It has been a busy week getting ourselves organized for the next phase of our circumnavigation while tied up at the Prince of Wales Marina near Hobart.

We don’t often stay in marinas… it’s expensive, stressful to come in and out and not exactly secluded, so generally something we avoid! But it is handy when we have spent several months cruising in the wilderness, have trades coming on board and are picking up guests! So we have been at the Prince of Wales Marina for a week, 9kms NW of Hobart, the only place that could fit us in. All around is an industrial hub – shipbuilding, metal fabrication, zinc processing, food processing, so not many interesting walks!

Now and then you have to stop exploring and do some chores and we are afraid this week was one of those times: tons of laundry, major boat clean up inside and out and overdue medical tests for both of us. We thought mould builds up in the tropics, more than in colder climes, but not so! We guess condensation is the culprit! The boat is now squeaky clean and smells of clove oil!

But the big item on the to-do list was our fridge/freezer repair. It had been struggling for several weeks. We were lucky we had two other small fridges that worked and we could transfer our fresh and frozen food to them without losing anything! Chris Mundy, from Mundy Refrigeration & Air Conditioning came to the rescue, diagnosing the problem. The circuit board which tells the fans to cool the condenser was no longer functioning properly. The fix: new refrigeration control unit and a relay that acts as a switch to manage the operations of two new 24V fans to replace the 12V ones. Most high power applications on board work with 24 volts, so this will be more efficient. Given the age of the unit and the fact you can’t get new parts for it anymore, this is the best work around our fridge man could do, with the blessing of the original manufacturers who were contacted for advice. We are confident this will be a durable and reliable repair.

Apart from boat work, we did the touristy thing to give ourselves a treat: Saturday in Hobart. The city is dominated by 1,270m-high Mount Wellington and its historical waterfront harbour is a photogenic part of town. At its fashionable Salamanca Place, old sandstone warehouses host galleries and cafes and Saturday is market day with a diverse range of distinctly Tasmanian items for sale. We did not buy anything there but enjoyed the atmosphere and Cary Lewincamp’s music – a favourite guitarist and composer of ours who performs there.

While we were downtown, we descended on the Mountain shops too. Chris’s super comfortable La Sportiva hiking boots had taken their last steps on the West Coast, after an emergency Sikaflex patching of the soles and sides to keep them going in Port Davey… Having had the boots for at least 10 years, they didn’t owe us anything and have now been replaced by the updated version! We both splashed out and bought some warm gear too. After many years living in the tropics, we find Tassie Summers aren’t exactly tropical! Gotta stop that shivering!

Once we were ready for visitors, Wade’s brother Murray and his wife Maree joined us from Melbourne. We will have them on board till we get back to the Gippsland Lakes – 3 or 4 weeks. They have been with us on Anui half a dozen times, but always in the tropics, so it will be quite unlike past cruises for them. We doubt they will swim or snorkel in that cold water, but shore walks and sightseeing from the ocean will hopefully be entertaining.

We have an aunt and cousin in Hobart so with the four of us together in town, it was a good opportunity to have a family dinner out on the waterfront. Finally on our last day at the marina, our guests went to MONA – Museum of Old and New Art, one of those well-known draw cards when in Hobart. We had been before and were not tempted to go again. Instead, we did the food shopping for four people for a month, now that we have a functioning fridge/freezer, and managed to store everything away – there goes the waterline!

Today as we post this, it is time to resume our circumnavigation. We are leaving the marina and heading out to the spectacular east coast of Tasmania. See you somewhere along those scenic shores next Friday!