Jan. 31st

Well we are still in port. After looking at the weather conditions over & over again the past few days we decided we would sit tight here at the marina until Olga has passed us by. Olga has been around for a couple of weeks becoming a cyclone, then depression, then cyclone, and now she is a tropical depression moving down the center of the state. Bringing heavy rain to much needed areas I'm sure, and also some heavy wind. We had a steady 40 knots blowing in here in a sheltered marina for a couple of hours.
We are stocked and ready to go, and it looks like we will have a break on Tuesday. Once we leave here & the Keppels we will not go into port again until Tin Can Bay. At least that is the plan for now. That being the case the boat is stocked to spend another 4 to6 weeks playing between here & there. We might even get a window to go to the reef for a couple of days, weather permitting.

Quick update

Just a quick update to let you all know where we are. We spent a week at North Keppel, and had a break in the winds and decided to go to port, as our fresh food supply had dwindled to nothing! We arrived in Roslyn Bay to stay at Keppel Bay Marina. We're only here for a couple of days, so we are quite busy doing our usual port duties! Tomorrow we will restock. There is a bit of cyclone & low pressure activity about, so we will look at the weather again tomorrow and make our decision as to when and where we will go.

New location

We moved again today. We had a GREAT sail from Long Beach on Great keppel Island to North Keppel. That's where we sit now and we can't believe we got the anchorage to ourselves!!! Look forward to a few days here exploring. Here's a few photos. That's a pic of a turtle swimming underwater. There were quite a few about today.

moon & planet

posting a video clip

This is just a test to see how a video clip turns out on this blog. This is last night's sunset and moon set.

Jan. 18th

We finally had a break in the Se winds, and were able to move around to Long Beach. We had a snorkel today and am posting a couple of photo's there is one of a spotted stingray, and the other is actually of a shark. I did my best since I didn't have a weight belt on it was hard for me to stay down to take a better photo. You can just make out the shark under the coral. More to come later.

11/01

Well we have been sitting here for a week now with these SE blowing like crazy, but not complaining as this is a most beautiful place to be!! There are several other boats in the anchorage waiting for a break in the weather so they can head south. We spent sometime today doing some chores on the boat, and a bit of a clean as well. The skys have cleared so the SUN was out today.
I have been following Jessica Watson's trip around the world (youngest around the world non stop unassisted). Bruce and I met Jessica when we were all in the same radio course together in Mooloolaba a couple of years ago. We watched her train on the boat across the dock from us "The Big Wave Rider" going up and down the mast by herself. Jessica is coming up to Cape Horn (notoriously rough seas) in a few days. It is a major mile stone of her journey. If you would like to follow along she also has an e-blogger address: Jessicawatson.com.au
I've been playing with the computer learning how to make a project to print dvd of our journey...challenging!! I have also picked up my guitar the last couple of nights to give it a go as I have always wanted to play. My fingers are quite sore. ;o)

7/1/10

We haven't been up to much. We did move around to Svendson's Beach to get out of the SE winds and there has been rain everyday, but are predicting very heavy rain for today & tomorrow. We had the kayak out the day before and did a run up the creak to the wool shearing shed. The water was so crystal clear. Yesterday was a rest day as I'm a bit under the weather with a touch of chest cold. We did go for a short kayak ride and a walk on the beach. Thought I would post some of the reef pics from the other day, and this rainbow which I didn't noticed until i took the picture it is actually a double rainbow!! It's pouring rain at the moment!!

Jan 3rd

We've had a few lovely days here at Monkey Point. Yesterday we did a kiyak run around the reef and found a little beach to have lunch on and then do some snorkeling. not much on th snorkel scene there but had a lovely swim. Today we got the hooka rig out ( dive without tanks), and had a try early, but the current was a bit strong. Bruce gave the props a clean and once the tide setlled a bit we tried again. Since we are at the time of spring tides (higher high tides and lower low tides there is a lot of water moving about, so visiblity wasn't as good as the other day. I did try our new mask/camera, but I wasn't real sure about hw to use it so I don;t think at this stage there will be a videos to share.
There is a SE change coming through tomorrow so we will have to move from this anchorage, around to the other side of the idland, which means my internet connection will not be so good. i will update again when i can.

New Years Eve & day

We had a good New Years celebration. We were invited to a beach party at the resort beach here on Great Keppel Island. There was live music and dancing! The rain held off till just after midnight. We made a mad dash back to the boat which was anchored around the corner. Got back to the boat while it was drizzling and by the time we had the dingy up and our gear unloaded it started belting down!
Today the weather has cleared some. No rain but still cloudy. Winds have calmed. After our morning chores we had some breaky. Oh yeah I decided to bring the new year in on a fast so I didn't have anything to eat yesterday at all, only drank water. So this morning (late) I broke my 40 hour fast!
The rest of the day we just had a relax, and went for a snorkel. the fish life on this reef is amazing. You should have seen the size of the coral trout we've been seeing. Yes it's a geen zone so it's off limits! We also swam with some turtles. btw theres a turtle nest on the resort beach so we might be lucky enough to see them hatch before we head south. well thats all for tonight. Heading to bed. Tomorrow we will get our hooka out and have a bit of a dive so I hope to get some good pics. we got ourselves a mask that takes videos so i may have a go with that tomorrow and learn hoew to post a video. until then ;o) ;o) :o)