Tasmania

The flight of the sailboats

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I saw this boat in the cove yesterday and the water and its shadow were so clear it seemed airborne. As more boats arrived, the dance of the sailboats at anchorage began. Initially two were anchored. Another arrived and dropped its anchor, perhaps a little too close to a boat already there. They hauled the anchor, circled around and dropped it again. We go to bed and someone drags anchor, or simply decides to move during the night, and the positions change again. Someone told us they were here when there were at least 18 boats in the cove. Hard to imagine.

Flying Sandpiper
A couple of ketches
We celebrated Valentine’s day yesterday with flowers from the garden.
Valentine's day flowers
Today I found this heart on the lawn from a Cape Barren Goose.
Cape Barren Valentine Heart
And what about this soup made entirely from the garden’s beets. Gorgeous color.
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It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood

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We took it easy yesterday because the day before we worked on clearing the jetty road of sand that washed down during our day of record rainfall. Now I know. Record rainfall means more roads to clear. We’ve yet to get back to unearth one of the the culverts on the lighthouse track. I know I won’t get any sympathy from anyone in the northeastern United States who have spent all winter digging themselves out from under record snowfalls. The fact that a record is set is exciting for about a moment until the reality of it sets in.

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We are working on a project for the island, building a bench from reclaimed materials: old wood, bolts and and nuts. I think even the hand saws were reclaimed. We’re not allowed to have power tools. No fun evacuating a lighthouse caretaker because they cut off a finger with the power saw. So we saw the old fashioned way. Well Tim saws and I sit on the wood to keep it steady and spin my drop spindle. Reclaimed means we find a bolt in one box in the workshop, then have to sort through all the nuts to find its mate.

Sometimes we have to shoo skinks off the wood.

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While we were in the workshop, a fog settled over the island and it became totally still. At one point, I went outside and couldn’t see beyond the solar panels, which probably means they weren’t doing much for us that day.

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The weather changed and after dinner there was an incredible sunset and the sky was an iridescent orange and pink. Then I caught the moon as it was setting across the water over the swashway. Now it’s back to work clearing tracks.

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The Universe delivers

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Only a few days ago I posted about our lack of snacks. We have eaten our way through the crackers and chocolate. We aren’t going to starve, or even lose weight, but the occasional treat is always nice.

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Then yesterday, two boats, who had been here about a week ago on their way north, dropped anchor and spent the night. They were on their return trip, headed home. We enjoyed a barbecue with them on the pier. Both boats were built by their owners, who weren’t boat builders but just wanted to build their own boats to their own specifications. They each took about thirteen years to complete and the hulls are made of steel. They look like beautiful, seaworthy vessels. Back to food. I made a little apple plate cake for dessert and brought it down. It was a hit. The next day, before departing they stopped by the caretaker’s house and asked if we could use any fresh lettuce or tomatoes. They were going to make an overnight passage home and wouldn’t need most of their food. The garden is doing well but the tomatoes aren’t quite ripe and I said sure.P2090134.JPG P2090144.JPG

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They hailed us on the VHF radio after they dropped it on the pier and I went down to pick up the booty. Initially, I was only going to pick up the perishables because we were going back down to the cove to shovel sand off the road. But the bag wasn’t too heavy and I lugged it back up the hill. It was like Christmas.

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I felt around the outside of the bag to try to figure out what was inside it. Then I lined up all the contents on the table. We are no longer snackless. We have potato chips, crackers and chocolate, carrots, cabbage, potatoes and lettuce, and a bottle of wine. At least for today. How nice. They radioed back that they enjoyed the apple cake and wanted to reciprocate since it seemed like we were shipwrecked here.

No coincidences? Ask and you shall receive.

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Monday morning quarterback

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Morning light

Well actually Monday morning spectator. It’s 11:00 am on Monday, February 7, and we are watching the Super Bowl, live, on Australian television. How weird is that? To celebrate, I made a batch of pretzelsSuper bowl pretzels but the beer may have to wait for a more reasonable hour of day. The advertising ads don’t compare and are, in fact, rather depressing.

The most common one is for “Senior Insurance” to lure people over 50 to sign up for insurance to pay for funeral costs. Benefits up to $15,000, no medical needed. Nice and uplifting for the game. I’ll get my cane and hobble up the hill later today. How cute was Cameron Diaz feeding popcorn to A. Rod? It’s just not the same without the E*Trade commercials or a bet riding on the game, or at least those box scores for each period (or is that quarter?).

