When last I wrote it was about our fabulous few days at Maggie over Easter, we had then just gotten back to the lodge and were settling down for a couple of weeks work looking forward to the next break. Well the couple of weeks turned in three, four and before long it was eight weeks later and we had worked non stop. It wasn’t as bad as it seemed as I managed to get away a couple of times a week in the early morning to walk up Castle Hill and Craig joined a local gym where he enjoyed lifting heavy things repeatedly.
During this period we chatted about the future and what we wanted to do. Our two options was obviously stay longer or leave and go up to Cairns and chance our luck up there looking for work. We decided to send the managers of the lodge a proposal asking for a slight increase in pay and we would guarantee to stay on until at least December. They thought about it for a few days and came back that at this stage they weren’t able to do that which we completely understood and therefore we decided to put in our resignation, 6 more weeks and we would set sail for Cairns.
Soon after receiving our email the boss let us know that she was coming up to have a chat and also give us a few days off, we weren’t about to complain as it would be a great opportunity to start getting the boat ready for our trip up north. The boss arrived and as we were leaving the lodge she said they had decided to grant our request and would be able to give us the pay increase. Realising we had already set our hearts on leaving she agreed to let us think it over while we were having our break.
The next couple of days we discussed the pros and cons of staying versus leaving. In the end we decided that we would stay on in Townsville and commit ourselves until December. The main factors that swayed our decision was 1: more money is never a bad thing. 2: the best time to sail to Indonesia from Australia is June/July meaning we had missed our window this year. 3: did I mention more money!
So that is where we are right now, currently relaxing on REAO for a couple of more days.
The last couple of days we were able to borrow the marinas ute which enabled us to drive around and go shopping for boat ‘stuff’. A couple of posturepedic mattresses that we found still in their plastic covers at a Salvo store. We had priced them at a bedding shop and then found these ones for half the price and unused – an excellent find meaning we get a better nights sleep, always a good thing! We got some nicer looking accessories for the toilet and bathroom replacing the ugly plastic yellow ones that had come with the boat. New anchor and chain for the dinghy, coffee perculator, fluffy blankets as we are currently in winter and the nights have noticeably gotten colder meaning we are unable to just sleep under a sheet at the moment and some other bits and pieces that we have wanted/needed.
The day before we came back out to the boat we had received a call from the Marina asking whether Craig had taken the dinghy out at 3am that morning. When we said it hadn’t been him they told us that the dinghy had been taken but had been returned. There had been some thefts reported and it turns out a local scallywag (for use of a worst word) had decided to take our dinghy (he managed to force the lock chaining it to the marina) and then had scooted around various boats, taking things off decks and cutting fuel lines to steal fuel. They got footage of him returning the dinghy to the marina and stealing a trolly to wheel away his ill-gotten loot. The police were duly called in and Craig had to fill in a police report though we couldn’t say the dinghy had been stolen as it had been returned. Not sure what has happened to the guy but in the end we were happy that for us all that had happened was our poor little dinghy was used in a small crime spree by a very naughty man.
So that’s it for now, in a couple of days it will be back to the lodge until our next break. We do miss living on the water however realise that the more we can save now means the longer we can sail around Indonesia in the future.
