Day 29 Pancake Creek 2

Pancake Creek

Australian Mainland North of Bundaberg

9^th February 2011

Still Up the Creek

The weather is definitely against us. VMR Forecast today is 20 - 30 knts from the South East. Trying to push south in this would be bad for the boat, hard on us and dangerous. We decided to stay at Pancake Creek and review the situation tomorrow.

Our anchorage is just outside the leads into the river here. There has been no traffic whatsoever in or out of the creek for two days. He weather was bright but blustery and remained that way until late afternoon when the rain set in. The wind generator is keeping up with demand, just, so we don’t need to start the engine for electricity. I spent the morning writing, strumming guitar and reading. I also spent some time route planning for our return trip in June. I drafted an email to everyone we know who might be interested in sailing while we are in Brisbane, or who may want to join us for some of the trip north when we leave.

I used the original mailing list that started when Capt’n Willi first started emailing some two year ago. At that time we were delivering Dreamagic from Pittwater in Sydney to Brisbane. To pass the time Capt’n Willi started writing a daily log and sending it to friends who were following the trip. What wasn’t apparent was that the log was being forwarded to others, who then forwarded it again. “Gone Viral” is the term I believe is now used for this. Willi used to get the occasional reply but did it mostly for self amusement, not thinking anyone was actually reading his daily diatribe. Only when he stopped writing did the flood of emails come in asking what had happened and where was the next instalment. These people were added to the ever growing list, together with anyone who became a subscriber of the previous website.  Since then of course, there has been magazine articles, (Did I tell you of the article in this months Cruising Helmsman), films (well the one you can find the link to on the right hand side of this web page) and offers to star opposite Cameron Diaz in a film series called Pirates of the Coral Sea. (I am just waiting on a call to finalise that project. Her people said “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. Any day now I guess, these things can take some time.)

Meanwhile, Rona spent the day pottering as she calls it, or faffing about as I refer to it. We now have fresh bread, fresh yoghurt, a fruit cake and a beef stroganoff for this evening. She has also rearranged the lockers in the for’ard head.

It’s amazing how the days slip away when you are cruising. The first time we got delayed without communication was at Island Head Creek during TC Anthony’s visit. Then I felt a real frustration at not being able to contact the outside world. This time we are resigned to the fact that we can fix what we can fix, and things we can’t fix need to be left alone. I am sure that this is good for the soul and would recommend it to anyone feeling rushed by the frantic world that we create for ourselves with instant communication and impossible deadlines. Having said that, I know it is difficult for Rona who does need to keep in touch with family, and her business.

One investment that has been worthwhile was our Spot Tracker. Once activated this little bright orange box searches for geo satellites and sends a beep telling it where we are. This is plotted on a Google map and a single email is sent to about 5 people telling them we are OK. We can’t change the email without internet access so we have no control over the transmission while we are away but our rationale is if we can activate the tracker, we must be OK. Using some more software I have enhanced its capabilities a bit so that it keeps track of where we have been rather than just showing where we are. You can see that by following the link “Where are they now” at the top of the page. The tracker now also sends the message to Facebook so it reaches a wider audience than the original 5.   By sending the signal every morning and evening from the same spot, friends will realise that we are quite OK, just not moving. (They will realise that, won’t they?)

In the early evening we played Scrabble, which Rona trounces me at with monotonous and embarrassing regularity before dinner, and then settling down to watch the new High Definition, Government decreed “It’s good for you so we are abandoning the old system” digital TV freeze every 30 seconds, lose it’s signal and then come back. British Murder Mysteries are even more complex when one can only watch half the show. Not so much “Who Done It?” as “Who The Hell Is That?”