Port Macquarie - New Year's day 2015

Thursday 1st January 2015 - a Time for Reflection

This is how Fete & I saw in New Year's here in this beautiful part of the world, Port Macquarie. As you can see from the video above, the township gathered right in front of where we are moored to enjoy the delights and festivities of the evening in the Westport Parklands here on the Hastings River. 

With the recent passing of my 95 year old mother Mary Eileen (Fats) Macdonald, I had a chance to catch up with my brothers Greg and Mick (aka Slim), above left and with my daughter Kristian (above right) and with some life long friends Sheree, Wayne (Ralph) & Julie Thompson and Clarie (The Lump) Chappell - the other 2 in the pic below are Slim and Kristian at Fats wake. It would be remiss of me to leave out friends and relatives like my niece Peta Fitzgibbon, Tim (O'Toole) Holmes & (Ugly) Dave Geddy and others but I don't wish to dwell on this subject as this past year has just flown and I am keen to move forward.

So as the sun rose over the horizon this morning, I decided to reflect on the past 12 months down here in Port Macquarie and let you know what the region offers but also to let you know of my thoughts and plans with Fete for the future. I won't apologize if this blog is a little indulgent, but due to the circumstances, I needed to get it out of my system.

Tacking Point Lighthouse, Port Macquarie  

So, last year we saw some spectacular 

Sunrises & Sunsets...

The top right, center and bottom pics I took from the stern looking across the Hastings River and over Sails Resort to the western sky. . . 

We met many new friends . . .

From top right: Rob & Chris, Nicole & Jess at the launch of our last stage at Sovereign Hills, Mal Fairweather -  Engineer/naval architect , Rob & Dancha Tucker off mv Destiny, Jonathan Peebles and Warwick Wells (his helper on sv Blackjack, Scottie the magician who spent 5 minutes on my refrigeration and fixed what 4 others couldn't, and there are others that gather the 1st Friday night of every month for a marina get together like Bill & Pam Oliver, Rick and Marie, Sparra, Bob, Sharon and her 2 girls, Jonathan Peebles partner Hilary ,Marie Lamb & Scotties Lady, Annie.

All of these people made me feel at home from the time I arrived and I am grateful for their friendship.

Found some New

Recipes

Recipes From Left: Spaghetti Bosciaola, Centre: Saltimbocca Chicken & on the Right: Spanish Hola Chicken.

 Had some interesting

dinner guests drop by

but at least one bought her own food

Experienced some 

interesting 

Weather

Shared some great moments with my Family 

 Family shot at my mothers 95th Birthday in May at Easts Leagues Club in Brisbane. Family Shot at left and my mother (Fats) on the left with her 93 yo sister Trixie on the right.

Watched a World Record being weighed at the gantry here in Port

This beautiful Blue Marlin was speared from a spear gun by a Free Diving angler 3 klms off Port Macquarie and weighed 220.06lbs. An amazing feat but you wouldn't get me doing something like that.
Having done a bit of game fishing in my time, it would have been a "Hell of a Ride" - those who know will understand.

Experienced one of the coldest winters I have 

been thru

 in the last 7 years or so . . .

Some mornings on Fete the temp gauge was showing -0.8, -0.5, -1.3 & - 2.1 and as you can see from the outfit at right I was even wearing gloves. But what you can't see is that I had my thermals on as well.

Watched in amazement the happenings in the Port Marina's Hard Stand.

The vessel above is Prego, Craig Gores old boat

before it burnt to the waterline . . . and the boat on the right is the original Ragamuffin, now called Spirit of Koomooloo.

The interesting thing about this is the fact that there is no travel lift here in Port so everything is done by crane. The crane above is a 250 tonne unit as Prego weighs 50 tonne but there are smaller cranes available for  vessels the size of Fete. This is an added cost on top of the normal annual haul out fees so I would suggest that anyone looking to take their boat out, do it before you come to Port.

And the reason Koomooloo was here was that she had a False hull attached to her for some races over in the USA and she needed it taken off before this years Sydney To Hobart. As you can see from the above pic, the scar where her false hull had been removed.

My fascination with Boats grew even stronger . . .

Here is the beautiful sv Nautilus, owned by Steve & Maureen. This magnificent vessel was built in 1927 and the restoration continues nearly every weekend.

So as the sun rose over Port Macquarie (Pic taken from Fete's bow) on New Year's Day 2015 I had made the decision to complete my contract here with the Lewis Land Group in 2016 and finally make that trip back into the Pacific. 

This year will be fairly hectic with work and the new stages coming on line, as well as getting Fete ready for the trip back to the Gold Coast in early 2016, prior to heading out to New Caledonia in the 2nd quarter of 2016.

So here's Cheers from me, Fete and one of my Buddies for the coming year and to the words of Mark Twain:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. sail away from a safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails, Explore, Dream & Discover . . ."

.

So until next time...