Saturday, June 9, 2012

Adios

Well, the time has come for us to say goodbye as we will be no longer sailing and blogging for Tropical Soul. We ENJOYED our time IMMENSELY! Bruce and I have been very busy up on the range in Kuranda, unpacking, cleaning, organising, and purchasing. We are really liking our space up here on the range in the rain forest. It is So peaceful. We have a babbling creek at the bottom of the property and it is so relaxing to listen to. The weather at present is a bit on the cool side and we are lucky enough to have a beautiful fireplace/ heater. I'm all packed and ready to fly out before daylight to the Sunshine Coast to visit with my daughters. Two of them are at this moment travelling from the states to be with us.
Next week they will come back with me to visit our home.
I hope you all have enjoyed reading the blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Adios mi amigos

Friday, May 18, 2012

Bluewater marina with Deane

The new owner of Tropical Soul pictured below. The survey complete and to our credit the surveyor mentioned he hasn't seen a used boat in such GOOD condition in years. The only suggest he could make was to get the life raft serviced later this year. We are quite proud of our girl and have lovingly taken care of her as such. It was a big job sometimes, but we always had our list going to keep her in good condition.
Bruce & Deane are down at the slipway now slashing her, and then bringing her back to Bluewater marina. This is where Deane will keep her while he readies her for travel with him. It's time for him to move all his personal things on board and make her his home. We are very excited for him and for her that she will continue to cruise and not waste away at a dock somewhere!
 our last sail on our girl.
 We were cruising along quite well you can see our trail line from the keels
The new owner bringing her up the Trinity River.

For all those reading this and have heard about Smithys slipway through our blog, just wanted to update those that are thinking of using the slipway. We were quite shocked to find the prices have mored then doubled since our time there last year. If you are wanting to slip in the Trinity river best to get some prices from the other slipway as we have found out are considerably lower!!!!!!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Moving

Well it has finally happened. We have now officially moved off the boat. Started packing her up on Sunday and worked everyday to get it all off by Thursday. On Friday we got off the last few things and put the finishing touches on her. I've been working on the inside, and Bruce has been polishing her on the outside. She is all empty, clean, and shiny. Ready for her new owner.
All that is left now is to haul her out and have her surveyed. She comes out of the water on Tuesday, and is surveyed on Wed.
We moved her today from the marina to the river, and had a GREAT sail. Blowing SE 20/25 kts and we sailed her close hauled tacking back and forth, then we turned her downwind and had a nice run into the river. All going to plan she will be in the hands of the new owner in a few days.
It was a bitter sweet day for us both and we are SO happy that she will continue to be loved and sailed with the new owner.


Saturday, May 5, 2012

Cinco De Mayo

It's hard to believe nearly a month has past since my last post! I have been away for 22 days. I was completing Dru yoga training. I finished my Post Graduate Masters course. From there I went to visit Samantha on the Sunshine Coast. Bruce then joined me (drove from Cairns) and we travelled south back down to Nowra to help with the estate dealings of Uncle Bob. We stopped to visit some close friends Marg & John in Woolgoolga for a couple of nights. So good to catch up with them. Once in Nowra we were able to wrap business up quicker then expected. We left there on Saturday a week ago to make time for Brisbane. It was Joanna birthday the following Monday. It has been quite a few years since we spent her actual birthday with her. We had a lovely visit there and spent the Sunday & Monday night with them.
Then it was on the road again making way for Cairns. No more visits as we have business to take care of. We were back on board by Wed. night. WOW what a long drive. We stopped for a night in Rocky to break up the trip.
Now that we are back we have organised storage for all our things on board. In 10 days we will be hauling TS out of the water for a bottom job and she will be surveyed for the new owner. Once that is complete we hand her over to the new owner! EXCITING times. We will have all our gear off by then.
In the mean time we need to find a place to live!! We will be staying in a little cabin in a tranquil setting while we get sorted out. Yesterday we looked at 4 houses, and I think we have found one that will suit
us perfectly. We will go there today to check it out again. I will update once we have all the details. 
 Birthday Fun with Jo @ her place

 Out and about at Southbank riding the ferris wheel

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Sunbirds

When we got back to the boat we noticed there have been a pair of Sunbirds busy building
a nest. Luckily they hadn't laid any eggs yet, as today when we took our sunshade down the nest
came down as well as it was attached to one of the ropes. The poor things kept coming back through

out the day trying to find where their nest has gone.

Uladulla on Good Friday

 Boat harbour and entrance
 Nick showing us around the beaches and the bush
 Merridee

Australian heath land

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Back on board

Well it has been a while since I last wrote. We have just returned from our travel south. We
went by plane to Sydney, and rented a car to head for Nowra. Our Uncle Bob was in hospital
and being 92 we needed to get there asap. I had to wait for clearance to fly after my surgery, and
when we finally got it we were away.
We arrived on Monday 26th of March. Lucky to find Uncle Bob in good spirits and quite happy to see us! We had a wonderful day with him. We visited everyday through out the week, and on Thursday
he started to take a turn for the worst. We stayed with him all day on Friday and at 11:25 Friday night
he passed away. We are so glad we had this time with him as he got to say his goodbyes and we got to tell him how much he meant to us and how much we loved him. It has been quite an emotional time.

We have just this afternoon arrived back on board. We are so happy to be home, and look forward
to sleeping in our bed!  We will need a good nights sleep as tomorrow we start on our list of things
we would like to do to Tropical Soul. Lucky we have some really good weather to start our work.
We even have windows open and the ac is OFF!

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