Paul Bandsma installing my new THULE roof rack on my rental car
I spent all day with Andrew Divola in his fibreglass workshop today, glueing, glassing, sanding, painting, adding stickers…eventually my boat is ready to go! He did a great solid job on getting all the details done. Thanks for your great work, Andrew!
No pictures yet… – as the stickers are not complete. But it’s a beauty…I’m looking forward to get it (and myself) to the water!
In between, Dale was so nice to drive me to Maree and Adrian’s THULE car rack shop.
My rental car we picked on the way was outfitted with a solid THULE roof rack system plus cradles. Thanks to Paul installing the roof rack, and to Maree and Adrian van Bellen providing it!
Finally we could load the boat on my car at about 7pm!
Dusty and dirty as I was, and with a pant which was fully torn on my backside (no pictures…and yes, I’m fat right now :-)) ) I hurried to get started.
I had a dinner date with Mark Sundin, Sharon Betteridge and Rob Mercer from Expedition Kayaks.
But first I had to find my way through downtown Sydney!
I would have loved to stop here and there and enjoy Sydney as a simple tourist, but oh well – I am on a mission here!
The navigation system I rented with the car was old fashioned, as it didn’t speak to me and showed me to turn where there was no turn allowed. So I had to use my own internal navigation system as well to get where I wanted to…
On my careful question to Mark in a prior e-mail if there would be a bed for me somewhere this night, as they are located on the other end of Sydney close to the airport, he put my up the in the luxurious Novotel Brighton Beach hotel he had some good connections to! Thanks to Mark, and to the guys from Novotel as well. Just a pity again I don’t have any time to enjoy the facilities and the beautiful beach close by. But there will be a few beaches next months, plus I should better get used to simple life!
The boat was tied down with lockable rack straps THULE provided me as well. My car got a VIP parking spot right upfront the hotel entrance, as it won’t fit into their garage!
Dinner was a pleasant event. Mark, Sharon and Rob were very chatty about their combined great pile of experience! Thanks for great company and good drinks and food!
And – they gave me a new kayak pendant! I dropped my old one which had quite some history around New Zealand some time ago, as I enjoyed the pure beauty of the handmade white Maori bone pendant someone very special gave to me to protect me on my future travels.
But this silver beauty is again a great addition for my neck decoration, I guess! Thanks Mark! I will keep it in honour!
Blog enty written on a Toshiba Portégé R55-11Y
