Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia 17/11/08 3:14 PM

fremantlebiz Log out You are viewing your journal Explore LJ: Life Entertainment Music Culture News & Politics Technology
Home Post Friends Page View Recent Comments Manage Entries Invite Friends Search... Interest Go

Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View] [Friends View]

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Time Event
8:51aRottnest Island - Geordie Bay

Rottnest has two small urban settlements. The main one at Thompson
Bay is the oldest. It's origins go back to the 1830s and it has been
added to or modified ever since. It's where we've stayed on all of our
temporary terrestrial encampments. The other settlement at Geordie Bay
on the northeast side of the island. It would be visible from Thomson
Bay were it not for the intervening dune known as Mount Herschell.
There's a narrow bitumen road connecting the two which can be
walked in ten or fifteen minutes.

The Geordie Bay facility is arguably one of the many planning mistakes
in the history of Rottnest. There's a plethora of rentable villas which
have been built along the beach line to maximise proximity to the
beach. As ocean levels here are rising by about 3mm a year it seems
that many of these structures may eventually be undermined. They also
face northwards, which is where cyclones originate.

Thirty years ago there were no villas at Geordie Bay. It was a haven for
yachtsmen, rich and poor alike. My wife and I were in the latter
category and used to visit the bay during fine weather breaks in winter.
We owned a 30 foot Sparkman and Stevens fibreglass cruising yacht
we had built and fitted out ourselves. We hired the mould from a Perth
boat builder and after a couple of years of effort were successfully
bobbing about on the ocean.

We named the boat Dampiera after a Western Australian native plant

named for the English maritime explorer William Dampier. This picture
of our nautical efforts was taken at the most sheltered western end of
Geordie Bay in 1979. I recall that at the time my wife and I were the
only people there. We had a small gas oven on board and one of our
decedent evening rituals was to roast up a piece of pork and consume it
with a bottle of spumante. I recall too my wife making her first attempt
at lobster thermidor with a crayfish I'd caught on the nearby reef. It was
absolutely fabulous.

http://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/2008/10/24/ Page 1 of 2
Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia 17/11/08 3:14 PM

One time we were late getting to Geordie Bay. It was very dark and the
dogleg channel markers through the reef were unlit. We came through
under sail. A bit too fast in hindsight. The thought of it has given me
the heebie jeebies ever since. You can see what a navigation feat it was
by checking out the complexity of the channel markers in the
experimental daylight panorama I took a couple of weeks ago.

Eventually we decided that our successful efforts at baby making were

outgrowing the yacht and so we sold it and became landlubbers.

Too bad I don't have a picture of the lobster thermidor. Here's the
Wikipedia description, which is pretty accurate:

"Lobster Thermidor is a French dish consisting of a creamy cheesy

mixture of cooked lobster meat, egg yolks, and brandy or sherry, stuffed
into a lobster shell, and optionally served with an oven-browned cheese
crust. The sauce must contain mustard (typically powdered mustard) in
order to be true to the original recipe and to have the distinctive
Thermidor taste."

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio

website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description
and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually
be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my
"common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia –
plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days
as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words.
Zzzzzzzz!

(Comment on this)

2008/10/24
<< Previous Day Next Day >>
[Calendar]

About LiveJournal.com

http://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/2008/10/24/ Page 2 of 2