Back Home aboard Nine of Cups

 

We are HOME! Each time we return to Nine of Cups, there's a sense of wonder and excitement as we walk down the pier and see her sitting serenely … patiently … waiting for her crew. Our friend, Ross, was waiting at the airport for us when we arrived. All flights were on-time or early arrivals. Immigration and Customs were a breeze … quick and efficient. Though the flight time was long, traveling together is always a plus. David watches non-stop movies and I … well, we've already discussed that.

We wrestled the four big duffels, two suitcases and various other carry-ons onto a big cart and managed to stuff it all into Ross' car for the one hour+ ride back to Mandurah. E-mails from local friends had indicated it had been cold, rainy and windy here during July. It was grey and drizzly when we arrived, but not as cold as we expected … 18C / 65F. A contrast from the 40C/100F temps we experienced in Las Vegas, but still not as bad as anticipated.

Cups looked great. We used two yacht club wheelbarrows to get all the gear down the narrow pier. The rain and drizzle conveniently stopped for a bit. We unloaded all the luggage, got it below and then just looked at it for a few minutes … hoping it would unpack and stow itself. No such luck. David opened the first duffel and was pleased to see the new cabin fans we purchased were still intact. That's all it took for me to dive into the duffels and begin the unpacking process. Though we buy and pack all the stuff ourselves, it's still like Christmas as we unpack and stow it for use on Cups. We unpacked two duffels and had stuff every place but the right place before our fatigue got the better of us.

There's plenty of food aboard Cups, but neither of us was hungry. We opened a bottle of wine to toast our return, but neither of us drank more than a sip. The salon is a mess. Gear and clothes are strewn all over the boat. Right now, however some sleep is in order. We'll get busy first thing tomorrow.

Making Progress in Mandurah

We're making good progress here in Mandurah on our long, long to-do list. While it rained for a few days, we did several inside tasks. We're feeling like we're on schedule for a change … unusual to say the least. I took a couple of hours to complete and enter the updated inventory of all food stores aboard Nine of Cups into our new and improved provisioning spreadsheet and have placed a couple of orders for free delivery to the boat. Though we won't be leaving for a couple of months, I can place the orders for the bulk of the provisions needed and then just replace what I use.  

David has been working hard at splicing and installing new Dyneema lifelines. He's doing it in sections and sits splicing while we watch movies at night and then installs a section the next day. There's a total of six top sections to be done and he plans to complete them this week.

One rainy afternoon, I dug out all of my flag nylon and sewed up two new courtesy flags for Mauritius and Madagascar. Mauritius is a “for sure” stop en route and Madagascar is a “hope we have time, but I've made the flag just in case” stop. We also plan a visit to Reunion for which I already have a French flag. I hunted and finally found our South Africa flag from 2007 and our “Q” flag and have them all ready for use in a few months.

While I sewed, David began stenciling the boat name on the new horseshoe. He'll use a similar technique to repaint the name on the dinghy. He used an adhesive template, so we need to remove the sticky residue before it discolors or collects dirt.

Otherwise, we've been cleaning and waxing and polishing to our heart's content. I've mopped and scrubbed down below, vac'ed (that's a novelty) and swept and beat rugs and scrubbed the stovetop and oven and last, but not least, polished my teakettle. When the teakettle's shining, I feel like the boat is finally clean. While we have fresh water and power aplenty, we're taking advantage of it. We waited till a calm morning and turned the boat around by simple hand-lining, so David can wash and wax the port topsides and shear stripe … the side away from the dock. It's pretty easy when you're on the end of a t-dock with nothing in the way.

We've had several visitors, most with invitations to do something wonderful with them. We're glad we're on target for getting our chores done because now we won't feel quite as guilty if we sneak away for a few hours here and there to see the countryside and spend some time with new friends.

A New 30 Day Rule - Albany, WA

Sometimes I have to pinch myself and ask how come we're able to do what we're doing and end up being so lucky. Our 90-day rule? Well, things have escalated. It's more like a 30-day rule recently. The cruising/sailing community is so tight-knit, so supportive and so generous, it's overwhelming. So, here's our latest scenario. We had several contacts in Albany … mostly friends of friends ... and we sent e-mails in advance to let folks know we would be arriving soon in hopes we'd have a chance to meet new friends and visit with some old ones. Maree, whom we met when she and her family were volunteer caretakers at Deal Island, lives ~ 70 miles (120km) from Albany and she put us in touch with a very experienced sailor here, Mark, who gave us advance anchoring/mooring and general info about the area and allowed us to use his address to receive some parts we needed. He came for tea the other morning and delivered the parts to the boat and we'll probably see him again later in the week. Maree has now invited us to stay at her home and show us around the area.

Apart from Maree, our good friend, David V. from the outskirts of Melbourne who's been following our blog for years, put us in touch with friends of his who live here in Albany. We contacted Don and Judith (previously of Aurora III) to say hello. They proceeded to meet up with us, take us to the fresh market in Albany, then to coffee and left us with their car … for a week! We also have an invitation to stay in their guest room if we'd like, take showers at their home and we're having dinner with them at their home one evening. This is over the top, don't you think?

They also suggested we try to meet Darren who runs the Emu Point Slipway and is a shipwright by trade. He wasn't around when we called in, but they had already made arrangements to park their car in the boatyard next to his shop every night. When we returned at the end of the day, he was there and we stopped in to introduce ourselves. He was welcoming, reiterated that it was fine to park the car where it was and offered us a few days of free dockage near the slipway to make provisioning and fueling easier.

Remember how lucky we were meeting Del and Mark and Sue and the Mackenzies in Esperance? Remember those cruisers we met in Streaky Bay? We're still in touch with them. In particular, Eva and Brian on Zofia have given us contacts for nearly every port we'll be visiting in the next month or two. Pauline and Denys have just put us in touch with their good friends in Perth.

Either the 90-day rule is becoming a monthly occurrence OR we're getting ahead on hospitality to make up for the upcoming Indian Ocean crossing when we'll go for weeks without meeting anyone at all. We've really got to be intent on paying it back because we've been getting a lot of pay it forwards from others. We're pretty lucky sailors. Life is good.

BTW, Happy Easter to our friends down under. The Easter bunny, I mean bilby, always gets here early!