Schooner Maggie B in Hobart, April 2

The Schooner Maggie B continues to be (mostly) docked at Elizabeth Street Wharf in Hobart, Tasmania. I say “mostly” because we had a real scare today. I was wandering down the dock to get a parking permit for our rental car when two boatie friends came running down towards the Maggie B to with the dread word “tsunami” on their lips. A major earthquake had sparked all sorts of alarms and Queensland in the north of Australia was expecting a surge. Hobart is much further away and well protected, but we were untied and heading out to sea in less than sixty seconds. The time of expected arrival came and went without anything and we returned to our same spot. The rental car got a parking ticket — maybe with the excuse of tsunami evacuation, I’ll get off?

While we were at sea we watched a lovely little proa get underway for the long trip to New Zealand (photos soon on the web site). We had met the crew of two adventurers, and are a bit appalled about their trip. The Australian Coast Guard is appalled also, as the last people who tried it disappeared at sea. They were given a formal warning, and told that if a rescue should become necessary, that the crew, or their families, will bear all costs.

Boat work is now beginning in earnest. One of our bilge pump problems was solved with the surprising discovery that a little cover on the float switch had come off, which made the pump inoperative. Hose pieces that are being extended are cleverly designed to be just a tiny bit too small to fit together. Must be a metric/English fight.

Our main steering compass is now somewhere in the Australian Postal system, going to New South Wales to be assessed to estimate repair/replace options, then the Canadian Danforth dealer who sold it will be contacted and decide what to do, then it will be shipped to Sydney for repair. Who knows how many months it will take. Compasses are adjusted to five different zones in the world for “dip,” which is the impact of being more north or south. New Danforth compasses are self-correcting, but of course ours, even though it is the top of the line, is not. In any case, it appears to have come off the pin it rotates on.

Australians take Easter very seriously. Not necessarily religiously, though. They get Good Friday off from work, plus Easter Monday AND Easter Tuesday. We may head out to find lovely little coves, but there is also supposed to be a series of great bands coming to town. Decisions, decisions.

Over the weekend I drove up to Launceston, on the North side of Tasmania. Going up on the main highway was interesting, mostly to see how degraded the countryside was, with most all trees cut down and then most all the pastures being “sheeped,” which takes up everything else. Coming back I took a scenic highway through a lake district which was much more lovely. I’m glad that I wasn’t on the road at night because the amount of roadkill was horrific, with the carrion crows seeming to be the big victors. It seemed that there was easily one relatively recent kill every kilometer. Even though it was daytime, I had two wallabies make a fair effort to see if they could dive under the car (I was able to stop in time).

All is well.