Oban was as gorgeous as ever and it was fabulous to see SKY when in towns/ cities again - I hadn't realised just how forboding the pressure of all the skyscrapers in HK is. I mean, I kept being surprised to see sky when I looked up, and short INTERESTING buidings that were not just made out of glass and metal! Lovely.......
Gull, Turret & iron-work roof, on ornate building, Oban, Scotland
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
And then there is the delight of recognising plants and stuff (or at least knowing the family/ knwoing I SHOULD know them after teachng/ studying about them for years), that are the proper greens to me......
And how cool is frost? I miss winter!
But having only stopped overnight to collect a few jumpers etc at the farm, I didn't have any hiking boots (think I ceremoniously chucked my knackered leaking pair when I quit SWT last year) so had to stick to roads, really, and avoid the hills. Still, roads here are lovely, far cleaner than in Hk.and you can SEE the tarmac between the cars! I kept spotting pigeons & seagulls, both now a bit unusual to me.
Pigeon contemplating suicidal leap, Loch Etive from Connel Bridge, Scotland
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Pete had arrived in HK (with boat & Tim) whilst I was up with granny in Connel, just in time for the Chinese New Year hoildays. Sounds as if their trip was fairly un-eventful, apart from a massive tuna that stayed with them, catching the flying fish they scared up, for a while. And Pete getting seasick and the new pills making him sleep all the time (poor Tim!). Oh, and a giant super-container ship that started altering its course to circle them as they neared Hong kong that scared the pants off them (Pete thinks the crew were arguing about which way Taiwan was). He says he may write about it himself at some point! Anyway, Tim headed back to GB as soon as he could, so he made it home for Valentines!
Luckily (maybe) for me, as the entire island stops work for a week, there was no-one in Pete's centre and nothing to do in the office, so he actually DID go and finish packing up our flat. Well, what he calls packing. He stuffed everything into whatever he found and dumped it in the starboard hull. He must have been really bored - all that lugging it down the steps and onto Pingu and over to the Shiralee....
She is moored in the channel between Middle Island and Hong Kong - a very narrow bit of water you could swim accross if it weren't for the hordes of beginner sailors and souped-up speed boats breaking the rules flying past towing wake-boarders (what we used to call hydrasliding)at weekends. I can see her as I sit here typing in Petes office, set against the nice flat tree-and-flower lined promenade which stretches from Deep Water bay to the north, past us to Repluse Bay in the south. All the incredibly posh & expensive 'flats' (I have now done kids parties in 3 of them and they have works of art in their sitting rooms bigger than our 30 foot sails)have to look down at her/ us. It's actually a lovely place to sit out on deck and watch the sunset, but bad weather/ lack of wind (means mozzies come out to bite) so far has stopped us doing that! Apart from the buzz of the motor-boat (tiny open ferry) that takes members over to petes club or their boats, not much breaks the silence. Oh, there are annoying birds though! I'm not sure what wound Pete up more, the bunch scrabbling around above our heads the morning after I arrived, the ones that poed on the hull or the loud screamer one in the trees on land.
We have the hills of the almost-island that is Ocean park to the north of us, which we can see out of the main hatch at our back end. Theres a giant hot air balloon (tethered) that goes up & down all day from it now, but the cable-car seems to be continuous. To our right (east) is the promenade on Hong Kong, which only has joggers, posh mums with pushachairs and hordes of Philippina servants walking their owners dogs using it.
Me getting up for breakfast from the port (loo/ storeage) hull. Moored at Middle Island. HK's coast south towards Repulse Bay behind me.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
There are fabulous trees - I must find out hat they are - with huge doubble leaves (nearly all fallen off now) and big almost rhodedendron-crossed-with-lily flowers, that from a distance look like fruit blossom. Its really pretty, and at night is all lit up.
To our left (west) is Middle Island; we are moored to far north to look directly onto Petes club but we can see the only other habitation on that bit which is a mini-club for Aberdeen yacht club. To the south of us (not seen unless on deck/ head out of bed hatch) is the narrow opening between Middle Island & Hk which leads into Repulse bay. So all in its very un-Hong Kong. Mostly I wake up either because Pete shut the bed-hatch (above our heads so we get rained/ blown on if open) and its stuffy, or that darn bird is screaming, or the wind has got up. If we haven't tied off our wind generator that means it starts roaring round; if we have, all the rigging around us starts chiming against other bits and masts etc. It sounds really like the end of the Ski-Sunday slalom races, when all th spectators ring cow bells - has confused me several times!