We have watched cricket here without really having a clue as to what was going on, and, apparently, the match can last for days.

Enough of spectating, time to get back to action. The garden produced the perfect tomato today. I’m starting to tidy it up again and make sure it’s in good condition for the next caretakers. The only trouble is we have had record cold temperatures and I just planted a bunch of seedlings. They’re out there shivering and blowing in the wind.The perfect tomato  

After dinner, we fired up the computer to watch the American Super Bowl ads. Seems like a strange activity but it was a way to do what family and friends were doing at home. We don’t want to miss out on pop culture during our three months. We had to stop because the colors outside were incredible, bright orange and pink as some clouds and a brief shower passed by. Then a rainbow at the end and a glorious sunset.

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Sunset

Deal Island record rain reported on the news

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Our record rains were reported on the news last night. I missed it. The rain has stopped and the weather today reminded me of a crisp fall day in Maine. It will be windy for the next few days and with a southerly wind (perhaps from Antarctica) and I had to find my wool socks again. Tim went off to do manly things and I hung around the house. He found some of the culverts we just cleared full of silt after the last downpour. I guess it’s back to the rock pile for me.

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I spoke with the crew of a boat, which anchored at Erith Island last night, and gave them the weather forecast. it looks like they will be here for a few days. They made an ill fated attempt to leave this morning and encountered big seas and 30 knot winds. So they came back.

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The garden is a big success. I’m pulling carrots out in bunches. I finished spinning a skein of alpaca on the drop spindle.   And it’s sooo soft.

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Here are photos of the turkish drop spindle, spinning, then being taken apart

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to result in, like magic, a center pull ball of yarn. Lastly, I take both ends of yarn and spin them together again to ply the yarn (combine two or more strands together). So after about 4 days work, I have 100 yards of 2 ply, lovely alpaca yarn.

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Record level rain recorded by me

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Our one official job is to check the rain gauge daily and report it by fax to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, fondly referred to as BOM. It rained so much yesterday, we read and emptied the gauge several times. This morning, while Tim walked the lighthouse road, in the pouring rain to see how the ditch drainage work held up, I took the fourth and final reading: a whopping 60.0 mm of rain in 24 hours: 2.4 inches. I don’t track the rain at home so don’t know how it compares but it was coming down thunderously. When I looked through the rain records for Deal Island, I found it is the most rain recorded in one day since 2009 when they had 79 mm.

As a result, we have clothes and the flag hanging up to dry and buckets strategically placed throughout the house to catch leaks.

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When I needed drinking water for coffee this morning, I had to don my foulies to go out to the water tank. I probably should have just let the pot outside to catch the rain directly instead of runoff from the roof.

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This means I don’t have to water the garden today and I can work on my knitting and spinning. I’m finishing a pair of socks and spinning some alpaca. But first, time for another batch of yogurt.

Here’s how the sky looked yesterday before the rains began. Maybe it will look that way again tomorrow.

Morning over the swashway of Dover and Erith Islands

I took a shower in a shower today

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Rain is predicted for today and tomorrow and lots of it. They were right about today. We had early morning visitors from the SV Enterprize, a replica of a local cargo ship from the 1800’s, headed to Hobart for the wooden boat festival. A few passengers walked up to the lighthouse and the rest poked about the museum. We went down to the cove to get photos of the ship and were met by a crew member in a dinghy who invited us aboard for tea. Another adventure.

She is a beautiful boat, made from Huon pine and salvaged timbers, all authentic. The spars are plantation Sequoia’s grown in Australia. The boat held 8 passengers and 8 crew; the passengers were recovering from rough seas. The ship’s Master, Kevin, couldn’t have been nicer. Unfortunately the rain began right about when we got aboard so we didn’t explore too much topsides. One of the passengers must have been really sick because he wanted to know if I was from Melbourne, Australia. I assure you, I have not gained an Australian accent.

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When we returned to the house, we were drenched to the bone but somehow my camera escaped unscathed My waterproof (not) watch has some condensation below the “crystal”. I hopped out of all my clothes and then heard a voice near the living room. I though it was from outside. I jumped into a dress and headed there to be greeted by one of the passengers, who had just returned from the lighthouse, standing in the living room looking for the rest of his shipmates. I may have been fully dressed when I got there.

