We decided to splurge on a couple of days in the marina. Mostly, it was for Maryanne's benefit. While we were hauled out the month before, we had replaced the foam on our mattress. After only a few weeks, it was compressed worse than the former, years-old one. Maryanne called the upholstery guy, who was really nice about it and said he would happily exchange it for a chunk of much better grade foam for free. The only thing was that she had to bring it in, hence the marina; managing the mattress in the dinghy seemed like a little too much to take on. {Maryanne: My husband is just so kind to me, so very considerate! ;-) }
While she was off doing that, I gave Begonia a good wash and then filled all of her tanks to the tippy top, just in case. We still weren't sure we would not be told to sail back to the U.S via a whole bunch of other countries that won't let us in.
It was the beginning of the new mail week. We went into the marina office and OH MY GOD, there was a package for us! This one was full of engine parts and a few other goodies. After leaving my mother's house in Arizona, that box took forty days and forty nights on it's epic journey to Bundaberg. It's been a long time since we have been so glad to see mail. We still have one more piece coming – a measly little letter from Florida, I would love to ditch it, but it has our new credit cards inside. It was sent even before Mom's. {The main parcel was sent five day delivery and took about 6.5 weeks to arrive, the envelope was worse, and for some reason went from Florida to Puerto Rico where it hung out for a while, then back to Miami and then Los Angeles for another vacation before it even got to Australia - following the tracking was painful!}
We also found out that day that our change of visa had been approved. It expires in five months, rather than the ten we applied for, but at least we know we won't get told to leave on short notice.
We couldn't take another week anchored off of the marina, so we decided to go up the river to the downtown area for a change of scenery. The bug situation there is a bit milder and there is much more to look at there, with all of the bridges and the buildings and such.
We spent a couple of rainy days aboard and then went ashore to run some errands. Our timing was not so good. The government had just eased a few of the Covid-19 restrictions about going out. This seems to have made everybody decide that the crisis is over now and we can all go back to the way it was before. Traffic was terrible and there was no possible way to keep a meter and a half away from anybody in the grocery stores.
On the plus side, we did find a decent Mexican restaurant, where we were able to get takeout in celebration of Cinco de Mayo.
We also got to visit the shop that refurbished one of our alternators while we were in the yard. The alternator worked beautifully two times and then went back to its old ways. I removed it and took it in. The Manager bench tested it and determined that it was working great. Well, that's good, I suppose, but now we apparently have some sort of other problem. This guy knew his stuff, though, and talked me through everything I needed to know to trace down the problem. The rest of the day on the boat was grubby, frustrating and time consuming, but I'm sure the guy's advice made it less than half as bad as it would have been, chasing one annoying dead end after another.
Still there were kangaroos to entertain us on our regular walks
And we were impressed to see the recent change to all the pedestrian cross-walk signals.
Before the week ran out, we returned to the marina to do a load of laundry and have one last check on the mail. The tracking said it had fallen down a well in Sydney, so we weren't expecting much. Imagine our shock and amazement when it turned out to be there! Whoo hoo!! We are outa here!
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