Captain Compassion and Legless Lovey

Guest Blogger: Captain Compassion.

Last week while paddling around on my Stand-up-Paddle-Board in the Moruya River, I saw a disabled man in a Walker Bay Dinghy. He was very low in the dinghy with his head and shoulders appearing just above the transom. It seemed obvious to me that he had no legs. This image was made even more convincing because also in the dinghy was a woman with a fluffy hairdo, who appeared of normal height and was shouting commands at the poor legless man.

At home I spoke with my lovely wife, a nurse, about the physical help required for the disabled man to enjoy the simple pleasures of getting around on the water. It also made me think how lucky we both were to have our health and legs.

A few days later while paddling around the river, I noticed a South Coast 36 yacht anchored across from my real sailing vessel "Dare to Dream". As a fellow yachtie I decided to go over and introduce myself. Glenn was sitting in the cockpit, chatting away to me when the wind suddenly changed direction. To my surprise a Walker Bay dinghy drifted around the starboard side of his boat. Almost at the same time a fluffy haired Jen appeared on deck. I tried not to look into the depths of the cockpit, to see if Glenn had any legs. Curiosity eventually won the day, and to my surprise and relief he was sporting two well turned legs and ten pink wiggly toes.

We invited Jen & Glenn over for drinks on Friday night, and I then proceeded to get Glenn really legless. But that's another story.

If you would like to help disabled persons enjoy sailing please go to the following link:

http://www.sailability.org/au/australia/

Fair Winds

Captain Compassion.

Pics: A 'real sailing vessel' "Dare to Dream" at Wollongong Harbour, and a squat Glenn in the Walker Bay dinghy.

In Bermagui.

We left Moruya this morning Australia Day. No wind so we had to motor down to Bermagui. On the way we had a fantastic stopover at Montague Island, this is a must do!

We could not believe the colour of the water, see pic. Camera cannot do the colour justice.
Also dropped in on a fur seal colony. Gee fur seals have a unique odour. (Jen says a blokey stench)

Bermagui is a working fishing port with great facilities for visiting yachties with friendly staff and fishermen. Great new buildings with a Cafe, restaurant, wine bar, fish and chip shop and most importantly clean showers, all for $20 per night. We will stay here until the wind returns from the north. Friday or Sat.

We will miss Moruya and look forward to a return visit, on our way back.

Jen receives 2 marriage proposals!!

Sunday afternoon, when I was relaxing on deck with a coffee, 2 fellow yachtsmen paddled over to have a quite chat with me. I immediately offered them coffees, but their attention was drawn elsewhere?

You see the reason for their unannounced visits was to ask if they could marry Jen.

Why I asked?

Well apparently they had been observing Jen washing and polishing the hull of "Crazy Lady" for the last 3 hours, while I relaxed on deck.

Ahh, its a tough life.

Glenn

The Irish BBQ.

Ask yourself what do you think are the major contributions that the Irish have made to Australian culture? Did you answer: a distain for the monarchy, religion, guiness, Irish jokes, river dance concerts, Van Morrison, Enya, Jim Owen, St Patricks Day, Father Ted, Irish backpackers, gift of the blarney, leprechauns or potatoes? All answers are good, but misguided.

Before this weekend Jen & I would have answered any of the above, but now we have had the pleasure to experience a traditional Irish BBQ. You may be wondering whats so special about this BBQ.

To start with this BBQ comes in a large flat cardboard box. This was carefully opened by the Irish BBQ Master, to reveal a foil tray 40 x 80 cms, extremely generous sizing for the task at hand, a wire grate and a small white paper bag which rattled. The next essential element was a southerly buster, gusting up to 75klms.

We then observed the lighting ceremony, which involved the construction of a pizza box size windproof 3 sided shelter, a faulty cigarette lighter and a small fire resistant wick of paper. After witnessing this important ritual, the ignorant Aussie (Glenn) naively offered to speed up the ignition process by utilizing petrol from a nearby discarded "demon possessed" outboard motor. The offer was declined as a flame miraculously appeared.

This was only the beginning.

We watched in reverent wonderment, as the white paper bag burst into flames to reveal several small black crunchy stones. One stone began to smoke. Great cheers of merriment erupted from the assembly. It was explained that cooking could not begin until all stones had turned to grey. As the chosen stone turned the required colour, our stomachs began to rumble in anticipation.

Several hours later the cooking process began, when some other black stones obligingly turned the required colour. More cheering from the hungry crowd. The food was then carefully arranged on the grate; a delicate selection of international sausages.

Time passed slowly.