Nothing like a good wallaby wrangle to start the day

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The local wallaby population has been gradually increasing and this morning we had the chance to shoo a few out. First we open the driveway gate then position ourselves so we head them in the direction of the gate. We managed to get four of seven out. I feel like a shepherd or I guess walherd. Tim was waving the Australian flag like a matador. Here’s a flame robin outside the sunroom.

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The other night, possums were fighting over the barbecue. Tim shooed them away and closed it up and the next day asked me if I had scrubbed it clean. I hadn’t. They did. Maybe they should stay. I could invite them into the house to clean.

The sun came out and there was a fair wind, all the visiting boats we can see have left. Time to do laundry. I can’t convey how good these sheets smell!

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We are all just visitors here

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Once again as caretakers, we realize we are the visitors here. This was so well put by the last caretaker at Seguin Island, where we were this fall. Many of the boats who stop here have been here many times. They have seen the changes and improvements on Deal Island. Some met the last lighthouse keepers.

The past couple of days, we had three boats with people who had never been here before and then we get to share the magic of Deal island with them: lovely island, wonderful walks, historic buildings and views. There is a wooden boat festival about to take place in Hobart and many beautiful boats stopped here on their way south. Today’s boat reminded me of the African Queen. They had to leave one crew member behind because of the large cyclone, Yasi, that is about to hit Cairns, near his home.

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There is a fence around the compound, in theory, to keep the wallabies out. In reality, they find their way in and at the moment we must have about a dozen in the outer compound. They and the Cape Barren Geese will be here long after we are gone. We are all fenced in together.

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Caretaker Residence Deal Island
We hope to replicate a table built by a previous caretaker when we get home. i have taken photos of it and we will put it in our living room as a reminder of Deal Island. I think we will leave out the goose head though.

Deal Island Table - 1

How I procrastinate digging ditches while Tim works

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We heard an Air-Sea rescue the other night on the VHF radio. Someone fell overboard, we don’t know where or from what sort of boat because we never heard the distress call. But a Coast Guard boat and a helicopter went to the scene to search. We could hear them talking to each other. The people on the boat could initially hear the person but not see them. The chopper flew away for a bit to let the boat listen and they managed to pull the person out of the water. Nice.

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We are on our one day on, one day off schedule for clearing the ditch along the lighthouse trail. The other day, I walked up to the lighthouse to open it up, mop up water and let it air before I started raking. This gave me an hour reprieve. I have to confess I was listening to Michael Jackson on my iPod, who really knew how to write dance music. So i danced on the lighthouse hill in the wind. Nice. It is a good thing the helicopter wasn’t hovering nearby because they may have thought I was in distress.

My work site

We think we only have three days left of work on the road. In the meantime, I found an old map, which says there are five more cairns on the island besides the three we have already seen. I know what we are doing on our off days. I was a whirlwind the other day. After I worked on the track I came back and cleaned the whole house.e think we only have three days left of work on the road.

This included taking out the vacuum (for the first time since I sucked up the huntsmen spider from the shower). I began very gingerly and made sure the suction was on right away. When I was done, I changed the bag so we can incinerate the old one, which was full. To my horror, there is no flap, the paper towel I stuffed into the hose may have been the only thing between it and me.

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I have opted to exclude any more spider photos for fear of losing my son as a reader. Then of course when I went to open the lighthouse today, an insect not a spider, was waiting for me and jumped on me when I opened the door. I let out a nice scream. I’ll show a photo of a lizard instead. I have a photo of the insect and while it’s not a spider, it is pretty scary looking.

Our food is holding out if you are not reading the food blog, but we didn’t bring enough chocolate or snacks. The next batch of beer, which was fortified with extra sugar and took forever to stop fermenting, will be ready this Friday. The garden is lush. We’ve finally had our first tomatoes. Yesterday, I transplanted a bunch of seedlings and then we had 30 knot winds for two days. Nice timing. Today I went back and propped up the ones that fell over.

This is what I do while Tim keeps working. I look for nice shots of the lighthouse and have been trying to find the site of a house, the halfway house, which used to be between the compound and the lighthouse. I found a clearing today, but it may just be an old tip. There were relics of bricks there though.While Tim works

Archaeological site