On the way to Adelaide I managed to succumb to the worst eye
infection I have ever had in my life. It was a killer and left me lying in my
darkened cabin for days on end until the pain started to subside. Due to this, and
a hospital appointment in Adelaide I had to leave the ship for a week and JST
managed to find a replacement 2nd engineer at the last moment.
Annoyingly I had started to feel a lot better but I still had to take the week
off to wean myself off codeine and have my follow- up hospital appointment.
I was extremely lucky to be taken in by the
family of one of the voyage crew who couldn’t have been more wonderful to me.
The big bonus was that I was able to go to the local Cathedral with them and
walk their beautiful dog “Archie”. Archie and I had one very eventful walk when
we met another dog and his pet human walking the other way on a path through a
field. The human stopped and held the dog in the middle of the path as it
started growling at Archie. In order to pass the dog Archie and I had to walk
up on the verge. In trying to do this and hold Archie away from the growling
dog I managed to trip over my own feet and then had to stand for a few seconds
on the verge to regain my balance. It was literally only a few seconds but
suddenly I felt like my legs were on fire and I looked down to see an army of
giant fire ants (the big ones with the red heads) crawling all over my feet and
legs up to my knees!!! I started doing the “dance of the seven army surplus blankets”
trying to get away from the nest and the dog and get some of the ants off at
the same time. I through myself on the ground and to allow myself to swipe at
the ants and the human started trying to make conversation with me….Stupid
human. Archie, however, was staring at me as if to say “Seriously? ….I don’t
know you and I’m not with you.”
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| Animals I met at Adelaide Wildlife Park |
I also managed to do a bit of touristy stuff…..I cuddled a Koala
and fed kangaroos in the nearby wildlife park and enjoyed the local museum. I
then caught a cheap flight to Melbourne to stay in the youth hostel and await
the arrival of the SV Lord Nelson.
Melbourne is a beautiful city full of
character. The set-up for tourists is really good and there are lots to see and
do including a really great aquarium (…well, with my background in shark
research and love of all things “shark”…I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see them
now could I?!) I had a lovely evening run along the Torren river
although my two weeks off and general lack of running due to ship voyages has
slowed me down (again)...I’m going to die in the Sahara . (
www.justgiving.co.uk/Tam-at-sea).
 |
It was great to re-join the ship,
which has become my extended family and get stuck back into the engineering
jobs for a couple of days of maintenance. We did a day sail across the bay for
some employees from a local company who had donated a lot of money to JST over
the years along with other locals. Day sails are very different from full
voyages and start early for the permanent crew as we have to have breakfast and
prepare the ship before the voyage crew arrive. I ended up spending most of the
morning up on the bridge controlling the engines and teaching voyage crew how
to steer the ship! After a morning of rain and cold, the day brightened up and we
ended up having a great sail, saluting the local ship SV Young Endeavour on the way round the bay.
| Lord Nelson at Williamstown (near Melbourne) |
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