Nup - for those of you I haven't been in contact with in months - I didn't sail off the edge of the world, I just came home at xmas.
I was ready to sail from Phuket all the way to the Mediterannean on a beautiful wooden gaff rigg replica with a crazy German crew who were going to make me fluent in 3 months at sea.
As our depature hastened and we waited for the right tide to leave the harbour, things started going wrong. The starter on the engine was a slight problem. Okay, you don't need an engine in the 20-30 knot winds we were expecting but they can be kind of handy for manouvering. Then the skipper got sick which means we missed the neap tide (which only occurs every 14 days
at half moon) and the boat drew too much to leave the harbour otherwise!
Hosing the deck down we noticed that water was pouring underneath. No boat is waterproof but having a waterfall cascading onto your sleeping bag isn't a promising sign, especially when you're headed for colder waters.
Stuck inside a humid, mosquito ridden harbour, nerves were beginning to fray. I by this time had learnt basic german verbs, breakfast nouns and the mandatory swear words, but conversations were happening more and more in German and I was getting cold feet. Craving real conversation as only one of the three crew members spoke fluent English I was spending a fortune on phone cards calling Monika in Poland and starting to wonder about the practicalities of going to sea for three months in a leaky boat with a crew who conversed in a language I only understood about 30 words of!
Everyone else had signed out of the country and the boat wasn't supposed to be there anymore but we couldn't leave until the engine was fixed. Peter (the skipper) and I went down to customs to get my name put on the crew list so I could get my chop and be out of the country.
We got down to immigration to be told we had to go down to the port to get this done. It was turning into one of those hilarious black and white slapstick films that aren't so funny when you're in the middle of them. Of course port customs was closed for lunch when we got there, Peter was still rejecting all forms of food so I wandered off to get some lunch. I came back to find him involved in a blue with the thai customs official who was red in the face with steam coming out of his ears and making threatening noises about Peter being in the country illegally and going to gaol. This isn't a good scene in any country but in asia its extremely bad.
Peter was beginning to get on my nerves by then as well and I wondered what sort of an idiot picks an argument with a thai customs official. He was, by now, too scared to go back to the other immigration office where the red faced official had directed us, and needed to get back to the boat to meet the mechanic - engine still not fixed!!
So I went back, having done nothing wrong and having all my visas in fine working order, and was nice as possible to the other guys who were now suspicious and
were asking if they needed to come and find Peter. Wasn't looking good.
On the way back I stopped by a friendly travel agent and got some quotes on plane tickets to Australia and Europe, having no idea what I should do. Gut instincts working on overtime.
After a crazy plan that the boat would go to Malaysia and pick me up there, and several more international phone cards, I jumped ship and flew home on xmas eve to an ecstatically cheerful mum!
We were only planning to stay for summer and then take off to Europe for spring and summer there but Summer turned into autumn, Monika got a really good job and we've decided to stay in Melbourne for another year.
As winter approaches fast I've just complete four weeks of crazy stress otherwise known as the CELTA (Cambridge Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) which is supposed to be the top qualification in its field. The course was really interesting and i enjoyed it heaps, but literally not having a life (or enough sleep) outside study hours began to take its toll and by halfway through the last week we were all craving a decent lye-in!
We had to teach every other day and submit anally detailed lesson plans, which suited all the virgo I discovered in my chart when I got it worked out recently! I was the last person to teach on the last day but I ended up with really good marks so all the hard work paid off in the end.
I'm thinking of heading to Japan for three months at the end of the year but waiting to see what develops work wise here. After 5 months I've only just really started to ground here - once we decided to stay I started looking into study options and was doing a ton
of preparatory work before it all began. So I'm looking forward to re-establishing some community down here.
Right now we're looking for a new house to start up with a crew of excellent women. Living in a house with 6 people is really getting to me. It'll be really nice to set up a new house for the first time in years and design it the way we want it, rather than how it's always been!
This weekend my 30th looms its ugly head, so for those in this part of the world, or willing to venture down, I'm having drinks at the Retreat Hotel in Brunswick @ 7pm on Saturday and taking it from there.
This year will be a magical mystery tour to follow up last year's magical mystery picnic. I have no plans so its a true mystery. I want it to take a random approach and am leaving the evenings festivities to those taking part. That way I don't have to make any decisions, which I'm not good at, at the moment!
Okay, I thought it was necessary to wrap correspondence up until next time. For those in town,
I have a life again and would love to catch up, for those I haven't seen yet, I'm sorry, come to the Retreat, 7pm sat and those in other states or countries drop me a line or a bell or something and I hope you're all well!
And for the slack bastards who haven't called: grrrrr
( you know who you are, or should do!)