Team Poseidon: Captain Whiting, Ray-Man and Gar-Girl

The rest day on Friday was much needed. We read our books, wandered around Coffin Bay and enjoyed the view from the deck. In the afternoon we drove into Port Lincoln to collect my sister, Megan from the airport. Befor the flight arrived, we partook in a drink or two at long time friends, John and Mary's house. After Megan's flight arrived we were to have dinner at the Marina Hotel. Mum had booked a table, but Megan's flight was due to arrive only half an hour before the kitchen closed, so to be on the safe side, Paul and I went to the Hotel so we could order the food, while Mum and Dad waited at the airport for Megan's plane to arrive. Megan's plane suffered delay after delay, so Paul and I waited patiently with stomachs rumbling. We ordered the food at the final moment and it came out to the table before anyone had arrived. We managed to send it back to keep warm in the kitchen, but fortunately not long afterwards, the rest of the party arrived and the food hadn't suffered too much from the delay.

Saturday was another day out in the boat, but we were trying a new fishing spot based on a tip from another fisherman. Boy that tip paid off. That day I caught 2 dozen large garfish and we all bagged a decent share of whiting. There wasn't a bite from a sh**tie all day. Another fantastic part of the day, was the 5 pods of dolphins we saw fishing nearby. Some came close to the boat and I felt quite honoured to be so close to such beautiful animals.

On Sunday, we thought we'd have another relaxing day and I decided I wanted a swim. I got changed into my bathers and sarong and we all piled into the car on a quest to find a beach where I could swim and the others could read. We had a pleasant drive up the coast to Dutton Bay, but decided that the best looking beach was the other side of Coffin Bay. So back we drove again. When we got there, I took off my sarong and waded out, and out, and out, and out. I was 20 metres out to sea and the water had only just got up to my knees. So much for swimming. I collected a couple of pretty shells and headed back to the car, rescuing Paulie from hundreds of miniature crabs on the way.

In the afternoon, Mum and Dad drove Megs back to the airport and Paulie and I decided to have dinner at the yacht club. Gosh, it was a real country town experience! For starters, the place is staffed by volunteers, it has a salad bar full of the old favourites that you remember from bbq's of your youth, you sit at long fake wood laminate tables in plastic chairs, and finally Paul and I would have been the youngest in there by about 20 years. The food, however was great and such good value for money.

We ventured out in the boat again on Monday, but with strict instructions not to be too late as we were having people over for dinner. At first we did a spot of trolling out near "the brothers" in the hope of catching some big salmon trout. That didn't eventuate, so we decided to anchor up in a bay not too far away and try for some whiting. We were actually pretty successful in that venture and ended up with quite a good number. We were a little late back, but managed to get cleaned up in time to greet our guests, Andre and Jenny, more long time friends of Mum and Dad's.

We had chosen to have a slightly different fishing experience on Tuesday. We met up with John and Mary at Second Creek for a BBQ on the beach, fishing out in John's tinny and shore fishing. There were only three in the boat at any one time, and so Paul and I swapped positions at lunch time. There weren't many fish biting on the bottom, so the boat party focussed on squidding. We caught 7 in total and I caught 2 of them. I was pretty pleased with my effort. I remember someone telling me how ugly squid are and my response was that you've obviously never seen one in the water. They're such elegant creatures when they glide through the water. I didn't do any fishing off the shore. Mum and Paul had a go, but only Mum caught a salmon trout and he was too small so had to go back.

Wednesday was the final opportunity to go out in the boat. There was a dodge tide due on Thursday, which means the fish don't bite and we were due to fly home on Friday. We fished in different areas again - Farm Beach, Gallipoli and Frenchman's. The middle of the three, thus named as that's where the movie was filmed. So it was a bit of a touristy day. We did well with the whiting at the beginning and even caught two squid, but then they went off the boil as the tide was really slow to turn. Dad tried to kill me at one stage by having us drop anchor in 15 metres of water. The dropping of the anchor was fine, but when it came time to haul it in, it was not so fine. I felt like I'd run a marathon. It was a good place for a lunch break though, even if the fish biting, did keep interrupting my sandwich!

