Today started out as a struggle.
For the last few nights Sancho has been up with an upset stomach causing him to get up every hour to throw up.
Since he sleeps on our bed, that means we’ve been getting up to clean up after him – just what you need at 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock in the morning.
The result was that Danita and I were in a semi-comatose state for the beginning of the day.
I had committed to helping a neighbour get their internet working and there was a special day at the local plant nursery which we wanted to get to.
That was followed by an afternoon sailing trip on a local treasure.
The day then wrapped up with delivering gifts to (sort of) local people for the upcoming Jewish festival of Purim.
Danita and I (Danita especially) do not function very well on little or no sleep.
So, the prospect of going sailing today wasn’t high on our list of desirable activities.
However, we’d made the booking and paid and so we were committed to going.
One thing we have noticed is that those times when we really don’t feel like doing something but force ourselves to do it are the times when we have the best experiences.
So it was today.
Danita and I have done a bit of sailing and it’s something we both enjoy.
However, when you’re on a sailing boat and you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the experience with other people doing all the hard lifting and pulling life is pretty good.
Our usual sailing experiences involved us operating winches, hoisting sails and generally working pretty hard.
So, this one was a lot of fun.
The ship was also quite fascinating.
It’s the Julie Burgess – purpose built in 1936 for the crayfish trade, it had a large pit in the centre which was filled with sea water to keep up to 10,000 crayfish alive until they could reach the lucrative Melbourne market.
It’s a ketch ie has two masts, with very little modern technology.
Today it has been restored and renovated so the hole used for carrying crayfish has been turned into a kitchen and bunk area.
It’s a beautiful boat and once the sails are up (a huge job which I thoroughly enjoyed watching other people carry out) you get a real experience of life at sea in the days when sail boats were actually used for work, not just expensive racing and cruising.
Modern sailing is often compared to “standing under the shower, fully clothed, tearing up $50 notes”.
When you look at most modern sail boats that’s pretty true – did you see the featured boats in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race?
But when you’re on board a truly historic boat like the Julie Burgess it’s a very different experience.
No electric winches here and everything is big and heavy.
The people who sailed these ships must have have incredible strength and stamina.
Following our sailing experience and lunch of cheese and crackers, (who said we aren’t on a healthy diet?) we spent the next 4 hours delivering gifts from the rabbi in Launceston to some people around the region.
These were in honour of the Jewish festival of Purim which is this Sunday.
We now have a whole new group of friends – they are all lovely people who we’re looking forward to building long term relationships with.
All-in-all it’s been a perfect day, and an exhausting one, but those often go hand-in-hand.