Monday 21st July Port Macquarie

What a nothing day really, hardly worth mentioning. OK, the stock market slid further into the abyss, war criminals were apprehended in some strange country clinging to Europe’s underbelly and Mortlock was declared unfit for The forthcoming test against the ‘All-Blacks’ but what did we know. Our whole day was spent building anticipation for our Indian nosh at ‘Maharaja’s Tandoori on Sea’ later that evening in salty Port Mac. There was a bit of walking, a bit of talking, some ineffectual dangling of lines or ‘fish feeding’ as the Admiral likes to describe Pam’s attempts at fishing but nothing substantial, save the constant worrying over weather maps with prodigious swells predicted to arrive from the south over the next few days.

The Indian proved well worth the wait, spicy and surprisingly hot for a rural holiday centre. The Vindaloo Prawns were either to die for, or from; the jury is still out. “It’s an education for the western palate!” beamed the Admiral, picking small grains of rice from his goatee. “No wonder there are starving children in India,” said Curvy as she wiped the cucumber and yoghurt dip over her entire face in an attempt to ease the burning sensation.

The dingy ride back to Twin Spirit proved surprisingly uneventful but Pam’s surreal, ethereal, wobbly shots of the full moon rising over the yacht taken on that curious journey, speak both of her unique photographic style and the strength of the locally grown ‘Cassegrain Verdhelo.’