We had a relatively early start to our lay day on Thursday. It was forecast to be hot, but we wanted to walk the Oyster Trail to the top of the look out. We headed out before the heat of the day, and made it back in time for the 10:30 opening of the coffee shop. Yes, that's correct - you can't get proper coffee in Coffin Bay before 10:30 unless you make it yourself. And that's only on Wednesday-Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, you're left to your own devices entirely. It's hard getting used to the country twon ways when you've been spoiled for choice in the city.

Anyway, the walk was lovely. The water was peaceful and we came across a couple of kingfishers and a heron in the shallows and a couple of roos on the trail. We had planned to have a pizza for lunch from the local pizza place which had come highly recommended. However, as we run by small town ours, the pizza place had decided to open late that day, so we had to make other plans. So off we went to the Oyster Boat sheds and found somewhere selling fresh oysters. I ordered $20 worth, which turned out to be 40, plus I got a free lesson in how to open them without hurting yourself and a free taste test. We stopped by the butcher on the way home where I picked up fresh bacon and parmesan to have on top of the oysters. Well, it wasn't gourmet pizza, but we had to make do with what we had at hand. Hehehe!

Friday was our final day. We packed up our suitcases and headed into Port Lincoln, where the airport is. We had coffee at the marina and watched the boats coming in and going out and then went to Delacolline winery for lunch where we had 2 tasting plates to share for lunch. One seafood and one standard antipasto fare. They were both delicious!

We got to the airport at 3pm for our 4pm flight. Okay, so we were a little early, but I don't like being rushed when I'm flying. Unfortunately the plane hit birds when it was landing at the airport so we had to wait for an engineer to assess the plane before we could take off. We were first told there would be a short delay, then a longer one and then told our flight would be cancelled and the next would be delayed until 8pm. We rushed to the counter to try and get on the 8pm flight and were fortunately 2 of the 13 passengers who made it on to the flight. Phew! Mum and Dad had hung around in Lincoln waiting to hear from us to see if they needed to take us back to Coffin Bay for another night, so when we got onto the 8pm flight, I promptly called them and asked them to bring us something to eat as we couldn't leave because there was no guarantee that that flight wouldn't be cancelled as the engineer still hadn't arrived to inspect the plane. Our saviours came baring pizza and garlic bread - and enough of it to feed 3 other people and 2 small children. It was very much appreciated by all.

Finally at 7:30 the engineer arrived and gave the all clear after about a 10 minute inspection. We boarded the flight at around 7:50 but we sat on the tarmac for what felt like an eternity. Finally we were in the air at 8:20 and on our way to pick up our new puppy at 9:15... but that's another story for another day! It's late and well past my bedtime. Hopefully I'll be up to date and ready to post some photos on the Easter long weekend.

Paul's Adventures With the Monsters From the Deep

Day 4 Coffin Bay; Paul 0 Stingray 4 (on aggregate)



We arrived in Coffin Bay late on Monday afternoon. It was hot, but the house was cool and so was the water. We're positioned right on the sea front and there are steps down to the beach nearby. The view from the deck is amazing; we've watched the sunrise from the deck every morning so far and each morning, the colours projected onto the clouds have been slightly different.

We've been out in the boat on the three full days we've been here so far; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

On Tuesday, we stayed in the bay and fished the tapeweed. We caught loads of whiting, many of them were undersized and had to be thrown back, but we still had a good number of keepers. There were lots of other fish too and I had fun float fishing for garfish. I love gar. I think they're such beautiful fish and they're pretty tasty if you can be bothered dealing with hundreds of tiny bones.


It was on the Tuesday, that Paulie continued his battle with the stingray. He lost. But Paulie only lost one of his rigs. I managed to lose two of mine due to a dodgy swivel that kept popping open and a hook to what I can only assume was a stingray. I'd like to say that it was pure skill that meant that I didn't lose the entire rig, but it was probably just that I'd hooked a smaller ray.
On Wednesday as it was flat calm, we went out of the bay. It was at this particular spot, the last time we were in Coffin Bay, that we caught 20 or so squid. We had no such luck yesterday and only managed to pick up two. We caught considerably fewer whiting too, and were innundated with baby trumpeters (known in fishing circles as s***ties). We did however pick up a bit of a mixed bag of other fish - salmon trout, garfish, tommies and red mullet.

