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American Spirit II - Day 206; Last Shopping Day, Jeanine Staying On to Bali & Dinner at the Yacht Club; Wednesday, July 30, 2014



Didn't get up until 8:45 AM today. Too much partying last night.

Breakfast at Cusa Jacks in the marina at 9:30 AM. French toast, bacon, fried bananas and hash browns.

At 10:00 AM NQ Car and Truck Rentals dropped off my rental car. Because they didn't have a car available that would seat more than 2 people, I received one of their 'work' pick up trucks. It had lettering on the sides and back; a red rotating light on top; a radio so I could call them from the car; and a car mobile phone system. Plus the vehicle ran on diesel. Of course the vehicle was stick shift, meaning I had to use my left hand to shift. As they say in Australian, 'no worries.' Which means 'no problem' in American English.

We headed off to do some shopping at 11:00 AM, going to a chandlery first, followed by a camping store. At the chandlery we measured and picked up some new line for the jib furling system; some binoculars; and some other miscellaneous items. The next stop was the Caneland Mall, where I got a haircut, which cost $27.50. A price similar but a little less than what I paid in Bora Bora in French Polynesia and Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. We also did some final grocery shopping. Before leaving the mall Bob and Merc from Vivo stopped by our table while we were having coffee and they drove back to the marina with us, where we arrived at 3:30 PM.

Once back at the boat we installed the new furling line, then hoisted up the jib again and rolled it up. It took 3 tries to get it furled right because the jib halyard kept rolling around the forestay. Joel then installed our new Tachometer. The old one had stopped registering our engine hours, which made it hugely inconvenient to keep track of engine hours. That's important because scheduled maintenance is based on engine hour usage.

After that we transferred pictures and videos from the cameras and the computer where we store the pictures; onto a memory chip for daughter Angela; and did an updated transfer of pictures and videos for Janet. These I will mail tomorrow from Australia to the US.

At 7:00 PM we picked up Charlie from Celebrate at his boat and proceeded to the MacKay Bay Yacht Club for dinner. Cathy, Charlie's wife, was touring in Sydney while Charlie was working on the boat, having workmen work on the boat and traveling to Airlie Beach to have some canvas work performed. Tommy and Marianne joined us for dinner, as well as Heather from Adela. Since we'd eaten at the club before, we ordered 3 orders of garlic bread first as the garlic bread at the restaurant is to die for.

Once back on the boat after dinner, we continued transferring pictures and videos onto the memory sticks. That process was finally finished by 1:00 AM.

At 11:00 PM I called our travel agent in Tampa to finalize our flights home over Christmas, and to book a flight for new crew member Jeremy Nance joining us in Bali. Jeremy is Joel's son-in-law and will be sailing with us from Bali to Richards Bay, South Africa.

Tomorrow will be our last day in MacKay as we're planning on leaving and heading north on Friday to the Whitsunday Islands.

During the day Jeanine Miami, who sailed with us from Vanuatu to MacKay, and who graciously agreed to stay on board for the MacKay to Darwin leg, said that she'd like to stay on the boat until we get to Bali. I sent a request to Rally Control to see if we could get that to happen. Indonesia likes to have such visit or visas requests earlier rather than later. Jeanine has also agreed to sail with us on the Cape Town, South Africa to Salvador, Brazil leg next January. Thank you Jeanine!

Brian Fox

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