Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Really not a lot to say since the weekend. I can’t believe how much time we’re spending on admin. We’re selling a boat, three properties and planning our future. Each have their own challenges and doing anything from the other side of the world has extras complications. It’s a full time job. Each day I go and have another blast of X-Rays. I’ve reached the point where I fall asleep lying down in my mask. It’s oddly comfortable. The only bit that I don’t like is when they blast my head and my optic nerves fire up giving me a blue flash and afterglow.

Yesterday morning we witnessed a partial solar eclipse. The full eclipse was seen up in Cairns. Our original plans had been to be sailing south around this time and to catch the full eclipse out at sea. In hindsight this would have been too late in the year to be safe and of course this year has worked out a bit different. Helen and I managed to capture a few pictures using sides torn off a cornflake box and making a crude pinhole camera.

I’ve also spent a lot of time recently looking into our future technology needs. I haven’t come to a full conclusion but am close to settling on our first smart phone. I am quite attracted to the new Nexus 4. This means we’ll be committing to the Google/Android open paradigm rather than the controlling, fingers around the throat Apple paradigm, despite their wonderful looks. It seems pretty popular as it sold out in the UK & US within hours of launch.

One final note to nearly celebrate. The insurance company have told me they’ve sent the final payment. They’ve not said how much and it hasn’t appeared yet. When it arrives and if it’s the right amount we may just treat ourselves.

The word that springs immediately to mind when thinking about Sunday’s weather is ‘perfect’. Saturday wasn’t too far off but Sunday couldn’t have been better.

Our first destination was the Cape Otway Lightstation. We’d heard that the road down to the Lightstation offered the best opportunity to see koalas in the area. We mentioned this to our host before leaving and he told us to just look out for where other cars had stopped and there we would find them. And find them we did. In fact, we found so many and managed to get so close to a couple that we’re now quite koalad out.

The lighthouse and its surrounds were quite interesting. I feared I might have difficulties climbing the spiral stairs inside the lighthouse but reached the top feeling quite ok. From the top we had wonderful views of the coast made all the better by the perfect weather.

From the lighthouse we pressed on a little further east stopping off at Mait’s Rest Rainforest Walk. It wasn’t a long walk but it did descend a way at first before becoming quite easy. At the end of the trail was a tree one could climb through. An obvious photo opportunity.

Throughout the day I had been thinking a bit about my illness and my own attitude towards it, particularly in light of my fall last week. It had shaken both of us and left us feeling quite low for a while and still feeling fragile later. I was wondering how much of my current difficulties walking was real and how much was in my head. I suddenly realized how important it was to see oneself as a survivor rather than victim. It’s not as though I’ve not been thinking positively. I definitely have. But in a lot of ways I have still thought of myself as being ill and beating it. The reality is that I am already past my first sell by date and with more than a little help from those around me I have survived. And continued to survive. And will continue. So each day I am winning. I felt very positive about this. I then turned my mind to my walking and told myself to get going and not be limited like I have felt for so long. For the first time in 6 months I then overtook Helen, on the uphill section going back no less, feeling quite comfortable.

I’ve often said that our cruising life was as much a journey through our own minds as it was across the oceans. This is more than ever the case right now.

After this walk it was time for a late lunch which we took in Apollo Bay, a very nice and relaxed seaside town. From there we decided to head on to Lorne where we had accommodation booked for the night. The road between these two towns was the highlight being a winding cliff hugging route with fantastic views.

At Lorne we checked into our accommodation, spent a while sorting out photos and uploading them before going out for a walk through town. At the other end of town we stopped for a beer at the hotel overlooking the town and beach and chatted about the day. We then stopped off for noodles for dinner sitting outside having an interesting conversation with a young nanny who has recently moved into the area.

Our weekend is nearly at an end. We still have today left as my next RT session is after 4pm. We both feel we’ve experienced a ‘normal’ weekend together in the midst of this abnormal period of our lives. A real upper. My hair is now well on its way to disappearing completely not without a lot of help from me. It was beginning to come out so easily it became quite irresistible pulling out the tufts that wanted to come away. I now look quite a mess and will almost certainly shave it all off tonight as long as the oncology staff suggest otherwise. I don’t care how it looks really. It’s not a mark of my illness. It’s a badge of my survival which I wear with pride. And, of course, Dignity.

Last week we’d managed to get ourselves on an early appointment for my Friday RT session – 8:45am in fact. We arrived just in time owing to work and school traffic. Being first thing in the morning I whizzed through and we were out by 9:30. I even had time to take a picture of my bust used during the making of my mask.

As the forecast for the weekend predicted better weather later on we decided to go west as far as possible first and make our way back over the next few days.

We reached Camperdown by midday where we ate lunch hoping for a break in the weather as it was wet and windy with occasional breaks of sunshine. After lunch we drove up to the car park on nearby Mount Leura. We managed a few moments of sunshine but had to hightail it back to the car when the heavens reopened. We did get good views of nearby Mount Sugarloaf (part of the same eroded crater rim) and the surrounding lava plains and craters.

Our next stop was the nearby Camperdown Botanic Gardens. They were pretty but not large. It made a nice stop though with lovely views of the surrounding lake.

We then pressed on to Tower Hill State Game Reserve. This was the highlight of the day. We first stopped to climb to the top of the central peak where we had great views of the surrounding geology.

As ever, this would have been any easy climb in the past but a bit of a challenge today. Totally worthwhile though.

Back at the car park Helen spotted a koala up a tree. We stopped to take pictures and watch it eat. Even though this is a game reserve, it’s certainly not a zoo so it’s a thrill to spot animals in the wild.

We then stopped at the visitors center, immediately spotting an emu. There I bought a boomerang (how could I not). They also had some great information on the area’s geology. I always find it fascinating how the planet shapes itself over millions of years.

We then went on the ‘Journey to Last Volcano Hike’ during which we saw more geology and wildlife. We saw many rabbits, a couple of turtles, an echidna and many birds.

Feeling quite exhausted we left the park, spotting more emus and another koala, and headed to Port Campbell and our accommodation for the next two nights, the Portside Motel. Along the way we couldn’t resist one more side trip to see London Bridge, one of the many coastal features in this area. It was very cold and windy so we didn’t stay too long. We saw enough to enjoy the place.

Port Campbell was just a few minutes away and we were soon settled into our room having had a very informative guide to the area by the owner?/receptionist.

We ate out at 12 Rocks Café. While there we learned that the boat inspection by Dignity’s prospective owners had gone pretty well. No howling issues had been found which would have been a surprise to us but there was always the possibility I suppose. There was a ding on one of the keels. Now there’s a phrase that says there are two types of sailors, those that have hit the bottom and those that lie. We’re definitely the former but nothing more than minor and usually mud or sand. We thought we’d had our previous scratches repaired so we await the report with curiosity as we hadn’t expected this.

Back at the motel we learned that our final insurance claim has been approved. We included a request for one of our trips from Melbourne to Brisbane to be included arguing that our efforts during such a hard time in our lives to get good workmanship at good prices saved them a lot of money. We’ll only know if this was included when the cash arrives. We’ll see.

Incidentally, whenever I do blog entries in this format (which takes a lot longer to do) all the embedded pictures are enlargeable simply by clicking on them. From any enlarged picture you can scroll through the rest using your left and right keys. These and more pics can be found in the slideshow below.