We were then privileged to observe a natural phenomenon. While one sausage turned a gentle golden brown, the 15 others migrated around it to share the warmth. The presiding Irish master of BBQ's selected twigs of a certain size and shape, to turn the resistant cold sausages. At this stage 3 live specimens jumped off the BBQ preferring to lie in the dust, rather than wait any longer. They were quickly herded back on to the not so raging inferno to suffer a slow and painfully boring death.

Time ticked by.

To our amazement, before we knew it all the snags were perfectly cooked. It didn't take more than a few seconds for them to be devoured, with tasty turkish bread, mustard and condiments.

After all food was consumed, the tray and all its contents spontaneously combusted, presenting another challenge for BBQ master. When we last saw him he was waist deep in the cleansing waters of the Moruya river, tray in hand and geyser like steam rising from his shorts.

So ends our fable of how the Irish BBQ became popular in Australian culture.

Happy Australia Day 2010.

Thanks Dave & Gertie, we had the best time and the food was delicious.

Pic: Glenn & spot the Irish BBQ.

Dinghy MANoeuvres

OK. So I admit have been a bit casual in taking my turn at skippering the dinghy.

I decided that the time had come to regain the skills I used with the previous run about, an inflatable. (and easy to balance toy) This new (to us) hard plastic dinghy is our work horse and we use it often. Glenn just sort of fits very nicely in the drivers seat next to the outboard.

The calm aqua waters of Moruya Bay seemed to be the perfect learning area.
What I hadn't counted upon was the importance of passengers being strategically placed equally in both weight and seating configuration, AND the fact that Glenn just loves action and just can't sit still.

The steering seemed strangely erratic as I carefully concerntrated on the job at hand, watching for all of the small splashy waves and ripples. It just didn't make sense to me that the course could change dramatically for no apparent reason. The trip was from the town wharf back to the entrance of the river and I was growing increasingly dispondent at my futile attempts to master such a simple task.

Glenn kept offering incredibly obvious and useless hints to assist me. In frustration I glared at him and noticed the bleeding obvious. Everytime he turned around to advise me or leaned over to enjoy the water (continuously) he was actually steering the boat with his well endowed posterior: HIS BUM!!! When I pointed this out to him he took offence and stood up and waved
his arms towards our destination. Yes the temptation was very real at that moment to make a sharp turn to port side but I used my self control and firmly asked him to stay still. Begrudgingly he did.

Not being one to take blame to heart, the ever cheeky and resourceful Glenn has since taken to experimenting with many different possible ways of steering hands free. My favourite so far is the "Cleopatra" pose. I spied him doing this one in a quiet backwater while I was on deck using the binoculars. He had a side lounging pose stretching over the top of all three seats with his right leg delicately extended and his well articulated toes holding onto the tiller. That's the kind of guy Glenn is! (pray for me)

This kind of thing happens every day.

Bye for now
When the tides and the weather align favourably we'll be off to Bermagui.

Love to all
Jen

We love Moruya! Will we ever leave?

Moruya River is a hidden gem. Crystal clear emerald water , great surf spots, fantastic protected anchorage with great views and right on the beach,(check our where we are) friendly and helpful locals, lovely country town a 1/2 hour dinghy ride away.

We are having a great relaxing time here, can you guess that? The funny thing is we only lived about a 50 minute drive from this cruising sailors paradise, and it is only a 3 - 4 hour sail from Batemans Bay where our boat was moored. We wished we had discovered it earlier.

Like I said we are having fun down here, made some new friends. Martin & Karen from "Dare to Dream" a 38ft fibreglass cat. They know people that know us through the coxwains course, oh you mean the "Crazy Lady" from "Crazy Lady" was heard.

Jen and I have been having cooking competitions, with Glenn's hot bread, Jen's muffin madness, pork roasts, green garden salads, BBQ chops, mustard and lime chicken, and lots of drinking of Barefoot Radler and freshly perculated coffee. Ah what a life! but someones gotta do it!

We were leaving Monday, but tide suits better for a Tuesday sail south to Bermagui.

ps: stay tuned for very funny but true stories of the Legless Lovey and the Demon Possessed outboard and the Irish BBQ.

Pics: View from anchorage and how's the colour of the water?

Glenn

New Feature.

While sitting in Moruya River, waiting to be hit by a thunderstorm. I have added a where we are map. If you click to enlarge the map, it goes to google maps where you can see it in larger detail and satellite view. (pic view)

If you look at all the pins it also tells you where we have been. Click on the pins for what happened.

Cheers,

Glenn