Helen McCann and I first met in 1977 in Alice Springs and have been friends ever since. Now we have both moved on and Helen lives with her husband Bob Rhodes in their coastal cruiser "Narawi" (a Batjala word meaning "sea waves").The first photo shows them in their pen in the Harvey Bay marina dwarfing Little Dragon in the adjacent pen.
Helen and Bob had invited me and my crew Noella Yates to tie up alongside them and use their facilities, very generous.
The second photo shows Helen holding the most important member of their crew - Toby.
The last photo is of Narawi's bridge - how many people have a steering wheel between their armchairs? They really do have all mod cons on Narawi and they made us very welcome and comfortable.
Bob also helped me motor from the public jetty into the pen - something I had not done before. In fact he was such a good tutor that Noella and I managed it unaided a couple of days later.
Noella had managed to get a few days off work at short notice and she arrived by bus on the evening I arrived after the Dreaming Festival.
This was the first time that two of us have slept aboard Little Dragon. It is fairly close quarters but the bunks are comfortable (for a small yacht). I slept well - as usual. Noella didn't do so well, but she generously said that my "gentle" snoring was not the cause and I am pleased to report that she slept better on subsequent nights.
No comments:
Post a Comment