New Years Eve

Well it is a quiet one on the boat, but is blowing like crazy outside! we are still at Keppel Bay marina, but may head out to GKI on Sunday.
An update on the flood situation. The rain has stopped for now, but the threat of flooding continues in this area as the water makes it way from the highlands, and Emerald to Rocky. Yesterday the roads into Rocky closed and held up the delivery trucks to the grocery stores. We went to the shops about 10:30 and the shelves were all ready empty. We did manage to get what we needed by shopping at all 3 of the stores in town. We went back later in the day and there wasn't any produce left at all.
I went into town today and was please to see that Woolworth's was restocked. They had a truck come through. Bruce said the highway is open again, but that may change on Tuesday when the river is meant to peek.
I had a major clean up day in the cockpit. Tired of all the mildew on the netting and cabin top I took everything out of the cockpit and gave it a big clean. Now we are all clean, restocked, refueled and ready for the New Year!

Floods

We did good to get back when we did as the following day roads were closing. Today the rain continues to fall, rivers continue to flood, and some roads are closing. We watched the news tonight (not something we usually do), but we need as much information as we can get. Our trip South will involve anchorages in some of the flooding rivers. Looking at the news it will be weeks before the flowing flooding rivers are going to ease. there are towns out west of here being evacuated. The only way to go to avoid the rivers is out to the reefs and around the outside of Fraser Island, and with lows spawning up out of nowhere that could be an issue. Looks like we will sit tight for now.
Today there has been a strong wind warning issued for our area and South. 30kts SE.

more Christmas photos

Rita's gingerbread house
painting by Jo
Jo not sure about gift
Peta happy

We spent all of the day at Chris's. Eating and playing games mean while it poured down rain all day long. Bruce jumped online a couple of times to check the weather and it wasn't looking to good. the low is now a cyclone and making land fall in Cairns. Boat is secure the cyclone Tasha was only cat 1. What it did have was heaps of rain falling just North of Yeppoon. Which means more water moving into the already full rivers. We decided that we should get on the road boxing day to make it back to the boat before roads start to get cut off. We left out of Brisbane around 8:30 am, and made it as far as Beerwah just South of the Sunshine Coast when a car crash just ahead of us closed the roads! Turns out there was a fatality. We sat in bumper to bumper traffic for 3 hours! Shit it was frustrating!
Finally on the move again with rain showers on and off we made our way back to Yeppoon. The rivers we crossed swollen and flowing hard and fast. When we got around the Bundaberg area we started to see more water coming along the side of the roads and heavier rain. Creeks overflowing and in one area water over the road. One of the road side stops was cut off from the road with flood waters surrounding it.
We stopped in at Miram Vale for fuel and Bruce asked the clerk of road conditions, and she said her daughter made it home to Yeppoon not long ago. Knowing that things can change in just minutes we were still on high alert.
It was when we got between Mt. Larcom and Rocky that the water was becoming a huge issue! By now it is dark which was making watching out a bit more of an issue. At one point we had to go on the other side of the road to avoid water on our side of the road.
Back home by 10 pm and unpacked the car in just a light drizzle. Glad to be back. A hot shower and our bed was really good.

Christmas in Brisbane

Well there has been some wild weather for sure. I should say our Christmas plans were yes and no for a couple of days. We did our shop, for presents and food. Then we had news of this low forming just North of us and we were not sure what was happening. We even called Jo to tell her we didn't think we could come due to the weather. This upset her which upset us!
We watched the weather reports online, and I even spoke to the meteorologist from Rocky met on the VHF to ask him a few questions about the upcoming weather. After further research we could see that the major concern will be just after Christmas, so we decided we would go after all and keep an eye on how things developed.
The drive wasn't to bad and we were able to make a few stops in Mooloolaba on the way down.
Dropping more things into storage, and only getting out one bag (my yoga gear for upcoming yoga classes next year). Also stopped into the marina where we ran into Bruce, Peter, and Margaret fellow cruisers. Weather has been just as miserable there! We got a sheet of their berthing rates and were told not to even think about coming in until after Jan as they were totally booked out!
Finally to Brisbane and finding the traffic was very light. Arrived just before Jo & Mitch. We went to go get Peta at her work Grilled and had a burger for dinner. Yum!
Christmas day was spent at Chris's place, and was GREAT fun!

Christmas shopping

Well must have been the full moon and the coffee yesterday, that I didn't sleep but about 2 hours last night. By 4:00 I was up out of bed and about 4:30 started doing my yoga. We had some breakie and then headed out to start on my list. We had to finish our Christmas shop today.
Also took the laundry and did that while out. The weather is still cloudy and rainy. Ended up in Yeppoon then in Rocky to finish at spotlight. Tomorrow we will go out to do the food shop for Christmas. We have asked Liz and Dave if they would like a lift in to do their shop so we bringing them in with us.
We ran into Drew of Lick-a Dee Split at the Yeppoon shops. Jo is just back from Ft. Lauderdale, and Key West. We will catch up with them before we go. The Big W had empty shelfs from all the merchandise they sold out of and probably not getting enough stock coming in to refill due to Mercury Retrograde, and some flooding.
Tomorrow we are planning on giving the boat a bit of a clean up and retie of dock lines to make sure she is secure in her pen. At the moment there is a Low brewing up North of us and the winds are starting to blow pretty strong. Some wild weather indeed.

Keppel Bay Marina

We had a GREAT sail into Keppel Bay Marina. Winds SE 20 kts, with the seas whipped up due to the wind against a very high spring tide. The sky is looking quite tropical as if something is brewing. Tides are running ver high at the moment with the Full moon, and eclipse!
We didn't see the Eclipse was to cloudy.
As we were leaving Svendson's beach Bruce saw a boat he thought he recognised to be Morning Stars. He gave a call on the VHF and it was them. Thought for sure they would be way down South by now, as they were heading for Tassie. Turns out that they are also going into the marina. They sailed in behind us, and Bruce was able to assist them in their tie up.
They came over to say hello and suggested we have a meal together. We met up at 6 to go for chinese, whuch turned out to be closed so we went to Y. Yuck it was absolutely horrible! U guess the clue should have been when we walked in and there wasn't any customers, now we know why! Before we left we had a chat to Salva from Sokle ( and Tora Tora). Nice people that will catch up with for a sundowner before they head off. After dinner we came back to the boat for after dinner drinks and coffee. Was a very enjoyable night.

sunsets & Rainbow

Well we have had a relaxing few days here at GKI. Apart from the storm that came through two nights ago. We had some really rough seas whip up out of the south, although our weather wasn't too bad it must have been from something that spun off south of us. We were riding waves at anchor. Last nights storm was mostly lightening and some rain, but no seas or wind.
We spent 3 days at Long Beach, and today moved around to Leeke's beach as the winds were out of the SW this morning and meant to go SE tonight, but it is a glass out. Tomorrow we head to the mainland (Keppel Bay marina) to prepare for Christmas. We will be driving down to Brisbane to have Christmas with Jo & Peta.