protestations and attempts to pull rank.

We are enlightened by other boaties’ theories on each other (have some of them been here too long? Have we perchance been here too long??) Apparently a couple of troglodites who rarely emerge from their hulls are chuffing away quietly. With numerous lone blokes, tales of ex-wives are bountiful. Captain’s theory is that the number of ex-wives relates to the health of said boatie’s state of mind. Captain suspects mutiny on one of the newly arrived boats as the water police paid a visit and Ms Boat (ex-wife to be?) was removed with baggage. Matey suspects a grumpy old Captain finally got justice …

Our lovely ‘rough diamond’ neighbour informed us that we lurk at the seat of Queensland power, beside the Stamford, where prime ministers stay when they visit the northeast and only a few hundred metres from Qld’s Parliament House. Last night we were treated to the Artic Monkeys, who played a gig at the Riverstage nearby. Party central across the river has returned, almost to its pre-xmas glory, with ABBA and the Bee Gees on rotation last night. Could be (and has been) worse – e.g. karaoke.

The barge taking soil surveys/samples for a future tunnel under the river continues working away and was parked a wee bit too close to TC for the Matey’s pleasure - only metres away with the joy of machinery noise, diesel fumes and spotlights at night. A recent all nighter (to speed things up for a tunnel that’s many years away yet) resulted in some constructive complaining and put a stop to night-time work – yay!

The Captain of Many Talents had a busy day installing the wind generator, but he’s experiencing a spot of post-purchase dissonance. Clearly it needs strongish (10+ knots) and consistent winds to do much in the way of power generation – and maybe Brisbane River ain’t the best place to get that. Matey thinks the Captain needs to give our new friend a chance to prove its worth in the bay …           

It was great to have a visit from Susie, Mick, Gemma, Damien and Sam on their way through to Mooloolaba! A record was broken as this was the first time we’d had seven people on the boat simultaneously. 

Hanging around

We’ve been based in the Brisbane River for several weeks now, waiting out the cyclone season. It’s been a productive time with the Captain making the brave decision that a wind farm was required (to Matey’s great relief). With many overcast days the solar panels were struggling to ensure computers and phones don’t sit idle. Oh, and important navigational instruments need power too. Said wind generator has arrived and just needs to be installed.

A visit from Jesse and Kelly meant a jaunt into Moreton Bay. In the first part of the week the weather was disappointing – with overcast days and strong winds – we clocked 50 knot winds one day and sailing was uncomfortable. There’s nothing like nasty weather though to inspire appreciation of the good stuff when it arrives. We spent the first night at Mud Island, aptly named as Jesse quickly got onto the job of catching crabs – and we had blue swimmer crab salad. Delicious!

We welcomed the new year from St Helena Island, a prison farm in former times. We could see the fireworks in Brisbane (just, thanks to the overcast skies). Fortunately there was an early set on for Captain and Matey, who were slumbering long before midnight. Then the weather and wind direction improved enough for us to be able to stay at the lovely Moreton Island. Finally we had blue sky and turquoise waters, snorkeling, walks along the beach and drinks at sunset (and beyond). Not surprisingly, Tangalooma was crowded with boats, 4WDs and campers. Most people behaved themselves fairly well though, apart from speeding jetskiers (who received a stern warning from Captain Plod) and some campers who were overly generous in sharing their tasteful music. We’ve since heard there’s bushfire at Moreton Island thanks to a careless camper’s gas bottle …

Back at Brisbane River, we’re becoming better acquainted with the fellow boat people and Captain can’t be restrained from parties each night. He’s particularly fond of his charismatic new French friend and after promising to have a night off, last night Matey had to shoo the apparently reluctant Captain off to the irresistible Francois’ mega catamaran so he could get his daily fix and help dispatch a surviving bottle of plonk to the recycling bin. Rarely do you meet someone so talented in so many areas of life (two PhDs in unrelated fields, an extraordinary CV, speaker of several languages — with a delicious French accent, of course — PC and Mac meister, sailor extraordinaire, life of any party, charmer, and the list goes on. He radiates warmth and joie de vivre. Matey would die happy if she achieved half of what he has in his lifetime – but there is no chance of that. We bask in his glow and enjoy his company while we have it.

Today, to Matey’s delight, the replacement oar locks for the dinghy finally arrived, ending a frustrating few weeks during which the dingy motor had to be relied on for every trip ashore. The oar locks finally completely broke (fortunately when Captain was rowing so Matey could no longer be blamed for rowing too roughly). Meanwhile though Matey’s once-proud rowing muscles have disintegrated to flab.