Local swimming holes

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No sooner then we waved goodbye to the group of artists, we waved hello to a sailboat from The Lakes and another from Victoria.

Our plan had been to take a swim since it was sunny. We did. Here’s a picture of Tim continuing his laps. He’s the white splash in the right. I quit earlier when the rolling seas made me a little nauseous.

And here he us in the Ute, after we dropped off empty propane tanks on the jetty.

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We also swam in Winter Cove, on the east side of the island, the other day. We can pick a beach sheltered from almost every wind direction. One of the sailors reported the water temperature is about 65 degrees. It’s a shock initially, then feels great until you get out and the cool wind blows.
Wind is expected to pick up so those that are here will likely stay and we probably won’t get new visitors for a few days. The house is already creaking.

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I better keep exercising

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I had a chance to run this morning and chose the track to Winter Cove. We swam there a few days ago and it was lovely.

Here are some of my views along the way.

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It literally took my breath away, largely by the beauty and partly by the uphill portions.

We’ve had lots of visitors since we landed. Eight artists from Flinders Island arrived the day after us and are staying in the visitors’ house. They have walked all over the island and plan to present a show on Flinders Island later this autumn. I’m sorry we’ll miss it.

There have been two groups of sea kayakers from Melbourne who left yesterday for Flinders Island. I hope they got an early start because we had wind gusts to 48 knots last night.

And a flotilla of motor boats with a total of 20 people spent the night. Not exactly a deserted island!

We are trying to swim most days before it gets too cold. What a treat.

Tim keeps me busy slaving away in the kitchen and garden. We’re stocked with fresh yogurt, homemade bread and there’s a barrel of stout fermenting away. The garden is providing tons of tomatoes and cucumbers are just coming in. I’m freezing tomato sauce, making tomato soup and prepared to make some pickles.

Today I made a batch of Anzac cookies from the Lighthouse Cookbook, which is a fundraiser for Friends of Deal Island. My daughter-in-law was sweet enough to order a copy for me before my first time here in 2010. You can find it here.
Anzac cookies are miraculous. They are an oat and flour cookie made without eggs and are held together with butter and golden syrup, which tastes like a combination of honey and light molasses. The cookies (biscuits) have been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps since World War I. The have a long shelf life but I’m not sure they will be around that long because they’re delicious.

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Betsy Ross on Deal Island

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It was me! We searched for days for the Australian flag and were finally reminded by the Rangers we could find one in a back office drawer. I thought I looked there but no. We found two in various states of tatters.

One was missing a grommet and was frayed. That one is back in the drawer. The other was shredded at the end. But lo and behold, there was also a Brother sewing machine in the same room with manuals and a little thread.

Just like Betsy Ross, I sewed a flag. But it was by machine, already designed and relatively intact. I am standing by the Betsy Ross reference.

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Vistas

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We’re unpacked, mostly, and settling in. I’ve made bread, yogurt and an apple pie. Just like home. But nothing like home.

There are wallabies everywhere we turn and breathtaking vistas. We walked to my favorite spot on the island, Barn Rock, where there is a good overview of the island, great views of adjacent Erith and Dover Islands and cliffs. One photo shows the compound, which includes the living quarters, museum, school building and sheds.

I took a good look at the garden and it’s great. I pulled the last of the carrots and green beans. There’s still rhubarb, lettuce, tons of tomatoes, cucumbers, silverbeet, beetroot and young beans, carrots, beetroot and broccoli.

Sadly I touched stinging nettles while pulling carrots. It’s a variety that is worse than at home. I only touched it with the side of my index finger and I’ve had tingling nerve pain and numbness since yesterday. Now I can definitely identify the plant. At least I could still knit.

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20150312-072908.jpgThere are several rock cairns on the island. I have to review the history but I think some were originally placed by Captain Bligh, of Mutiny in the Bounty fame, when he surveyed Deal Island.

