Sunday, February 27, 2011

Good times good friends





Anchored at Peel Island and low and behold who joins us? Pamina! It was really good to catch up with you Bruce & Sandra!! It has been a while hasn't it? Hope your sail home was a good one. We'll catch up again while we are in your area. Enjoy the photos. xx

Thursday, February 24, 2011

rainbows & sunset

double rainbow
beautiful calm sunset

It always amazes me how each day is a contrast to the day before, or even how within the day there is contrast. We woke to the boat rocking and rolling around like it has for the last few days. Tonight we were blessed with calmness. The winds have finally subsided and we will move on tomorrow heading a bit further South to catch up with some friends. Peel Island will be our next stop. We have some friends on Lamb Island so if they are around will be stopping in there next to have a visit.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

more from this afternoon

leads used to come in to the anchorage to avoid sand banks
rain clouds

Tangalooma Point






Starfish or now known as Sea stars, were seen by the hundreds here on Tangalooma Point. Bruce & I had a nice walk along the beach this afternoon. We're still at anchor here, and will probably be tomorrow as well as we are waiting for the strong winds to subside. (as usual!) Seeing all these sea stars on the shore caused me to do some research on them. Google is a great tool for that. The sea star is a predator and feed on sponges, mulluscs, and detritus (organically enriched film that covers rocks). They feed by extruding their stomachs over their prey. Digested juices are then secreted & the tissue of the prey liquified. They then suck their stomachs back in along with the liquified food mass. Their predator is triton trumpet, reef crab, & halequin shrimp.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

not the best of anchorage




Well we had a couple of good days here, and then this front that we knew was coming hit us last night around 6pm, and it has been a bit ordinary since then. As you can see from the photos this was one hell of a front (trough) that came through. The front came through from the SW where we are wide open to putting us on a lee shore. Lucky the winds weren't too bad we clocked 36 kts in a gust. I have to say it was the most lightning we have sat through on the sea!!!! Some pretty close hits too, as Bruce cold smell the sulfur in the air from the lightning. We also had blinding rain so heavy you couldn't see a thing in front of you. Today we have had wind that is meant to be S/SE, but we are experiencing SSW to S winds and lucky for us it's only been in the 15/20 range. talking to Trish and Lance this morning they are experiencing 40/45 kts on the Gold Coast! What makes it so uncomfortable here is when the wind and tide go against each other. The one nice thing about it all is the wind is rather cool, and I'm LOVING it. Bruce says its too cool!! Well we have a few more days of these conditions and we can't really move on too rough. We can just hope the winds go a little more to the East to give us more protection.
Oh the best part of being here are the dolphins!! We saw one yesterday before the storm hit come jumping out of the water about 5 times. Clear out of the water!! It was so exciting to see, and tonight at sunset we had one swim up behind the boat and then next to the boat.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A BEAUTIFUL Sunday @ Tangalooma




The weekend warriors were out today! I was at awe at all the traffic moving around the anchorage. There were jet skis, tinnies, Riv's, sailboats, fishing boats & kayaks. We couldn't even begin to count them as they were moving in & out all day. Now there are only 3 here. They all went home! It was a lovely day, and it was good to see everyone out having fun, because we really haven't had many nice weekend days this season.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Tangalooma

We did leave Mooloolaba today. It is always quite rough coming out of Mooloolaba no matter what the weather. Today was no different. We made good time to just off the NW channel, and then the ebbing tide slowed us right down We had to start an engine, and then the second one and we were still only doing 2 to 3 kts over the ground! Once the tide slowed a little and our angle changed we were able to shut down the engines and sail into Tangalooma. It turned into a rather nice sail as the winds picked up just a bit to 10/14 kts out of the ENE. It took us nearly 8 hrs to get here against the tides. We anchored around 1800 hrs. Tonight we are enjoying a clear night with a shining full moon (last night). Winds have eased to still.
Looks like we will stay here until late in the week as a strong SE is making it's way here on Monday.

Friday, February 18, 2011

moving on

Tomorrow we will move on further South. First stop Morton Island, and then from there on into Morton Bay and the Broadwater.
We have had a good time here, and managed to get quite a bit accomplished too! We even made some new friends! We're studying the charts now to plot our course for tomorrow.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Rainy Monday

We had a REALLY GOOD time yesterday. I started my spaghetti sauce early in the morning, and enjoyed the aromas all day! Sam & Brendan came over to play with us and eat some dinner. We got in the dingy and went around to dog beach to have a swim. We swam and watched all the boats coming and going as the dog beach is near the river mouth. Once back to the boat we had a visitor Sam who is looking to buy a Lagoon or something similar. He is going to come back with his wife today to have a look around a chat. Just as we were serving up dinner Les and Jillian came around, and we invited them for some tea. I always make a pretty big pot of sauce. We all had a nice chat, and enjoyed each others company.
Now we are sitting on the boat planning our day watching the torrential rains falling. I'm so glad it is today and not yesterday. At the moment we don't have our boat covers as they are back at the trimmers being tidied up, but thank goodness we had them over the weekend. Each day is a contrast to the day before. I am truly enjoying our stay here. Looks like we will head out on Friday now to give the seas a day to settle. More later.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Where has the week gone?