Pete getting up for breakfast/ work - looking north to Ocean Park's cable cars from our catamaran!
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
I'm slowly emptying out cupboards of stuff we won't need/ can replace. Mainly things have gone rusty - I don't know how long Jason had kept things but washing in sea-water didn't help them. And most of the food that wasn't labelled (mystery tins) or had become infested with assorted bugs(airtight containers of rice, flour etc) got chucked. I found a whole set of mini hatches under the 'sitting room' floor (where the benches are). Pete has replaced the loo's holding tank pump (I KNEW it wasn't right when we were in the Philippines) and once the air clears in that hull I will start sorting that side too. We mainly stick to the starboard side.
View into the starboard hull, taken from cockpit on our catamaran! Pete making porridge.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
View into the starboard hull, taken from cockpit on our catamaran! Pete making porridge.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
View into the starboard hull, taken from cockpit on our catamaran! Pete making porridge. With NO SALT, sorry all the Scottish family but we hate it salty!
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Its a bit like camping. The tiny mini sink & cooker are handy, and its nice to be able to talk to who-ever is cooking as you sit. The bed needs sorting though, I hate the layers of foam, they keep rucking up as we sleep. We are sleeping in the kitchen side (starboard) just now, waiting till we have sorted out the loo/ stuff in the other hull.
View along starboard hull, taken from bed on our catamaran! Pete having tea; hatch shut as is raining.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
The first Thursaday I was back, we went shopping. In the boat. Pete sailed us past his office and into Repluse Bay, then set off south round the headland to Stanley. I emptied the newly fixed loo with its new pump (hard work!) as soon as we got into the sea proper, which apparantly (attracted laods of fish.
Sailing south past Petes centre/ office on Middle Island to go grocery shopping at Stanley.
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
The bay at Stanley is much cleaner, so one he had anchored, Pete decided to run the water-maker. This has to e done every few days to keep it 'live', as so far he hasn't found the chemicals he needs to put it to 'sleep' for a while without destroying it. Anyway, I was sat on the bed watching as he crawled under the cockpit (beneath the kitchen steps) to start it all up. And saw what I thought was a big gecko come shooting out from where ete had gone, and race along the cupboards towards me. It wasn't until it reached eye-level I realised it was a massive spider of the extremely hairy and possibly nasty foriegn variety. So I whacked my head shooting out of the bed hatch onto the deck. Pete then whacked his head as I screamed so loud he thought we were getting run down or the anchor had slipped and we were hitting the rocks..........
Pete trying to float a huge big spider away from our boat in a milk carton life raft
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
It took him a while to catch it at which point we were stuck. I'm not into killing spiders (mainly as I hate the possibility of their vengeful ghosts coming back for me)but I refused to sit in a small rubber dinghy with a flimsy paper holding one into a bowl. So Pete decided we would put him in a life rsft to float to shore. He climbed into Pingu, who was tied behind the boat, and tried to free the spider ina large empty milk-carton end. The spider abandoned ship and RAN (I kid you not) over the slightly choppy surface of the water, and disappeared near our port end.
Pete trying to dislodge the big spider after it swam back AGAIN & climbed onboard
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
I freaked a bit, and Pete clinmbed back on board and then started searching the end of the boat. He finally found the stowaway snuggled inside the rudder, and spent a while getting him out. Papers, sticks, assorted utensils etc all failed but a bucket of water did the trick and washed him out. but he ran back again. Must have had a bit of UK raft spider in him I think. Still, 3rd time lucky and me keeping watch with things to douse him/ gflap him away worked (I HOPE - I lost sight!)and he floated off to shore. NOT the shore we were aiming for!
Pete making sure the big spider doesn't swim back AGAIN & climb back onboard
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Anyway we had lunch in a local cafe after parking the dinghy on a beach, collected a few bags of groceries, waded back to the dinghy, buzzed home to the boat in it, and set sail again.
Getting back to our boat after grocery shopping in Stanley, Hong Kong
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
Then Pete got to 'drive' home, beer in hand. I may actually get used to that - only way he'll ever help shop anyway!
Pete sailing/ steering home after grocery shopping in Stanley, Hong Kong (with beer)
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
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