Saturday 10 September 2011

People Watching

Marinas are an interesting thing - They are a terrific opportunity for people (and boat) observing.  

If I strike up a conversation with a person I find out all kinds of things about them and their boat - likes, dislikes, where they have been, what they plan next, their boat draft (very important topic up here), where things are in the community etc.  If I don't get to meet the boat owner, I create my own 'ideas' on what they might be doing and why. 

The marina often also reflects the local community - wealth of the surrounding community (aka Manly), number of live aboards in the marina, age of the population (Hervey Bay) etc.  Hervey Bay marina has been by far the friendliest bunch of people.

Here are a few of my observations from Hervey Bay

There are alot of people importing and then sailing yachts over from the US - I have found atleast three in our travels.

This is the boat of John and his wife (located next to Escape Pod) who are live aboards.  They sailed to Tasmania a few years ago, had engine problems and stayed 2 years!  They came back to Hervey Bay, their son grew up (he is now on a Navy Patrol boat in the NT) and they are planning to leave in December to live in Tassie (they purchased two acres as well).  They also have the same headsail cars on their boat as ours


I didn't meet this owner - I think he is either a drug dealer, owns the local ICE factory or was a fan of Vanilla Ice aka Ice, Ice Baby Fame!


I spent about an hour one cold night talking to this owner on my way back from the showers, I didn't even get his name - so lets call him Bob!  Bob and his wife use to own a catamaran but a few years ago purchased this boat from Florida as 'they were getting to old'.  They spent sometime sailing in the US before shipping the boat back to Australia.  They now live aboard at the marina and travel up and down the coast when they feel like it.


This boat also travels up and down the coast - it is the neatest boat on the marina I think


There is also the nice man who washes his clothes on the wharf next to his boat using a magic wash portable washing machine which he purchased for a bargain price of $39 - he liked to chat with me and Charlotte as I did our washing.  Nope didn't find out his name either!

I also met - the gummy shark man at the fuel wharf.  This nice man doesnt have any front teeth but was looking forward to his meat pies as he just returned last night from 5 weeks at sea on a fishing trawler (he tells me the weather was shocking the whole 5 weeks - I told him I purchased some of his prawns today from the fish co-op).  I didnt think it was appropriate to get a photo 

I havent just been observing people - long walks and some flowers caught my eye.


And I thought these hire bikes were as cute as a button..


Escape Pods bits are now fixed and we are down the Sandy Straights

Hope you can take the time to stop and smell the flowers tooo.

Nic

3 comments:

  1. WOW - it's certainly a different lifestyle - sounds very interesting!

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  2. We enjoyed the marinas too - met some really interesting people and it was great fun seeing other people's boats. Sound like you may be on your way back? Don't worry about the Mad Mile - what the weather and stay in touch with Tin Can Bay VMR, they are super helpful when it comes to crossing the bar. Fair winds.

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  3. Love that you are having such a good time. One of the things we truly love about caravaning is the interesting people that we meet. I really enjoy all the different stories and travel and places that they have all been to, both overseas and in Oz. Keep the stories coming

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