On the way home, we decided to stop in at a spot that was more sheltered as the wind was starting to pick up and with it, the size of the waves. It was at this spot that Paul's adventures continued. First sign of the adventure was that you could hear Paul's line being taken out - and fast. We all assumed that Paul's ray was back. Dad decided that he wanted to see Paulie's ray once and for all, so he grabbed the rod and fought admirably with it for quite some time. A short while in, Dad said that it might be a fish after all. We were all wondering what type of fish could cause this kind of pull on the line. When Mum had netted the fish and her and Dad had brought it into the boat, we were still left wondering. We have a picture of it, but we are still none the wiser as to what it is. Dad says that its colloquial name is a Strongie (creative bunch these fisherpeople), but we're still left not knowing exactly what it is. After this adventure, we called it quits for the day, knowing that we couldn't top that.




Today we went out in the boat again, sans Mum, who had been spending most of the time reading in the cabin anyway. We decided to go back to the tapeweed where we'd had the success on Tuesday. We were much less successful and the weather was awful, which made us feel a little on the flat side about the day. We caught far too many S***ties and undersized whiting and had got pretty wet in the process. When the water was clear, we saw a few large stingrays. We told Paulie to turn off his ray beacon, for goodness sake. He's now earned himself title of the Ray Whisperer.

At the end of a day of fishing, you have to scale and fillet your catch. It's a tedious job and unfortunately the more successful you are, the longer and more tedious the task. The bonus for me is at the end, you feed the fish heads and bones to the pelicans who have just spent the last half hour eyeing you off (and sometimes trying to get close enough to steal from your bucket). They are so beautiful and very appreciative of all that you give them. I just love this part of the day and it makes all of the hard filletting and scaling work worthwhile.

Tomorrow is a rest day. Dad will be sorting tackle and we'll be washing manky towels and stinky clothes. But then we'll chill out for the rest of the day.

I’m Off to Catch Me a Stingray

The last couple of weeks were pretty hectic. We’ve been packing for the holiday and trying to get the house ready for open inspections. I’ve also been frantically trying to leave my work in a state where my replacement doesn’t have to tear their hair out trying to find out where the hell I got up to and how on earth they tackle the project. Needless to say, it’s been a little bit stressful, but we managed to survive.

I also somehow managed to fit in two trips to the theatre to see the Melbourne Theatre Company. One play starred Noni Hazelhurst, who anyone my age would remember fondly from playschool, but whose acting career has since taken off. It was called Madagascar and was a moving play about the effect of adult “runaways” on their family and loved ones. It was set in Rome in one hotel room 5 years ago, 2 days ago and at the present. The different scenes were interwoven and the story of a young man’s disappearance, the circumstances surrounding it and the devastating consequences slowly unraveled. It did move quite slowly, but I found that the plot was interesting enough to keep me hanging on waiting to find out what happens.

The second play was called The Swimming Club and featured a number of minor stars from Australian stage and screen. The idea of this play was quite charming – a group of people who met in Greece 25 years ago and then meet up for a reunion in middle age after marriages, divorces, children, affairs, etc. The acting was great, but I found this play did move too slowly. It didn’t keep me enthralled and I didn’t really identify or sympathise with the characters. It was fun and entertaining though, so not a complete waste of time.

My last day at work was a bit of an emotional one. I was sad to leave the girls who I’d become such good friends with, but I was happy to be moving on to try something new. The group had bought me a gorgeous present, written beautiful things about me in a farewell card and even said lovely things in speeches. I’m sure they can’t all be true! Although my baking skills are exceptional, so I’ll give them that one. Hehehe! We’ve already arranged a time to see each other again, so I’m sure we won’t lose touch for a while yet.

