Popemobile Living
14 November 2017 | Blackwattle Bay, Sydney
Did you ever see E.T.?
Remember the bit, towards the end, when Elliot and E.T. are side by side in clear plastic isolation tents?
Well, that's us.
Maybe after another season in the tropics we've gone soft or something but our "clears" are almost a permanent fixture now. Years ago, you wouldn't have seen me dead in a boat with roller reefing let alone a bimini. Now look at us, tucked up in a cube of plastic both at sea and at anchor.
But then, there's something weird about the weather here Down Under.
The sun will burn the skin off you in half an hour and dermatologists do a roaring trade, but there's a chill in the breeze. Step into shadow and you can feel it. During the day that's just grand. A pleasant cooling draft. At night, after dusk, sitting in the cockpit it would freeze the balls off a brass monkey*.
Not yet the "Sizzling, Summer, Christmas" that's being advertised, an oxymoron if ever you heard one, but in the interests of keeping our Blog readers well informed of the realities of the cruising lifestyle we'll continue to tough it out on your behalf and report back.
Meanwhile, its brekkie time in our oxygen tent, Sydney rising above us.
Pretty cool.
*Time Bandit Trivia
In days of old, His Majesty's fleet would form a pyramid of cannon balls beside each gun, stacked on a triangle form made of brass. Just like the triangle used to set snooker balls.
When it got really cold, the brass would contract faster than the cannon balls which would then fall off. Hence the expression.