Week 26

Week 26

28^th May 2014

Darwin – Fannie Bay 12^o 26.585S 130^o 49.520E

The crane lift into the water didn’t go exactly as planned.  The crane was a lot larger than the one we used to lift Charisma out, but we tried to set it up the same way, with some rather poor results. Because the chains were so short the weight of the boat caused a bit of kinking along the side and toe rails. Really expected a discount on the price since we were now going to have to fix the damage caused, but no dice, we still paid through the nose. You live and learn.

The lift supervisors...

 Oh, Dear – Should you pick up a boat at this angle? The first indication that things weren't going to plan...

Crushed toe rail

Once Charisma was in the water and tied up I turned the key and he started first turn as if he had been waiting for us. Magic! Even the impeller kicked in without hassle.

Then it was off back to Fannie Bay to anchor while we did some organizing for our big trip. But first I had to find first gear! The gear lever had become jammed in reverse and we scraped along the dock planing off all the rotten wood with a stay.  Eventually I got everything working and going in the right direction.

Back in the water and off to Fannie Bay to lick our wounds…

In the water and back at Fannie Bay at last!  Buffy the Barra Slayer will stay tied to the boat till she gets her sea legs...

Darwin’s local rag, the NT News, obviously knew we were coming – they put Buffy the Barra Slayer on the front page!

Buffy the Barra Slayer is famous!

Buffy's reaction...What the?

The NT News is a laugh with a new punny headline every morning… 

Still lots of boat jobs to do including this one which we didn't need...

Damaged toe rail...

Even though we had sold the car, we told the purchasers that we needed to keep it for a couple of weeks so we could use it to stock up the boat for our trip.  We didn’t tell them we also needed the jack to fix the toe rail damage...

Toe rail repairs

 Fannie Bay sunsets are fabulous...

 – they come complete with crepuscular rays!

Buffy the Barra Slayer is well catered-for – she even has her own patch on the boat! This is intended to be her toilet area, but so far all she uses it for is to roll around on scratching her back and for playing tug of war!  Hopefully she’ll work it out eventually...

Buffy’s Patch

Dawn at Fannie Bay has crepuscular rays as well!

Crepuscular mornings...(The Mustang has always wanted to use the word crepuscular...) 

After several days at Fannie Bay it was time to go to a marina. This would make it easier for us to load all our food etc onto the boat.  We chose Tipperary Marina not for any other reason than that it was convenient, reasonably priced and the lockmaster was extremely friendly and helpful (thanks Keith!)  Because of the large tides here, the marinas all have locks to get through as you go in.  This was Charisma’s first lock-in!  Turns out that it’s quite easy (ha!) to get in and out, as long as you have a very helpful and knowledgeable lockmaster! We even slid into our berth with no dramas.  Made it look like we’d been doing it for years, but it was luck really (don’t tell anyone!). No one died…

Tipperary berth

We had some interesting neighbours alongside – this one in the foreground is for sale – for free! You should check to see how much is owing in outstanding marina fees first.

Boat for Free!!! In need of some TLC...

While travelling around Darwin we found some interesting sights.  This house is in Bagot Road, and we named it the Bovine Abode.  It became our point reference... "Where's Bunnings? Just after the Bovine abode..."  In addition to being avid footy fans, these guys obviously like cows!

The Bovine Abode – complete with watchdog.  Don’t let anyone steal those cows!

We had a huge shopping list (2,000 tea bags, 30kg of sugar, 30 kg of flour, 6 bags of pasta, 100 litres of long life milk, lots of tinned fruit and vegetables, baked beans, 54 rolls of toilet paper, 8 packets of biscuits, 18 bags of lollies – you know, just the basics!) and didn’t fancy pushing eleven trolleys around Coles, so we ordered all our stuff online.  Instead of having it delivered, we went to pick it up so we could check all the use-by dates and make sure they were adequate.  We raised a few eyebrows when people saw us loading the car – even the girl at Coles was impressed and got into the BOF spirit!

Picking up the shopping

Once we had all our food, we had to achieve two things:

1.       Find a way to keep it dry and to extend it’s life; and, more importantly,
2.       Find somewhere to put it all...

The storage space under the main berth was our planned area for food storage, and we hoped to have enough room for some of the other goods as well, like toilet rolls and paper towels.  But first, we bought a vacuum packer and some rolls for bags and set to work vacuum sealing everything.

The Mustang hard at work Vacuum sealing...it was hot hard work... helped with rehydration territory style

We took over the bench in the Marina laundry to do this work. The first day we spent two hours there, then lined everything up on the bench ready to pack back in the car and sat outside for a drink and a rest before we re-loaded it into the car (Charisma was around the other side of the Marina).  After about ten minutes the Mustang noticed some guys going through all our food. “You guys OK there?” she asks. Turns out the bench has always been used as the “Free” spot at the Marina – whatever the boaties don’t want any more gets left there for whoever can use it or wants it. It didn’t take us long to rescue our vacuum sealer and our food and to explain that we were unaware of the tradition! Turned out to be handy to know, though. Whatever we didn’t need or want on Charisma ended up there before we left the Marina.

The next day we went shopping for our meat and frozen vegetables.  This we mostly bought in bulk and broke down into meal-sized portions before half-freezing it and the vacuum sealing that too.  This took another whole afternoon.  We also had to make sure we were ready to face several months among the wild animals, so we bought plenty of protection.

Ready for those sandflies...

After we had just about finished all our "little" jobs like replacing the water pump, changing the crank batteries, installing the new fridge, panelbeating and painting, Captain Backburn turned up from Perth for a week to give us a hand...

Captain Backburn turns up after almost all the work is done.

Buffy the Barra Slayer wasn’t ignored during this busy time, but she would probably have appreciated a bit more play time.  We did bring her tennis ball though, so we tried to ensure she got some play time each day.

Ball time!!

Friday, 30^th May, 2014

Finally we had bought all we could think of and done all we could that we needed the car for, to the two backpackers from Belgium (Anthony and Louise ) that we sold it to came to collect it today. The Mustang was sad to see it go as she had had it for six years, but it was time for it to go.

The Belle-geese off on there outback adventure...

Saturday 31^st May, 2014

Thought we all deserved a day off, so we left the Marina at 8AM and went across the Darwin harbour to a likely looking creek to do some crabbing with Captain Backburn.  We spent the whole day there, enjoying the sunshine and grabbing all the crabs we could. We lost two of our crab pots – we think it might have been a couple of young blokes who seemed to conveniently follow after us when we had set our pots, but it could just have easily been a crocodile.  We did see a small 2-metre salty in one of the creek arms.  Captain Backburn braved the conditions and even jumped in for a swim to cool down.  Have you replaced the wet phone yet Captain?

We only managed to catch one mud crab, but also got about eight blue swimmers, so we had enough for a good dinner.

Charisma’s second lock-in

Bucket of crabs

Crab  appreciation committee. I think these guys like crabs.

Sunday 1^st June, 2014

Today was another day off for us.  Buffy took the first watch. 

Otherwise, we just sat around Fannie Bay enjoying the scenery and watching the locals with their boats.  We even saw a trio with a 4WD launch their 15-foot power boat without wanting to get the trailer wheels wet.  It involved tipping the boat at a high enough angle to bury the engine leg into the ground and then driving off….   Sort of puts you off second hand boats.

Tomorrow is another shopping day as we have come up with another list of things we need.  OK, they may just be comfort items, but why not be comfortable?  We ended the week with another famous Fannie bay sunset.

...and a phone call to say that the spare propeller we ordered from China has arrived at last.... It's time to head off...