Year 2 – 13 April 2025 – Gladstone Marina – Guest Blog
Overnight pondered what to do today as the wind had continued to blow hard and was probably higher today than the previous days (as predicted on the windy app). I decided we would take the dingy up the Auckland Creek river inlet so took the advantage of an early high tide as the river dries out after a short distance and set off about 09.30am. We got about 3 km and reached the road bridge next to the power station which as expected form the charts was too low to pass under. In any event the river dries out after that point and I did not want to end up sitting on mud or damaging Nicks dingy, so I turned around and trickled back. I was surprised to see so many anchorage piles so far upriver. It was a good way to spend the morning.
After a massive lunch at the Marina café… Paul ordered white fish in brioche rolls and they delivered 6 of them to him… My egg and bacon roll turned up with about 5 large rashers of bacon with scrambled egg… must have been 4 eggs and sourdough toast. We walked up to Barney point. Although it has several names so not sure of it’s real title. It has lovely views off the sea, which were contrasted by the industrialisation of the area. In the background Paul explained the mountains/hills were the dividing range between coastal and bush areas. On the way back we stopped off at a bar with lovely live music which promptly stopped as we ordered our smoothies.
When we got back to the marina we bumped onto a women who was so drunk… had a strange but funny chat. I made sure we watched her staggering down the pontoon to her employer’s boat as I was worried for her safety.. She veered left and right a few times but finally made it to the boat, presumably to sleep it all off.
Spent the remainder of the day chilling and sunbathing for me. We also started some more boat repairs with me on the cars and Paul cleaning the contacts on the search light. Then had a putting away the dingy session where I let Paul lead the process and I was pleased to see he had retained a reasonably good understanding of the process. We also discussed IRPCS regulations looking at lights and passing other vessel regulations.
For dinner I made a chicken pasta with pesto, cooked in chilli flakes, white wine, onions and the garlic. It was surprisingly tender and tasty, with enough left over for Paul’s lunch tomorrow. Wind looks like it might die down a bit over the next few days (maybe) so will see when and if I take Stormbird out again. I’d be much happier with gentle sailing conditions. Paul is becoming more familiar with procedures on the boat.
I’m not sure what tomorrow’s plan is yet. I will continue to repair the cars and re-run previous training procedures with Paul and then look at the car and sheet operations with him. I will pop into Volvo to discuss the engine alarm issues. And certainly look to expand Nicks CD collection if I can find a decent music shop.
David & Paul