Unhappy In Hobart | Hobart, Australia

Sunday-Wednesday, 17-20 March 2024
Day 114-118 of 110ish

Unfortunately for Amy, the welcoming back to land ended up painful and drawn out.

Celebration Time

St. Patrick’s Day and also Richard’s 70th birthday. A wonderful family lunch was planned at Richard and Bev’s house where we got to meet Bev’s daughter, Rochelle, granddaughter Olivia and friend of the family and Rochelle’s boyfriend, Chris.

What a great time! Lots of laughter and getting to know everyone. 

Amy Loath To Return To AA

Unfortunately, I had to cut the time short and get shuttled back to the Antarctic Aurora to help with dinner. Every part of me didn’t want to do this. Sigh…

With my big girl panties on, I boarded the boat again. I went straight to the galley to catch up with Damo. Damo and brother Dylan were hard at work whipping up dinner and didn’t need my assistance. Perfect! 

On the way to my cabin, I got drawn into OJ’s cabin to have a couple beers with OJ, Frannie, and Shawn. It was a nice way to come back to the boat. Then I got summoned up to the galley. Time to get back to work!

Like a whirling dervish I did what I had done best for the last four months and did the dishes and got the mess ready. Dinner served. One meal done. 

My Cabin Was Robbed

Afterwards, I slinked to my cabin to get some sleep and met with intense disappointment. I had been robbed. 

One night away from my cabin and my nail kit, tweezers, lotion, Bluetooth headphones and (not until much later did I find out) my Melanzana hoodie from Colorado were all missing My head was spinning. Did I take these things back to Tom’s dad’s house? Surely not. I’m positive they were in the cabin. 

In the spirit of Australian Longline, they turned off Starlink as we were coming into port so I had no way of getting in touch with Tom. I had to wait until the next day to activate our SIM card. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well. 

I woke up and did breakfast. After brekkie, I helped Damo until he didn’t seem to need me and then I made myself scarce to sort out the SIM card and get in touch with Tom. Job done. I called Tom and he checked our stuff. The missing items were nowhere to be seen. It is confirmed that I had been robbed. What a deeply disturbing and disappointing way to end the trip. 

Once I was back on board, I went straight to the bridge and told Tangi what happened. He said he would ask around the crew and suggest that the items needed to reappear overnight. They didn’t. They never did. Nothing ever happened about it. Deeper disappointment. Pathetic really.

Living In A Dark World

After lunch, I went back into town again. I needed a hair cut and I needed some internet time and I needed to be away from the boat. It felt hostile. I was so deeply bitter.

Plus, and this became important around dinner time, I thought Damo and I agreed that if I did brekkie, he would do dinner so that we both didn’t have to work horrendously long days. Well, just before dinner, I got a message from Tom saying that Damo was looking for me. I made my way to the galley where I was yelled at by both Damo and Dylan asking where the %$#%$# I was. Being at my wits end and tired, my response was not gracious. I let rip! I yelled right back that we had an agreement and I had been up since 0400. He was to do dinner. Nevertheless, I got stuck in and helped out since it was chaos.

F*ck me! What a horrible day! 

Afterwards, I called Tom and tried to calm down. Just as I was getting ready to say goodbye to Tom and go upstairs to talk to Damo about tomorrow, there was a knock on the door. It was Damo with his hat in his hand. We both agreed to bury the hatchet and that there was obviously a big miscommunication. We decided to both work every meal to keep it fair. Long days but fair days. And that’s how the next day(s) played out. 

Peace, Love And Get My Out Of Here

Peace settled across the land. The next day was going alright and I was excited to get off the boat. However, it became abundantly clear that this wasn’t going to be our last day. Unloading was going very slowly. The flights of the crew got rebooked and we all had to stay on one extra day.

Yet another disappointment.

I gritted my teeth. I bore the disappointment and the knowledge that I would have to suck up the pain of another day. Another day of wasting horrendous amounts of food and doing an insane amount of dishes.

I’m certainly grateful of how Tom operates as a cook. I’m so grateful we worked so well together over the last four months. Right now, it seems like a dream and a miracle at the same time!

Tarnation

What a sad way to end this amazing trip. For now, the trip remains spoilt and tarnished by these last days…probably the last weeks. The theft and lack of follow up really put a vile taste in my mouth for this whole situation. After four months of me looking after these guys and then one or two of them do this to me and still look me in the eye day after day. Disgusting! 

It’s been a drag and right now the amnesia certainly hasn’t set in. This is painful! I cried myself to sleep. I’m so over it!

So another full day worked. Thankfully this is the last. I’m over it. Damo is over it. Everyone is over it. There are no heartfelt goodbyes. Completely anticlimactic.

Can’t Disembark Fast Enough

I just walked off the boat with what remained of my stuff. A lovely lady, Celia, helped me down the ramp and drove me and my bags to the gate. That was greatly appreciated. I needed that! 

Tom picked me up after dinner and it was finally over. I don’t think I believed it. I wanted to sleep, scream and sob all at the same time. 

Get My Out Of My Life

The disappointments unfortunately didn’t end there. Tom and I had a set to in the morning when I woke up about our miscommunication.

I jumped out of bed and climbed the nearest hill to clear my head and gather my thoughts. Holy moly are my calves and shins feeling these walks! The pain in my legs was nothing to what my heart was feeling. Tom and I had a talk. I cried more. We made amends. I’m clearly at the limit of what I can tolerate.

Plus, my last paycheck was wrong and that has turned into a struggle because, of course, as life would have it, I’ll probably get paid in the new financial year which messes up the tax strategy I had with my accountants for exiting my NZ residence. Just one last disappointing blow. I’m really done now. I can’t take any more!