Matey's musings: May 2016

It is with a heavy yet hopeful heart that the Matey writes this post. A visit to the Low Isles and a snorkel there on a perfect day revealed many beautiful things, including coral that seemed to be in quite good shape. The water visibility wasn’t good, with a lot of sediment floating, resulting in an often green hue. Yet despite this Matey once again experienced the magic of joining the marine life in their world, which here at least, is looking relatively healthy. A long, slow glide with a green turtle restored Matey’s sense of joy in the amazing planet we inhabit, and hope that us humans will care for it as we should. Matey feels sad at the loss of so much beauty further to the north, where the reef has bleached, but hopeful that enough pockets of coral, like at the Low Isles, have survived the bleaching to go on and spawn new coral to replace the dying and dead. Then the young coral and companion species need enough years of sufficiently cool waters to become colonies and replace dead reefs. But where there is life there is hope!

RIP Dinghy the First

Our dinghy had been looking increasingly ragged and the cover was becoming quite tattered. It had acquired the fond name of ‘the deflatable’ as its glue seams failed and each time it was repaired it would remain inflated for a day or so and then fail in another place. Captain was unwilling to give up on the sad sack our trusty steed had become and determinedly fixed each failed seam, with loving care and patches, though the process of glueing curved seams and leaving it ashore overnight to fix, in croc-infested waters required some patience, the occasional borrowing of a dinghy, and now and then the flagging down of passers by for a lift ashore.

Swimming to and from Ebb TIde not being an option, we finally faced the sad fact that the dinghy’s reliable life was over. We then experienced the warm and friendly (and sometimes a little too relaxed!) customer service to be found in FNQ. Good ole Captain had already made enquiries in Cairns and sourced a possible replacement dinghy. A phonecall or two later and the new dinghy was on the way to arrive in Port Douglas within two hours. Mr Delivery was flexible and happy to make the detour to collect the new dinghy immediately. Mr Salesman was fine with payment after the dinghy had arrived. A few complications resulted from the rushed delivery, such as the wrong sized seat and oars being sent. Being relaxed and apparently quite busy, he needed a few reminders to sort this out, but we were impressed by the goodwill and trusting nature of these great people who went out of their way to help us out, and save us from what could have been a frustrating and inconvenient wait sans dinghy.

Dinghy the Second

The new dinghy has welded seams. We hope this means failing glue won’t be a problem. It also has an aluminium base and Captain managed to source some fabulous pneumatic wheels for it that pop up and down easily as required, and so far roll over each surface they have been tested on without complaint. This is a definite improvement on the plastic ‘wheels’ of the previous dingy, which bogged in sand and refused to turn, and never seemed content rolling on smoother surfaces such as ramps.

Dinghy II, being slightly longer and wider than Dinghy I, seems to rise to the plane more easily, which is good news. It is also smoother to row. Sadly though, its once eager-to-start motor is showing signs of becoming temperamental. Hopefully a thorough service is all that is required …

Also inflated

Captain recently decided another exciting purchase was essential. A paddleboard, while not advisable where crocs abound, is an enjoyable way of getting around elsewhere, say, at the Low Isles. It’s a good way of turtle spotting and checking out coral clusters when the water’s flat and clear. Why did it take us so long to realise a paddleboard was mandatory?