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American Bay, Engine Work & Rock Climbing. Friday, January 11, 2019

11 January 2019 | American Bay, NSW, Australia
Helen & Mark
Mark watched some Horatio Hornblower while I did some reading. Then we watched two episodes of Justified. It was after 11 when we got to bed. The wind had settled. We had some light rain thru the evening. Slept okay. Got out of bed around 7. Several of the boats around us were gone. Mark wanted us to drop our mooring ball and head over to American Bay, next door, and pick up one of the two courtesy mooring balls over there. I really didn't think there would be any available, but I was wrong. Picked up another courtesy mooring ball, which are free. There really is no good wifi over here either. Mark started working on both engines which took most of the morning. One side has a small diesel leak while the other has a small oil leak. He ran the engine in-between as a test. No more leaks. Yeah! I cleaned up the kitchen. Then decided to fill a 5-gallon pail with water and clothes detergent to wash some clothes. Not sure when we will be somewhere where we can do laundry. It was very sunny and hot thru the day. Not much of a breeze. Made a nice hot lunch for us. We ate out in the cockpit. That is a first in a very long time. After lunch, we both took a nap. It was hot and not much air blowing. We had our cabin fans going. Something woke me and I went out to check. Wanted to see if more of the laundry was dry. Ended up taking a lot of it inside. Waited for Mark to wake up. The wind picked up and it sure felt like rain was coming. Once Mark woke up, we took a shower. It was much cooler with the breeze. The water was scorching me, so Mark added some cold water to the sun shower bag. Decided to take the dinghy for a ride. Went to the end of American Bay. We could see the water trickling down but it's set farther from shore and hard to see. Then Mark pulled the dinghy to shore as the tide was down and there was a small strip of sand. Walked over the rocks and stopped at one of the big creations so I could do a connection. I could see a lot of natives that lived in that area. They were on the beach with their torches going as they performed their native dances and ceremonies. Most interesting. We headed back to the dinghy and pulled it back into the water, so we could get on it. We were both wearing jackets as the breeze was cold on the water. We headed back to Refuge Bay. We said we should have waited to shower and could have used the waterfalls for that. Apparently, other boats had the same idea. The tide was low enough to expose a good sized sandy beach. We pulled our dinghy up and walked up the rocks towards the falls. I was able to wash off my feet from the sand and salt water. Then Mark spotted a plaque from 1943 with a navy ship that left from Rescue Bay and headed to Singapore to fight the Japanese. It was one of the most successful and daring raids in WWII. Then Mark wanted to try climbing up the rock path and maybe get up above the falls. We walked a long way and eventually gave up with the rock wall was too high to get around. It was much more difficult on the way down. It's a not a good thing we wore our flip flops for the climb. We made it to the sandy beach without slipping or falling, which was huge. Took lots of pictures My phone is complaining that I am out of storage space. Will have to download the pictures to our backup thumb drives. We were both sweating. Could have used another shower under the falls. By this time, we could hear a lady screaming with the cold water from the falls, that she was using to take a shower. Lots of people on the beach. Talked to Gary who owned a large power boat. He said years ago he was able to climb up to the top reasonably fast but not sure if that same path exists today. We launched the dinghy in shallow water and then motored back to the boat. There were many more boats coming in. Several of the moorings around us were taken. Helped Mark hoist the dinghy into the davits so we can allow it to dry overnight. Salon temp is 79 degrees. It's overcast but so far, no rain. It's Friday evening here, so many more boats are coming to join us. Mark will be using Sailmail with our marina SSB to upload the blog tonight. We don't have any wifi connections this evening. That could change after it gets dark. At least we got to see the sun today. Not sure if we will try to find another anchorage tomorrow as this one has been very flat with almost no wake. We are enjoying a Stan Rogers CD with tonight's happy hour. Thanks to Pat & Joe from PCYC that introduced us to his music. Thanks for your emails and messages. Will answer them when I get enough of a connection.
Comments
Vessel Name: Charabia
Vessel Make/Model: Fountaine Pajot / Athena
Hailing Port: Jacksonville, FL
Crew: Mark &Helen
About:
We are both computer folks that were live aboard cruisers back in the 90s. We settled in Jacksonville Florida after escaping the great white north and cruising the Bahamas, T&C, DR and points south down to Trinidad. [...]
Extra: Charabia is a French slang word for nonsense or gibberish. It derives from Arabic "sharab" which means alcohol.When you drink (too much) alcohol, you start talking Charabia. The original owners named her and Mark liked the name so it stuck.
Charabia's Photos - Main
Photos 1 to 20 of 20
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Nov 2017 trip south from Jacksonville
9 Photos
Created 23 August 2018
Upgrades and maintenance to Charabia
79 Photos
Created 27 June 2017
72 Photos
Created 16 May 2015
46 Photos
Created 15 May 2015
72 Photos
Created 7 April 2015
95 Photos
Created 4 April 2015
106 Photos
Created 31 March 2015
Get the boat ready to cruise.
10 Photos
Created 14 March 2015