Watt Sailing Adventure: Sunday in Port Lincoln

It’s Sunday morning. I’m sitting on a boat that is still. Outside, the day begins to emerge, skies are clearing and the sun is trying to peek out and say good morning. It’s amazing that each time I look out the windows the scenery hasn’t changed! The house with the palm trees that I could see yesterday from the cabin window is still there! The big house on the corner with the boat tied up out front that we saw when we navigated into this marina is still there! It feels a bit odd to have become stationary again!

We have been here twenty four hours almost. Our clocks are now set on South Australian time and I think it is gradually sinking in that we crossed the Bight – that we actually did what we set off to do all those months ago when our dream started to become reality – we have begun to make our way around Australia.

Sometimes, when we were in Albany preparing and waiting for the weather conditions to become the best they could be for us, it did feel a little elusive – like we were ‘living the plan’, not ‘the dream’! People would often ask us how far we had come and we would have to try to not feel like wannabe’s – stuttering, oh we haven’t actually been anywhere much yet, but we are sailing across to the East Coast soon….

We answered trying not to feel like we were just pretenders, trying to not take on board any sense of inadequacy.

Ha, but it’s all changed now! Yesterday afternoon we went for a walk to buy bread and milk and chatted to some other local sailors at the marina and suddenly we have ‘cred’! Suddenly we are ‘People who sailed the Bight’!

I try to remind myself that it’s not a measure of who we are, but then in another way it actually is. We are not the same people we were when we set off from Albany Waterfront Marina in the middle of October, waving goodbye to friends Mark and Jenny as we untied our ropes there for the last time. We are not the same in so many ways.

Yesterday we began the task of beginning to get things sorted. Peter began by fixing the power issues that had been a problem when we were tied up at the wharf at Esperance. It hadn’t been a major problem, but was irritating – an intermittent shorting of our internal power when hooked up to mains power. He finally figured out what was causing the short and fixed it so that we could be attached to shore power safely and reliably. Computers could be charged again (yay!) and the microwave reconnected – though first we have to check it is ok – it went for a bit of a wander when we were sailing and was only saved because it was plugged in!

He cleaned up the deck while I began to clean up inside the boat, and began to gather all the things that need washing. There is quite a pile! We weren’t sure quite how we would manage the washing situation as the only laundromat is too far away to walk to, but some of the sailors here, that we met yesterday, offered us the use of a car for such tasks! What a blessing!

Today, apart from the ordinary jobs, eating, washing etc, Peter plans to take a look at the water pump which draws out water from our tanks. On the second morning out from Esperance this decided to play silly games with us and then stopped working all together. It wasn’t a drama, as we carry as much water in Jerry cans on deck as we do in the tank, it was just a nuisance. Some of the pumps on board have already been replaced, this one hadn’t, but we have a spare so it won’t be too hard to address. And then water will again come out of my taps! After that it will be time to inspect the auto pilot.

After steering by hand for four days and nights I have come to regard the auto pilot with deep admiration. How we took it for granted before! Poor ‘Helmy’, he was overworked and underpaid and definitely underappreciated! But he has drawn our attention to his value now – very strongly, and when he is fixed, or (and this is an option whose expense we hadn’t budgeted on) replaced if that must happen, we will never look upon it as merely an electronic device again!

It feels amazing to be in South Australia now. To have achieved this crossing. Yesterday, while we were still suffering from the results of little sleep for the preceding twenty four hours and odd sleeping patterns from the hard-work of the steering ordeal, we were weary and a little flat. Stiff, sore, and definitely beginning to notice the myriad of bruises that were starting to appear from the many bumps received while on the sea, we were definitely looking forward to some good sleep!

It was the first night I have slept for more than two hours at a time for days! What a luxury! It felt like I was a young Mum again and waking after a toddler had finally slept through! When we were planning out how we were going to manage without the auto pilot, one of the things I thought was how much it felt like having a new born baby. Someone needed to always be caring for it, just as someone needed to always be at the helm. No, you couldn’t let go to pop down below to use the loo – you just had to wait for someone to take over. No you couldn’t just stop for a minute and grab a cuppa – you had to wait for your time to end and get something then. We did ensure that there was always a bottle of water in the cockpit and snacks on hand so that the person on ‘duty’ would have, within their reach, sufficient basic requirements. But just like a new parent our charge, the boat, required constant attention, was demanding, and needed us to remain constantly focussed on her!

I had thought, when we set off from Esperance, how this crossing felt a little like a ‘labour’ for me. The means to an end. A path I must follow to get to a much longed-for outcome. I’d had many long and painful labours and one of the things that always sustained me was to focus on the prize at the end. With each painful contraction I would think, well that’s one I never have to do again, and now I am one contraction closer to joy. I saw the waves in that way when they were big and choppy, but mostly I saw the changing numbers on the chart plotter, the longitude and latitude numbers, in that way. Each move towards the East was ground gained. Each big wave, one we wouldn’t see again. And always my thoughts were on how we would feel when we got to the Spenser Gulf and headed in to Port Lincoln.

So we crossed the Bight, caring for and tending to our ‘baby’, our ‘Argos-the-brave’ – that’s what I decided she was one night when I was up steering alone, as I began to really appreciate what an amazing vessel she is! We crossed over and did really well and now we can relax a little and delight in what awaited us on the other side – the joy of achieving – the joy of being able to plan out where we will go next – the joy of relaxing after our hard ‘labour’ – the joy of attending to all the little bits of tidying up to do afterwards!