Robinson Crusoe…

Remember a while back, I said my blogs for the moment would be mostly photo essays? Well after writing 3500 words and editing 50,000 over the last two days, I took the day off with my husband!

Went away for the day to a place we call Fourmile (a little beach on Maria Island across the Passage from House, about 9 nautical miles). It was the first day that I have really relaxed since Mum’s accident 6 weeks ago. I mean really relax because we played Robinson Crusoe. In all the years we’ve been going to Fourmile, we have never seen anyone-else there and this was no different.

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We followed the Maria Island Ferry from the marina, then left them in our wake. They turned toward Darlington and we headed south to Chinamen’s Bay.

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But there was a snicketty little south easterly blowing across the bowl of the bay so we headed north again and pulled into Fourmile, dropping anchor and having a cup of tea and chocolate biscuits.

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The water was as clear as ever, the sand as white, the mountain brooding over the top of us.

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Lying on the sandbanks and looking north up the deserted beach.

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Looking south to the other end of the beach – still no one around. Should we send a message in a bottle? Noooo…

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Decided to swim under the hull of our boat. Water so clear, the view from underneath the hull astonishing. Just dived down and swam, holding breath and swimming to the far side of the shadow cast by the hull. Coming up on the other side, and sucking in a lungful of air.

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Imagine what it was like for those poor men who may have been keelhauled under the hull of a boat, perhaps the Bounty,  which was 7.42 metres on the beam. I swam under the narrowest part of our boat, maybe 1.5 metres, although it’s 2.5 metres at its widest point. It really made me realise how horrendous it must have been for those men! Perhaps a form of research for the future, who knows?

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That said, oh how I enjoyed our Robinson Crusoe day…