DAY 17 – Monday the 11th
Kettering is about a 30 minutes drive from downtown Hobart and is the location of the car ferry transporting people and their vehicles across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Bruny Island.
Kettering is also where wonderful friends Greg and Judy and Frank & Jan live.
On Monday morning we dinked around at the marina doing maintenance on Nashira and trying to organise a car. I usually use Booking.com and have found them to be very reliable even on overseas trips. I can book a car in Aussie dollars and they have insurance etc already included so when you turn up to the dealership they hand you the keys, point to a car and say have a nice day.
Today was more difficult. I tried to book a car for 3 days which was straight forward but after entering Credit card details I got the message that this car was no longer available. Grrr…. So I tried again and got the same message. Double grrr…….
I decided to ring Booking.com directly to get help. The fellow on the line could see what I had tried to do and decided to give it a go on his end. Okay! Reservation accepted, and we have given you a discount for all of your trouble! all good! ………. NOT.
He said “hold the line something is weird”. He came back minutes later saying the booking and money has been taken but a reservation number has not come back. Asking if I minded holding again he disappeared for 5 minutes this time. On return he stated that he has the reservation guys trying to reach the car hire company so please be patient, he went away again.
This went on for 30 minutes. He mentioned that they didn’t have any cars, then if we were willing to pick up a car at 3pm they could get us an SUV that would cost more, then realising they had already taken my money they couldn’t really charge me more so FINALLY organised an SUV, with all insurances and reduced excess for the original cost of a tiny economical car. Now were talking. It only took a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes to organise but Booking.com did come through.
We went to the rental place early at 2pm and they had a Toyota Kluger ready and waiting to go for us. Sweet.
Off we drove to Kettering to meet up with Greg and Judy. They have lived in Kettering for over 21 years and sail every chance they get. The fact they never tire of sailing the Tasmanian coast has sparked our interest in spending more time down here.
Anna and Martyn friends from MHYC were heading for Bruny Island today so we suggested they meet us at Kettering Pub and with Greg and Judy’s permission we all headed up to their house.
We had a great afternoon talking and playing croquet on the backyard oval (these guys are ruthless experts in the game). We got to see Martyn’s competitive nature come out while Greg, Anna and Judy kicked our proverbial butts. It was the most fun you can have on the lawn while sipping Champagne and laughing. Judy then introduced us to a new game called Finksa (look it up!) That was also lots of fun until a torrential downpour had us running around picking up wooden stakes and running for shelter.
We really need to play some of these games at home. Hey, anyone at home have these games? If you do let us know and lets play!
Martyn and Anna headed off to Bruny Island for the night (good luck and enjoy!!) Judy packed them food for dinner. This ended up being such a help as it is a public holiday in Tasmania and no-one except Judy realised that everything was going to be closed on the Island.
Judy cooked Evan and I a divine dinner.. Almost everything in the meal was from the garden. They have gardens that would make most people envious. I could actually envision being a vegetarian if our vegies and fruits were this good at home.
Finally late, we made our way back to Nashira. We are so grateful having such amazing friends.
DAY 18 – Tuesday the 12th
Today we planned on catching the ferry and driving around Bruny Island but only made it as far as Kettering pub aka the Oyster Cove Inn! On the way to Kettering we called Frank and Jan, they’re meeting up with Bill and Helen (friends from MHYC) for lunch. Invited to join them we said YES for sure. We thought we could get a later ferry to Bruny Island.
The pub took our lunch order but in the confusion forgot us and a full hour later and many apologies they got to work making our lunch. They even brought us complimentary deserts for the trouble. Unfortunately Bruny Island has to be postponed for another day.
We spent the rest of the afternoon up at Frank and Jans’ place with Bill and Helen before looking at the neighbours property that is up for sale. Finally saying our goodbyes we head back to the marina to visit with Frank’s crew as Peter and Karen are flying back to the mainland tomorrow morning.
DAY 19 – Wednesday the 13th
Today is Domestic Goddess day, I did the food shopping in Moonah at the Woolworths when Evan rang asking if I could pick up Marine Sika (white) at the local Bunnings. He has been working on pulling off the headsail car track and cleaning all the bits getting ready for us to bog it up and hopefully get rid of a pesky leak that has been plaguing us. Water has been dripping into the kitchen and into my closet and the shelf next to my bed for a while. Particularly when the weather is nasty or we are running nose into the wind against the waves. We spent ages days ago with the hose on deck trying to find the leak and today we plan on stopping it.
So, food in the car, Sika purchased and on the front seat I head back to the marina. I found Evan perched in the cockpit having cleaned the last screw. Just in time to help.
I unloaded the food and we started on the rail. White Sika seems much nicer to work with than black. Perhaps I just don’t notice it getting all over things as much. With Sika globed onto each screw hole, Evan had to bend the rail and I put in the screws. He makes bending the rail seem easy. Done! Now we will find out in the next week or so if this leak is finally gone.
This afternoon we are meeting with Evan’s friends Brian and Mick and their families. But first we dropped into the car rental place to get our car return date extended for another day as tomorrow we are determined to go to Bruny Island, finally. This time with Frank and Michelle.
We met Evan’s friends at “the Grape”, an indoor/outdoor restaurant in Salamanca place for drinks and nibbles. The guys reminisced while the girls meeting for the first time chatted about life and interests.
Afterwards I gathered up all the remaining souls and drove them to the casino where they were staying. We had coffee, tea and lots of water while David gambled at the roulette table, it looks like he is actually coming out ahead!
Finally saying goodbye, we promised to meet up again soon. No more waiting for funerals or decades to go by.
Heading home for a good night sleep and the promise of Bruny Island tomorrow.