Back in the wattah

Perry with nifty new shades done by
our friend Rachel. The old ones were disintegrating.

Perry is back in the water. After a fitful night of sleep with rabid nooseeums attacking and the noise of the boat lift groaning at random intervals, we got up bright and early to be launched at high tide.

Our new strut and shaft decked out
in PropOne antifoul 

We got the rudder back in place the night before, which is why we spent the night in the lift. We are still floating and the port engine seems to be running well (knock on teak). We plan to do a shakedown cruise in the area before leaving for Indonesia.

Because it is so like the US here in many ways, we sometimes forget that Australia is actually a much smaller country in population. Like small enough where the national news broadcast on the radio does a traffic report for the ENTIRE country.

We managed to visit Kakadu National Park, which was a very long drive to do in just one day, but well worth it. We swam in beautiful waterfall pools (that had just opened the day before after being closed for the season) and saw interesting Aboriginal rock art that is thousands of years old. We finished out the day with dinner at the Mindl Beach Sunset Market. It is the place to be on a Thursday or Sunday evening. There were food stalls with almost anything you would want, craft vendors, and street performers.

Lightning Man (on the right)

We have mint again. Mojitos anyone?