Halcyon Days Obscured
by Jack and Jude 16 Feb 2019 07:30 PST
A bit concerned with the smoke © Jack and Jude
Once safely inside the Nubeena anchorage at Parsons Bay, Banyandah settled into a calm state of nirvana that hit maximum bliss over the Australia Day long weekend.
Before those three glorious festival days, we re-victualed our sorry larder with fresh goodies from the handy IGA that lay a mere hop, skip, and paddle from our floating home. The only hitch being timing our crossing of the hugely wide, drying sand flats that took a bit of strategic planning, but once mustered, we knew precisely when to brave the rigours awaiting us ashore, where it was hot and often irritatingly smoky.
Just when we were getting the hang of things, a bolt out the blue from our past showed up. Yonks ago when sailing round the world was something everyone hankered to do, there were several floating families hove together up the Klang River in Malaysia. With us was Brian, who had recently lost his wife in strange circumstances, converting his yacht for a special delivery to an unnamed country. And another was this likable lad with rusty coloured hair with his wife and child, doing any odd job that had anything to do boats.
Reminiscing
Forty years down the track, this rusty haired lad now living in Tasmania contacts us. Brief messages between us revealed that he had pursued a maritime career, and we suggested he drive down to meet us. Uh-oh, his hair is no longer rusty coloured. In fact, all three of us are fifty shades of grey, but all of us can still sail a boat just about anywhere.
Reminiscing is such good fun when you have something in your lives worth recalling, so between the three of us we talked up a storm from moment one, for pretty near the next thirty-six hours. And it was so much fun that we have something on the boil for later down the log.
Australia Day was very special. Jack and Jude joined the local scene right from the get-go and participated in the local Peninsula Aquatic Club Renegade Regatta. Well, sort of. We were visiting cheerleaders and storytellers, and we had a lot of fun chatting with the local sailors. Then we moseyed over to the local craft fair, where we were amazed by the quality of talent. Even more impressive were the stories we heard from the artists. It's a great way to learn local history first hand and get a good grip on what makes a place special. So we went home hoarse from non-stop talking to the local folk.
Tasmania on fire
Although almost everything was glorious, the one hang-up was the smoke haze and acrid smell that drifted in and out on the changeable breeze. At its worst, we couldn't see 500 metres! And it caused such great worry for us deeply regretting the loss of wildlife and forests, while worrying about how the fallout would affect our painting Banyandah. Seemed the whole state was engulfed in fire, a tragedy effecting all Taswegians.
Isn't it well past time that we humans recognize the impact our massive population is having on this lovely bit of magic we call Earth. How ridiculous to think we, meaning the billions of humans, running cars, flying in aircraft, burning fossil fuels for heat and energy, can go on doing so without changing the dynamics of the planet. Hey, we live on a ball floating in space and there ain't no Plan B. Imagine for a moment the creator of all this is testing us. Remember, we are unique, with such great powers.
Final Romp to Slipway
Okay, back to life on the briny: We needed to get to our lady to her appointed moment to be hauled out the water so we tracked the weather as furiously as kids texting each other. It's just so handy to watch the weather systems unfold and be able to predict nearly exactly the moment to lift the anchor for a perfect sail. We had seen our moment coming, and had planned our whole happenings around departing at 12 noon the following Saturday. Nope, no overtime applied, real sailors sail on good wind whenever it arrives. And so when the first skerrick of northerly breeze touched our cheeks we sailed.
This article has been provided by the courtesy of jackandjude.com