Back Home on Songster

We have been back aboard Songster for nearly three weeks now after our whirlwind eleven week European tour.  After her winter storage in the water, Songster was clean and dry inside. We unpacked her and have quickly gotten into the rhythm of marina life.

There is a small but socially active group of live aboards at the marina and we have activities to go to almost every day.  Monday is movie matinee, Tuesday is Mexican train dominoes, Thursday is quiz night and Friday is happy hour.  Then there are ad hoc conversations on the pontoons and shared meals in the workers canteen or marina restaurant.  Sometimes it seems our social life has become a veritable whirl of interaction.  When I think back to how infrequently we went out to social events when we lived in Canberra, I realise how profoundly our lives have changed with our itinerant peripatetic peregrinations and nomadic seafaring voyaging in retirement. (sorry, couldn’t help myself there...)

Mexican Trains Dominoes night

The big event that occurred while we were away was the demise of The One.  The One was a huge motor yacht that was berthed at the entrance to the marina, next to the hanger for the owner’s seaplane.  The yacht was notorious in the marina as the owner is currently in jail for, depending on which rumour you believe, tax evasion, fraud or disagreeing with the government.  One night in January, The One caught fire.  It was gutted and the smaller but still massive and expensive ($10 million) motor yacht next to it, Barbie, also caught fire and then sank.  See the Youtube of the incident. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IUBe9a-VTU

 

The One now sits forlornly by the lifting pool, a mere shadow of its former self and a massive salvage operation is still going on to bring Barbie up from the bottom.

The One, burnt but still floating

That white shadow is Barbie 

The crane, tug and barge for the salvage operation.  The white building on the left is the seaplane hanger.

The salvage barge, a bit rusty but does the job

The salvage team by the crane.  Check out the size of those anchors on the right.

 So life goes at the marina.  Soon we will be lifted out onto the hard and will have to stir ourselves from pontoon lassitude and social activities to do some hard yakka of boat chores and anti-fouling.

Songster on the pontoon