1.
Leave our current anchorage without marking the
sandbank for the second time
2.
Make it to brekky prior to lunch time
3.
More fishing and music supplies (we need that
perfect guitar!); you couldn’t pick two blokes more worse off for shopping
4.
Drop off hire car and start heading north.
The day
started off well but as we all know plans never go according to plan. After
successfully leaving the anchorage without hitting the sandbank (woo hoo!), the
next challenge was the very first park amongst several multi-million dollar boats
in a pencil-like canal. You can rest assure that we managed to park the boat.
The fact that the boat was opposite and back to front is completely irrelevant.
A wise man once said, “It’s a good docking when no-one dies”. I rest surely
with this quote as I heard it personally from one man of the 4-man team that
was needed to park this f***ing boat.
As with most
challenges there does come a reward. Thank god for that $5 brekky! I also knocked
back a couple of large mango and banana smoothies as dad prepared himself for
the day with a large latte. What we drank is completely irrelevant but just goes to
show what you guys will read at home in your underwear munching on midnight
snacks.
Anyway…
After brekky it was straight to the shops but of course like every new ‘home’ we had to return to the boat twice for forgotten goods (someone over 50 tends to forget one’s basic needs i.e. phone). The third forgotten good (yes, third!) back at the boat was a key needing cutting and was absolutely essential because in the time dad made it to the boat and back to the shops it gave me some serious ‘me time’. I was turtle necking since brekky and had a curry brewing since the night before. After ‘my time’, I met dad back at the key cutters and promptly continued our shopping, needless to say a few kilo’s lighter.
We visited 5
music shops in search for the perfect guitar for the boat. Needless to say I
will give my right lung to the person who can pick which number shop we got it
from?? The very first shop we visited had this beautifully aged and sounding
guitar that we couldn’t forget. It’s hard to think that it was probably the pawn
of some crack dealer’s need that Cash Converters usually thrive upon. The fact
that we probably pissed off some local motorists during the search made the
sound even sweeter.
Now that you
have read this whole thing I’d like to finish off with the biggest fail and
success of the last 24 hours!
Fail: I would’ve
have loved to sail through the canals today trawling a lure but the one and
only luxurious chair went overboard last night. Surprisingly it was the first
thing overboard on this voyage! My bet was it being one of us!
Success:
Equipped with a damn good fridge and of course great minds in shitty
situations, we have managed to make ice!! I now know what it feels when the
cavemen made fire; when the Brits made cucumber sandwiches, and when the
Aussies made the Eski.
A day’s
worth of shopping… As you can see there is a freakishly camouflaged trolley in
the background. Who says you can’t…to shopping offshore???