Early on Friday morning – before the crack of dawn even, Paul and I bundled Myf into the back of the car and set off for Adelaide. We stopped around 3 hours into the drive at Horsham for Myf’s first toilet stop and the first driver change. Then we stopped at Nhill, about an hour later for a coffee top up. Our final stop was at Keith for the last driver change. As with all road trips, we feasted on junk food for the entire journey; breakfast was cookies and cupcakes left over from my work farewell party and lunch was hot chips from Keith.

We arrived in Goolwa at around 3pm to drop Myf off with my Aunt and her puppy, Tuppy. Myf and Tuppy are still trying to work out who’s the boss. The older Myf, or the home owner, Tuppy. They go through periods of playing happily and sleeping next to each other but will occasionally give each other warning growls to let the other know that they’ve had enough or they don’t appreciate what the other’s doing. I’m sure it’s all natural and as they’re both such sweet natured, friendly dogs, they’ll have it all figured out soon.

On Saturday, I went to another cultural event. I saw the Chooky Dancers performing “Wrong Skin” as a part of the Fringe Festival. They were great! There was a Romeo and Juliet style tragic love story, woven between bouts of their fun, free and entertaining dancing with influences from modern video clips, old movies and bollywood. It was refreshing to see a bunch of people up on stage obviously having a ball with what they do. Check out this youtube clip and check out the chooky dancers if you ever have the chance.

Sunday was a full day. I had brunch with friends who had been in London for 2 years and had just moved back to Adelaide. We ate at the Tin Cat Café, and the food was really good. I had eggs benedict and the ham was thick and tasty and the eggs were cooked perfectly.

In the afternoon, I caught up with another friend, whose 30^th I’d missed earlier in the year. To make it up to her, I took her out for high tea at the Intercontinental. YUM! I recommend this to all the girls out there. It’s not as expensive as some of the high teas that are around, but you get champagne on arrival, as much tea and coffee as you want and a great selection of tasty afternoon tea foods. Savouries on the bottom, petit fours in the middle and scones up the top. The service was great too.

This now brings me to my title. This afternoon Paul and I fly to Coffin Bay where we’re meeting up with my parents. We’re spending 10 days there fishing, reading and relaxing in general. Last time we were in coffin bay, almost a year ago, we had such a great time, we begged to be allowed back. We spent quite a lot of our time fishing out in the boat and caught a large number of squid and had a reasonable haul of KG Whiting and Garfish. Much more interesting than that, however, was Paul’s battle with the stingray. On three separate occasions he managed to hook a stingray. We didn’t see the ray, we only know through Dad’s expertise of what stingrays do to fishing lines, rods etc that that was what was on the end of the line. So this time Paul has vowed to land that sucker. Let’s just see how successful he is. Haha!

Now all that remains is for me to bid you all farewell. I’ll be sure to fill you in on all the fun that was had and bore you with hundreds of pictures upon my return. I hope you all have a lovely couple of weeks.

Cheerio!

Storm

There was a hail storm in Melbourne this afternoon. We managed to get inside just in time to shelter from the hail stones. The rain flooded the back yard and the hailstones cracked the front window. We drove Casey and Kat down to St Kilda once the storm had subsided and there were loads of floods, fallen trees and branches and other signs of damage along the way. Here's a visual of the storm from our house.

This is the hail in the backyard. My poor geranium!!

Check out how big the hailstones are!

It formed a pile by the front door.

And here's the damage...

In Between!

Today is the first day of autumn and I'm feeling very in between, just like the season. The weather doesn't know if it wants to be summer or winter. I guess that's just typical Melbourne, isn't it!

It's in between cricket and footy season. Pre-season footy has started, but I haven't quite mourned the loss of the cricket season fully enough to appreciate footy yet. Especially in the pre-season tournament when the rules are different and everyone plays a team at half strength so as not to injure their stars prior to the main season beginning.

I'm in between jobs too. Okay, so I haven't technically finished my old job, but I feel like I'm already on the way out mentally. I'm finding it stressful getting everything done that needs doing, but my heart just isn't in it anymore.

Oh, I just can't wait for my holiday to start. 11 days and counting!