Launching The Ship

Captains Log - 0003/ 3rd of March 2024 / 0810hrs

Good mornings at The Ship

We had a bottle of champagne….we really should have tied it to a ribbon and smashed it against the hull of The Ship….we drank it instead.

The Ship - Bay of Fires is launched! After a week of navigating the storms of digital systems touting how easy their programs are (they are not - for a digital luddite like me anyway), the new millennium equivalent of sliding down the rails into the salty water after a Royal has cut the ribbon to the flying bottle signifying the launch…….somewhat not quite as elaborate….“enter” button was pressed on the laptop. The Ship - Bay of Fires has set sail into the digital world of “come stay here”. A complex collections of ones and zeros have sailed their way from my plastic and glass writing device, through Elon Musk’s thing on the roof, up through the atmosphere some 550kms to connect to some floating boxes and then back again to where you are reading this now. Mind boggling really.

It gets a little promotional here sorry, I mean it has been a fair chunk of our world for the last week so I feel a little justified in waxing lyrical about what we have created….so skip this bit if you are not up for some marketing bling…..

The photos don’t really do the space justice to be honest - I need to get my eye in and the artistic mojo right. That said, we are quite proud of what these rooms have become.

Our first priority was to ensure that the beds were the most comfortable we could get. Having stayed at Safire (cough - sorry, for the name drop) and had the best sleep we had ever had (a copious amount of food and bubbles not withstanding) we sourced the same beds for The Ship accommodation (and us as well). It is one of those mattresses that when you fall into bed you just don’t want to get out. Comfort baby - that’s what it is about.

The rooms are quite large with high ceilings and being under the main house means they are naturally temperature perfect - of late there have been some quite hot days, but these rooms are like a wine cellar and remain at the perfect temperature. Opening the window (fly screens in place) you get a nice cool breeze over the native lawns into the room. At night you may hear William the wallaby wander past for his breakfast or the sound of the waves on Binalong Bay coming in and the occasional frog. In the morning you will hear the chorus of kookaburras, magpies and if you are lucky, the black cockatoos heading out for the day. We have not been here in Winter yet, but there are heaters in there as well as Waverley Woolen Mill blankets if it gets chilly.

Over the years I seem to have developed quite the eclectic reading habits and rather keep that collection in boxes they are now in both cabins. In there you will find first edition signed copies of biographies, editions of COSMOS magazine, John Birmingham Australian stories, Footroot Flats, Peanuts, some old encyclopedia Britannia editions, Australian poetry and much much more - if you cannot find a book to while away the hours relaxing (if that is your thing) you are way too difficult to please for us!

I have often got in trouble for “buying things”. I am an advertisers dream. Once, hung over in a room in Sydney I landed on the shopping channel and for an hour was brainwashed into buying a blender thing. I mean it came with a second one for free if I ordered it straight away. Days later a box turned up at our house and I had to explain all this in much detail to justify my purchase. I have developed this into an artform. Anyway, I digress…..The Cabins have some of our collection displayed on the walls. When living in Papua New Guinea we acquired some oars from the Sepik River region - these are displayed on the walls. Another time I was in a stamp shop in Hobart, Tasmania and impulsively asked the fella behind the counter if he had any original Bills of Lading from days gone by. He looked at me strangely and proclaimed that no one had ever asked for that before and indeed he had two. He sold them for me for A$25.00 for both and when I got around to opening the packet there were actually four there. These are original “tickets” for cargoes that arrived on some of the first ships into Launceston docks from the 1800’s. It is interesting to see the priorities back then - rum and ale seem to feature predominately. They are on the walls as well. Years ago we had a revelation that we should buy Tasmanian Art. We wandered down to Hobart and bought two Nick Glade-Wright abstracts of boats (it is more complex than that of course). These are displayed on the walls of the cabins and we have tried to match the Waverley Woolen Mills blankets with the colours in these paintings. - arty farty folk that we have become.

We also bought a couple of new 4K TV’s for the rooms for those that have had enough of nature and need to catch up on their Rick and Morty fix on Netflix of whatever floats your boat.

The bathroom is large and has a rain shower - it would be tempting to just sit under this for an hour or two (so we are told), but if you can remember we are on tank water that would be excellent.

Outside and undercover is the communal relaxation area and kitchen - we have a fridge there and at some point soon we will be filling it with local Tasmanian wines and beers for purchase during the stay. A barbeque, sink and sitting area overlooking the native lawns, forest and Tasman Sea make for a great place to sit and compare scars from your Mountain Bike ride down to The Gardens or just sit around the fire pit and chat.

I could wax lyrical about the accommodation for a while, but I am hoping that those that stay here do that for us!

PS: I did say in an earlier log that I wouldn’t be going down the corporate platforms - but alas the allure of exposure won and we are on Air BNB - that said, smarter people will book via our website where it is a heap cheaper (minus the fees) - go to the bookings section on the website to book - it is the smart thing to do!

Green drink at The Ship

The other thing we are doing here is “The Captains Breakfast”. Not cheap, but excellent every time)

Thanks for putting up with all that…..

To finish up I will change it up a bit for you…..

About ten years ago I had one of those midlife crisis events. I could not afford a Porsha so I got the next best thing. An electric skateboard. Those that know me know that I am not the lightest of humans so the skateboard had to be something big and powerful. The FIIK street surfer (no kickbacks here for mentioning them….yet…but open to offers), fit the bill - big wheels, powerful and a large deck. I have ridden this board on beaches and roads for years until in a cleaning frenzy one day the remote control disappeared.

Guess what we found in the move! I am happy to report that the Street Surfer is back baby and has become my main method of transportation around the property. Below is a little clip of me hooning around the driveway…..I edited the bit at the end where I hit soft grass and had to jump off before being thrown off!

Thank you for reading my ramblings - see you next week,