Photo -- Coolest boobies in Lincoln :)

WEDNESDAY DEC 4th -
Left Thistle Island at 6am for Pt Lincoln but ran into a storm front.... 30 knot winds, lashing rain. Decided on Spalding Cove. Spent 4 hours trying to find an anchorage that would hold, trying at least 15 times to find enough sand in which to drop it. Trouble is, even when we found a tiny patch of sand, it didn't hold and it dragged and dragged all night. Sucked. Hate this place.

THURSDAY DEC 5th -
We left Spalding Cove with absolutely no misgivings. Perhaps in better weather it may have seemed nicer but in the howling gales that struck up all night and battered Venture hard enough to make her drag her anchor, it seemed like a watery bastard of a place. And apparently the cove is an absolute bird haven with amazing dawn and dusk choruses, but ne'er a bird was heard, adding to the disappointment of the place. We may try it again in nicer weather.

I was hoping that the trip to Port Lincoln would appease my unfavourable feelings but the wind was yet to show its good side and battered us with 30 knots and whipped up lofty seas yet again.

When we finally got to Lincoln, all I wanted was to get in to the mooring (which we managed to do at the second attempt) and have a shower. My hair had independently decided it wanted to channel Einstein, and it was actually doing a damn fine impression despite the fact that I had slathered it with all manner of anti-frizz goop over the past couple of days. The showers were to be had at the local swimming centre, which was just a couple of minutes away from the marina. They were a little run down and kind of grotty and the only privacy was a shower curtain but the water was hot and the shower head had a massage setting and I managed to temporarily wash Albert out of my hair ... luxury!!

I went back to the boat refreshed and thought we might plan a trip to the shops but after what has now become an almost normal part of the day... the Nana nap.... we decided against it. Tomorrow would be fine. Instead we wandered over to the Marina Hotel, which overlooked the berth that Venture was in, for a Dave's-birthday-tomorrow dinner. We ordered an entrée of wedges with cheese, bacon and spring onion, sour cream and chilli sauce. For mains I ordered seafood skewers on chilli cream linguine and he had a schnitzel. The trouble began when the wedges came out and it was a HUGE serving. We soon realised we'd made a big error in judgement.

TIP: if anyone ever eats at the Marina Hotel at Port Lincoln, the servings are massive. Do not have an entrée and a main or you'll end up feeling guilty about the amount you can't eat.

After our pathetic attempts to eat as much as we could, Dave wandered back to the boat and he gave me $10 for the pokies. About an hour later I also returned to the boat with $45, so that at least covered some of dinner. :)

FRIDAY DEC 6th - Dave's Birthday
We were planning on leaving for Reevesby Island in the afternoon and so it was decided that during the morning we really needed to make the trip to the nearest supermarket to replenish our stocks. No problem except that the nearest supermarket happened to be 4 kilometres away. Taxi there and back? No. Walk there and taxi back? No Take the fold up bikes and the day pack to carry everything back in? Yes. That should be fine... no problem... absolutely.

The ride there was a lot of uphill with some downhill and when we were about 3/4 of the way there I asked Dave if he'd remembered the bike locks. From the silence I sneakily discerned that the answer was no, and then when he said 'no' it confirmed my hunch so when the first shop we came across happened to be a Kmart it was seen as fortuitous.

With newly acquired bike locks in hand, we continued our quest to find Coles. We cut through through a carpark towards where we thought it would be and lo and behold, the golden arches showed us the way. Turning left at Maccas, there it was a mere few hundred metres away. With the bikes and helmets all safely chained up, we shopped.

The shopping itself is nothing newsworthy, except that we did stock up on much more than we'd bargained for. As much as possible was crammed into the daypack but that left two large plastic shopping bags full, and the question of how we were going to do transport it all. My bike has a little rack on the back but there was no way to tie the bags down and they contents would tip anyway. Four kilometres back to the marina and nowhere for the bags to go but on my handle bars. A chai latte and a chocolate doughnut were needed in order to think about our dilemma so we stopped at a conveniently nearby coffee shop. By the time I had spooned the last of the foam out of the cup, the decision was made.... we needed a bigger bag and some occy straps, so back to Kmart!

On the return to Kmart we happened to spot a Foodland and a further decision was made to purchase a couple of packets of totally delicious mixed nuts that we HAD to have and that I know are only available at Foodland. These were crammed into the already overflowing bags and we resumed the journey to Kmart (which was just through the same car park we'd cut through in the first place).

Dave looked after the stuff while I searched for a suitable bag and grabbed the occy straps but the only thing I could come up with was (and I know a lot of people are familiar with these) a very large, tough, fold-up woven plastic bag with a zip. It was 4 times bigger than we needed but I was hoping it would do the job. It did, admirably. The groceries were transferred to the large bag and strapped down to the tiny rack. It flowed over the sides and I had to ride with just my heels on the pedals but it totally worked. :D

The ride back was a little easier, with more downhill than up, but after a particularly down bit of downhill, and a heating up of the day I was desperate for a bottle of Coke. Luckily, about half way back there was a deli. So, coke in hand, I guzzled half the bottle before I realised I had absolutely nowhere to put it while I held the handlebars (which was essential, it's not too steady with one hand) and neither did Dave. Hmmmm... slight dilemma but being the genius that I am (do you remember the Einstein hair? Yeah... not just the hair kiddies!!) I shoved the bottle down the front of my top and it was held beautifully, and was really cooling all at the same time! The rest of the run was fairly easy I was back on the boat and stowing stuff by one thirty.

Within half an hour we had packed everything away and left the marina for Reevesby Island.

The cruise to the island, which took about 4 hours, was pretty ordinary except for one thing. About an hour out there was a movement on the water several hundred metres away, a wide, black rippling and frenetic flicker. It was only as we approached closer that it was seen to be a huge flock of birds that must have come across a school of fish. It was an amazing sight and even when we were well past, the ducking and diving frenzy continued.

We arrived at Reevesby by about 6pm and anchored to a still and quiet night and a glorious sunset.