I can't believe we've been here almost a week already. We have been full on non stop working on the boat since we arrived so much so we have worn ourselves out! We are trying to achieve what is on our list so when we have the next weather window we will be ready. We had to take the dodger down to be repaired and have been without it all week. We really have missed it, its like losing our living room. We have had the rigging checked and adjusted, the batteries tested, (we have 4 bad start batteries), emptied out both the front bow lockers (something we haven't done since we left 2 years ago), and cleaned them, if we haven't used it in the last year it either went to the bin or back in storage. Each day has been filled with a long list of what we have accomplished. It really felt good to be rid of the excess in the front lockers, and too have them mould free.
We have also found time to do a little socializing as well. We went to a bbq on Tuesday night as it was Suzanne's birthday, and caught up with a lot of the old gang here. Talked with Jessica briefly, and spent time with Samantha & Brendan. We were invited up to Les for dinner. What a good night that was talking, eating, watching a slide show or two with Les, Jillian, and Susie.
Utopia is here at the marina, and Bruce has had a catch up with Andrew.

I spent the day with Samantha which was really nice. We went to the Eumundi markets where I met up with some folks I haven't seen in years, Leslie, & Steve, whom were part of our wedding celebration, and Elizabeth whom I went to TAFE with back in 2003 /2004. I bought some pillows for us and Samantha bought a really pretty ring.
This is really a beautiful part of the Queensland coast! It is too bad there isn't more to do with the boat around here.
After dropping Sam home I went to Coles to do a bit of a restock, and get ingredients to make my spaghetti sauce tomorrow. Brendan and Sam will be having dinner here. At this stage we maybe leaving on Thursday.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Time well spent

We arrived in Mooloolaba at 12 on Monday morning. We had a beautiful sail after we crossed the dreaded Wide bay Bar!! I'll back track a little here. We left Big Woody to travel through the straits and cross the flats while tide was rising. We made some pretty good time, and while travelling we were deciding what is the best way to go. We now have a second option at Mooloolaba the marina or the wharf. Do we cross the bar when we get there? Wait for the tide to turn? We stopped to try to clear the barnacles off the props but the current was rather strong, so we motored over to Pelican Bay. Bruce got out the hooka rig and gave the props a once over. They were pretty bad! I made lunch and cook some pasta up to use later on in case it is too rough to cook. By the time we were ready to go it was 1/2 tide, a 1 metre swell, and not much water exchanging between the high and the low. We decided we would go for it, and if we had a look and didn't like it come back in. Breaking all the rules 1/2 tide flowing out,wind against tide, & the strongest part of the tide. Bruce asked if I was okay, and I said if your confident about it I'm ok with it.
We were doing 10 knots out of the channel. Coped green waves over the whole cabin top! Several times!! Once we were out and away from the river current we had a nice sail!
Now we are back in the Mooloolaba Marina tackling our list. We are full on, and I'm very sleepy at the moment. Going to bed.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Made our break!

We finally got a weather window to start South again! We left on Feb. 4th at the high tide out of Round Hill. The seas were quite rough, and I came the closest I've been in nearly 20 years to being seasick so much so I had to lie down in the cockpit. As the day progressed and the tides changed things started to settle just a little bit. We finally had a good sail after nearly 5 weeks! We sailed down to Bundaburg, the Burnett River. I don't mind if we never go there again. There is just something I don't like about it. Last night we were lucky to get 3 hours sleep! When we first anchored it was fine as we had wind and tide together, but around 10 o'clock the tide turned a spring tide at that and it was so rough! I really didn't sleep until the tide turned again in the wee hours of the morning neither did Bruce.
Today was a contrast we had beautiful wind sailed all day only had engines on for the channel, but we had squally weather most of the which brought strong gusty wind and rain. The rain was good as the boat was so salty after yesterday as we took a lot of water across the bow. Most of the day we had 15/22 kts of wind about 60 to 90 degrees on the port bow. We were skipping along at 7/8 kts. We stopped at Big Woody Island as we couldn't make it any further across the Sheridan Flats the tides weren't right, and Big Woody is the best NE anchorage.
The best news of all is we were able to find a berth for us for a week or so in Mooloolaba! We have a weather window through to Monday, so tomorrow we will sail down through the Sandy Straits. Monday we will cross the Wide Bay bar and sail to Mooloolaba! YAY I get to see one of our daughters in a couple of days. I haven't seen Sammy for about 5 months. Well thats all for now. I will update again soon.

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