Monday, June 20, 2016

Darwin: sheered; lunched; petrified

      Eighteen knot early morning wind dropped to eleven knots at 11:00 a.m. and for the third day in a row my row was easy, if tedious.
I walked a short distance to a bus stop near the Sailing Club and rode the bus to the city center.  The distance is not far, but it is hot here and the buses are air-conditioned.  You pay $3.00 Australian/$2.25 U.S. for a ticket that is valid for rides for three hours.  Mine started at 11:51 a.m.
I rode in, went to a barber shop and was sheered.  I hadn’t had a hair cut since Carol cut mine before I left in early March.  My hair is a diminishing resource in which I take no pride or interest.  I told the genial biker barber to give me a 6,000 mile haircut and he did. 
I then had lunch of Vietnamese Pho, a beef and noodle soup; shopped at two grocery stores; and caught a bus outside the second at 2:14 back to the Sailing Club, well within my three hour limit.
I bought mostly lunches.  I have 76 lunches on GANNET:  20 tuna; 10 salmon; 24 chicken; 22 Laughing Cow Cheese; though not the crackers to go with them.
I also bought more trail mix.  You cannot have too much trail mix.
I now have my breakfasts, lunches and dinners on board, and most of my water.  There is still more to buy, but that is the basics.
Checking Windfinder Pro, I better get it done this week when the wind is forecast to continue light.  Next week it is shown to be 20+ knots.  I can’t get ashore in that.

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For several days there has been an odd and increasingly unpleasant odor in GANNET’s cockpit.  Today it was definitely fishy.  I started emptying the sheet bags and in the third I found the culprit, a six inch long flying fish, who with his dying leap made an unintentional basket.  He was as dry as a stone.  I have enough lunches, so I returned him to his former element.