We had finally realised what is causing our run of bad luck with
the weather. Kelsey, a good friend of
Dreamagics’ is currently working at Gladstone for a mining company. Her roster
allows her only Saturday afternoon and Sunday off and without much to do in a
mining camp she is bored. The devil makes work for idle hands as they say so Kelsey,
by her own admission has spent the past week putting a hex on the weather so
that we will get caught in Yeppoon and give her someone to visit when the
weekend arrives. Sure enough on Saturday her 4 wheel drive arrived in the marina
car park and she unloaded enough grog to last a fortnight, a colleague of hers
who was working the same shift and was also a bit bored., and Susan the Bow Cow
who had sneaked aboard to have another go. The three girls had driven the 2
hour journey . The colleague, Dominique or Dom had lived up to her name and
brought French Champagne as a way of saying “thank you for letting me stay”
(Tip for anyone thinking of joining Dreamagic. That always works) and we
proceeded to party aboard. The Yacht Club was having a function for someone’s
25th and although we were invited, and the locals were keen to meet the
now three women I have with me on my Honeymoon we decided we might not fit in
so stayed within the confines of the boat. More or less. Rona had spent the
morning making one of her superb curries, to which we added another from our
freezer. The vote in the morning was that they were probably very good and she
should make them again some day so that we can truly appreciate them.
 |
| Breakfast with the birds |
The next morning the sun was up, the day was still and still
full of the Joi de vie of the previous night, we decided to take the boat out
for the day. Stumbling out of bed, still in their nighties the girls got
Dreamagic ready and we backed out of our berth. Our next door neighbours handed
our lines as we said our goodbyes, slipped out through the Harbour Wall and set
our sails. Fantastic. The wind was
blowing about 10 knots, from about 45 degrees to the bow for once and Dreamagic
slipped through the water like the greyhound that she is. Breakfast! What do we
want? Bacon and eggs. We don’t have any. They do at the restaurant. Let’s go
back.
30 minutes after saying Goodbye our neighbours were handing
our lines again as we returned to our dock for victuals. The crew scarpered up
the dock to the Waterline Restaurant where coffee was drunk, bacon and eggs
were devoured, and hangovers attended to.
 |
| Jimmy Buffett, eat your heart out |
Kels and Dom finally left for the trip back to Gladstone,
leaving Susan in our care. We whiled away the afternoon before going over to
the Yacht Club to say our goodbyes, or in Susan’s case Hellos and Goodbyes. There
was a wine tasting being held and although we paid the quite exorbitant $5entry
fee so that we could tase the wine, we decided that’s ticking to one favourite
that we know rather than mixing wines would ward of any after effects. The
hosts, as always were fantastic and plied us with food while the event took its
course. We have met some wonderful people here. Everyone is so friendly. Once
the crowd had thinned a little a guitar came out and musicians took turn to
give us a tune. Lyle was a professional singer and did some great Jimmy Buffett
and Neil Diamond. The star o f the night was a girl who said she could only
play base and could not sing before giving us a wonderful couple of songs in a
style reminiscent of Loreena McKenitt , her voice mixing hauntingly with the
clear tropical sky.
When at a party, I often ask people “Do you sail”. The
answer is always “Yes”, and they go on to tell you their achievements at chartering
in the Whitsundays for a week 12 years ago, “No” and we change the subject or “A
Bit”. Watch that one. They say nothing but have done 6 Hobarts, 9 Gladstones, 3
Trans Pacs and an Americas Cup. So it is with guitarists. Thank God for once in
my life I said No.
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| We are definitely leaving here...tomorrow. |
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