July 11 – 15, 2012 – Yacht Clubs, Museums and meeting Great Folks in Darwin – and WORK.

Wednesday, we realized the Staysail did indeed need attention, so Frank took it down to be taken in for repair and picked up the mainsail, which has been doctored. We are continuing the process of plugging along at these never ending maintenance & chores and toward the end of the day our neighbors Lex and Joanne asked if we would like to join them at the Dinah Beach Yacht Club for dinner. A local top Country/Folk singer named Leah Flanagan was performing. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening. We have grown quite fond of Lex and Jo and were happy to have had a chance to get to know them better.  The food was delicious and the music so entertaining that we purchased one of Leah's CD's.  Joanne is a writer, and has published 4 books one of which is a memoir. She was formerly married to a man whose early life inspired the hit movie, "Crocodile Dundee".  Frank and I purchased the book, titled "Outback Heart", that I am now reading. This is an amazing woman. Lex is pretty amazing himself, and in these two we have found kindred spirits.

Thursday, more work, sweat, work, and sweat.

Friday more work, sweat, work, sweat and then another dinner with Lex and Jo at Dinah Beach. This time Jo's son Callum who is a professional diver up from Byron Bay joined us. He is working on a project in Darwin Harbour.

Saturday Frank and I walked into Parap for the weekend market. We also visited the local butcher buying some steaks to try out. We are in the process of deciding where to purchase our meats that we will be stocking for the next several months. We are told that if we like meat we'd better load up on it here, particularly beef, lamb and pork. So the taste test is ON. So far we've not definitively chosen the winner.

Sunday, we joined Lex, Jo and Leonie (Joanne's sister is visiting from Phillip Island), for a trip to the WWII museum. It is little known to most of us that following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of '41, Darwin was bombed to smithereens on February 19, 1942 by the same Japanese regiment. Anyone who saw the movie, "Australia" got a taste of this grim tragedy that was visited on northern Australia's soil. The museum is small but so well done. There is a short film depicting the horrific events that was very emotional to watch. The grounds are laid with lots of relics, including some from the American troops who were also present during the attack. One of our ships, the USS Peary was sunk with many wounded and nearly 90 men killed. We never realized. Hundreds of lives were lost here in Darwin on that fateful day. One of the survivors was Lex's father who was serving in the communications center at the time of the surprise attack. How emotional this must have been for him.

Afterward, the five of us joined Paul and Glor (Scallywag) and Colin and Marion (Avant Garde) for dinner and an evening of fantastic live jazz, blues, rock and rockabilly at…you got it…The Dinah Beach Yacht Club. It was an absolutely great night out.  I shouldn't but I will interject that Leonie has two sons who happen to be rather successful actors in some recent films – I don't want to write their names because I don't want it showing up on a "google" search in my blog because I haven't met either of them, but one starred as "Thor" in the movie respectively named, and the other is one of the leads in the Hunger Games. So if you are a moviegoer, you'll figure out who they are. Gee this family has some amazing talent. Frank and I feel a teeny bit humbled.