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Unpacked

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Our days of living out of suitcases and backpacks are over. We left Whitemark, Flinders Island today at 0500 and caught the Strait Lady in Lady Barron. She gave us a very bumpy ride, during which I was airborne at least once, and Captain James decided to take cover in a sheltered harbor to give time for the wind to lighten and the seas to calm. We found the perfect harbor at Whitemark, two and a half hours after our first departure. Fine with me. We had coffee and I gathered ingredients to home brew a batch of stout since a kit had been left on the island.

Back to the boat and a lovely ride to Deal. We landed at 2:30, unloaded, said hi and goodbye to the departing caretakers headed up the hill to the house and unpacked our clothes and food for 3 months. Then we cooled off with a swim in the cove.

Deal is as beautiful as I remember. As I write this I hear the penguins making their penguin noises in their burrows. I’m heading to my own burrow now. Good night.

We’re out of here

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We got the word the boat leaves tomorrow at 0500 and We’ll be on it. The date was actually selected 6 months ago. We thought we might get an early break in the weather but it wasn’t meant to be.

We enjoyed a quiet day on Flinders Island. It’s early autumn and today is Labour day so most businesses were closed. Funny how our Labor day correlates with the first Monday in Fall.

We saw more beautiful views and I finally took a photo of sheep. What took me so long. It’s all been lovely but we’ve been in a state of suspended animation. Tomorrow the real Deal begins!

We’ll be quickly joined by a group of artists from Flinders Island for about a week, including at least one fiber artist. Should be fun.

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Shopping list

I passed my board recertification exam with flying colors and my thoughts turned to the food list. I prepared it today, heard back from the market, and we are good to go.

Here it is.

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I’m having trouble with the link to Google Drive. It seems to work if you download the document. Here is the butcher order on Google drive. Did I forget anything?

Now I’m winding 3000 yards of merino cobweb yarn into balls so I can knit a shawl so fine it will slip through a wedding ring.

Adventure bound

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We’re (thinking about) preparing for our next caretaker adventure, back to Deal Island, Tasmania. I’m glad I read this Wikipedia articleWe will be on the island during their fall, March-June, and it may not be as cold as I expected. It’s tempered by the sea and 40 mph winds that frequently buffet the island.

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We’re definitely going but are a little lax in our preparations at this point. Qantas tells me there are about 40 days until we travel. I AM winding down at work, have arranged for Loki’s cat sitting and learned there’s no longer a butcher where we shopped in 2010. I kept my shopping list from last time. It’s an important list because we bring all our food for 3 months with us. No shopping in between. I’ll try to arrange for the bulk of my list by email with the market on Flinders Island, our staging point.

So my mind turns to food preparation. Last time, I kept a blog called 300 meals on a deserted island and will probably do the same again this time. It helps me remain creative with my food when I know every meal will have a photo shoot.

Here’s last night’s apple pie on the mainland of NY.

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Expected and unexpected visitors

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Let’s start at the end. Another glorious sunset on our last night on Seguin.

A work party from the Navy painted the boat house, moved timbers and disassembled the precarious scaffolding. We moved roof shingles from two buildings off island by dinghy. I’m exhausted. I even took a quick swim at the end of the day.

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Somewhere in the middle of the day I was invited aboard a boat and had sushi! Fresh bluefin tuna. It was delicious. Then more people arrived and I showed them around the lighthouse.

As we settled in for the evening, there was a knock at the door. One of the guests managed to beach himself just after high tide. Looks like we have an overnight guest.

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A burn, blackberries and boats

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Low tide was around. 7:00 am and we started the day with a burn. We notified a fire dept in CT but they had no idea who or where we were. The local fire department wasn’t interested.

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I foraged for blackberries to make a cake , clafouti, flan? It was pretty good. Plus there are great views of the lighthouse from the blackberry patch.

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Tomorrow, a group of volunteers is coming out to get old roof shingles off the island and to scrape and paint the boat house. Platforms were put in place and I was nominated as the safety person. I added lifelines and roofing shingles for traction. My daughter, who is a bona fide safety person, was horrified.

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Cruise ships passed by while I worked.
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Tomorrow will be hectic so I said my goodbyes to the island tonight. Until next year.

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