Author: Ning Xue

27/10/2020

We went to visit Rory in the morning and picked up a some little fish from his dinghy(they jumped into it) for breakfast. He’s excited about the likelihood that the US will have a normal human as new president next week.

Afterwards we went up to the island and picked some coconuts. One of them was green and fresh, with lots of water in it and a layer of thin gel like coconut meat.

J found the contact details of Steve, the previous previous previous owner of Mustang. J gave him a call. He told us about Mustang. Ted, the owner before him, had sailed Mustang from the US to Australia, and Ted sounds an interesting guy too, a surfer, a healthy eater, always naked on the boat, sailing in wetsuit and goggles in rough seas (before the dodger was built).

We moved to the south of the island in the afternoon. Storm again in the evening and we all thought three days in a row was a bit too much. Spaghetti for the dinner.

26/10/2020

Today, Rory guided us to explore a ruin on the island. There is a deserted holiday resort, built in the 70’s, in its prime in the 90’s. People used to say “Get Wrecked on Great Keppel”, now it is a real wreckage. The whole area is surrounded by wire fence, which has a few holes to get in. Inside the ruin, junk scattered everywhere, plants growing among them, walking through them is like walking in a Chernobyl neighbourhood that has been re-invaded by vegetation. In 2018, the resort was re-purchased for redevelopment, and some old buildings were demolished before the project came to a halt and was abandoned again. Recently, the government seems planning to rebuild the resort again. We saw a grumpy old guy cleaning up the rubbish inside little by little. Throughout the scattered furnitures, facilities and metal parts, everything could be stripped down by the boaties to bring back to their boats for recycling, they call this place Bunnings. Rory picked up a piece of thick aluminium sheet, which was just what he needed for his boat. Yesterday afternoon two sheds in the resort were deliberately set on fire and we saw police come by dinghy to investigate. It is said that there is a hermit in his 80s, hiding from everyone, living in the deserted resort on the hill. I wonder if he know anything about the fires…

Rory treated us double sized burgers after the tour, and I was so hungry that I gobbled up the whole burger into my stomach. I also had an icecream after that. I surprised Rory. Indeed the contrast between my appetite and my size has shocked a lot of people.

It stormed again in the evening. La Nina did return.

25/10/2020

Left North Keppel this morning heading for South Keppel, only with the mainsail still keeping 6-7 knots.

Arrived at the destination and anchored the boat next to Rory’s new boat then we invited him over for tea. He is the Perth guy who made the first offer on Dagmar. He and J had only spoken on the phone before 

they finally met each other today. He is an interesting guy. Came with his family from Ireland to Perth in his early teens, surfed everywhere in his youth, backpacked and hitchhiked around until he had a motorcycle accident which caused half of his body a bit uncoordinated. He met his current wife in Canada and they lived on a boat and sailed around the oceans. Later they had children so they moved back to land, started a business to support the family. One year he almost died from a malignant tumor in his eye, which was removed soon and turned him into a one-eyed-man (the fake eye was so realistic you couldn’t notice). Immediately after his recovery, he sold his business to travel with his wife and spend all his money. Now that his children have grown up and left home, he even became a grandfather. By observing those repetitive life cycles, He found something in his life is greatly missing: Salt! It’s time to go back the the water. Due to financial problems he did not buy Dagmar, but ended up buying a smaller boat which is much easier to handle by himself, and he is very happy with it and sailed around the Keppels. He’s been in the Great Keppels for a month and knows the islands like the back of his hand, as he told us yesterday about the place where we could take a shower. He said he noticed the change in him since returning to the boat, more flexible, lighter and generally a happier man.

It started raining when Rory got back to his boat. We collected a lot of rain water and did some laundry.

Stir fry pork with shredded potatoes for dinner.