Note: I originally published this article Facebook on last Saturday ( 28 June) Moving has kept us occupied. It is nice to be able to catch up on a few things.
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I held my breath so many times yesterday… almost too scared to believe that we had a boat with a working motor and sails and that we could move the boat without it being towed…
We had become conditioned to anticipate what could go wrong…. Trying not to let this negative anticipation stifle the positive anticipation for our plans, or at worst strangle our enthusiasm for our goals.
We arrived at East Coast Marina (Manly) at around 10am with the view to unload the car, do minimal organising and head out as soon as possible. Seriously aiming for 11.30 departure.
We were confident after checking everything yesterday that everything, seriously everything was working. Or so we thought!
We took two loaded trolleys to the boat, unloaded our numerous bags on the deck and Martin heads back to the car for the next load. I head downstairs to unload. All good. I plug in my iPad. It is not charging, yet other things are working, this does not make sense as we are still on shore power. Not good.
Martin gets back and I share my discovery and collectively we try and work out why. This is not good. We need to be able to charge our mobiles. Especially given that our chart plotter has not arrived and we need the iPhones for navigating unfamiliar passages.
Breathe, breathe and breathe… Right now, you can understand why anticipation can be overrated.
We phone the electrician. No answer. Shite. I phone the pet sitter to see if he can do another night. Phew, he can. I phone a friend who was coming down to say goodbye and cast us off.
And then, the electrician arrived.
Note: the advantage of using the local marina electrician is he could just be on the boat next door. He wasn’t, but he was somewhere nearby. He immediately identified the problem.
No problem at all… really… had to be something obvious (both do a mental forehead slap and laugh and sign of relief all at the same time). Depending on what source the power was coming from determined which master switch had to be on. In our defence only one of the two master switches is labelled Master… helpful…
Awesome, our energy picks up. Martin announces we are leaving in 30. This meant departure was at 1pm. We set about getting organised. We had hoped to leave by 11.30am, no later then midday to get to our planned anchorage for the night. Best laid plans…
We are on our way!
Our friend turns up. It was brilliant to talk though the options of turning Saboteur’s 18 tonnes and getting underway. It is brilliant to have an extra set of experienced hands help us cast off. He also took this awesome photo as we head out. And so our journey begins… We had 2.9 hours on the new motor and had a perfect afternoon of motoring. It was not good sailing as we were nose into the wind and already 90 minutes later than planned. We wanted to reach our anchorage before sunset which was just on 5pm. We were able to do a good 6 knots and arrived exactly as originally planned and we were pleased with that. All went well. As we passed Peel Island we reminisced about anchoring there last year and the adventures that followed when our anchored started slipping in the middle of the night.
We were pleased to be trying a new and recommended anchorage.
Day 1 success!
And so we anchored in time to watch the sunset. With the anticipation of hearing the crack of the seal of the red wine bottle as it releases, followed perfectly by a gurgle as the wine merrily bounces from the bottle to our gorgeous wine glasses and we feel our bodies relax as we take that first sip. It is as if the setting sun picked up all the challenges of the day and carried them away.
In time, our attention turns to firing up the BBQ and cooking the vegies. Our unfamiliarity of our galley provides some entertainment and we eventually work out one gas bottle is empty and turn on the full one – and we are away.
We already had the steak out raising to room temperature. The anticipation of the sizzle on the BBQ did not disappoint. We set the anchor alarm and sat back and read. Martin slid his wine glass over to me. He is tired, trading wine for chocolate and has a power nap.
We head to the galley, do the dishes and tidy a little of our unpacked craziness and head to bed.
We collapse in the quietness, that is shattered with Martin hitting his head just above the bed. “#### I am sick of hitting my head”. There are only a few places where he can hit his head and somehow I anticipate one or two repeat performances. His head barley touches the pillow and he is asleep. And with that it is time for me to go to sleep.
Our journey has really begun. The anticipation has all been worth it.
#ilovesailing #whatareyouwaitingfor #liveyourlife #TandMAdventures
