getting ready

Today we started to get ready for our exit from Mooloolaba. We have been to the grocery shop to stock up on our staple supplies. Tomorrow I will go off to the butcher & green grocer, while Bruce refuels, checks engines, batteries ect....

We've been watching the weather now since our return from Nowra. I have to say this leg of the journey is my least favourite of the whole coast! We haven't yet been around the break sea spit, but may attempt it this time. The wide bay bar is not crossing I care to do, but neither is the thought of night sailing around the break sea. At the moment there is a big low pressure in the Coral sea causing some strong winds, rain, and big swell. We are seeing 3 metre seas in the forecast, not good. That is the biggest down side of coming down this far for the cyclone season. Last year we didn't come past Tin Can Bay because of this very issue. We remembered all to well our first adventure out of Mooloolaba waiting for weeks to catch the right weather conditions, and in the end we ended up with head winds the whole night! How ever the crossing was flat as a tack!

Anyway we will continue to monitor the weather and make ourselves ready to go. We are committed to staying until after Saturday as we celebrate Joanna's birthday in Brisbane.

Easter weekend in Nowra

Hang gliders off Sydney
Blow hole in Kiama & shoreline

more gliders

funny face in the tree
me and Uncle Bob
Kiama countryside

We are just back from our visit down south in Nowra. We flew into Sydney on Easter Saturday rented a car and drove further south to Uncle Bob's. The weather was wet & cold!( It still is too) It also happened to be Anzac Day on Monday, so we watched the Anzac parades with Uncle Bob on Monday. We had a lovely visit with him.We got back to the boat last night. We have started to get ourselves ready as the next weather window we will be making our way north for the 2011 cruising season.

Brisbane/ Sunshine Coast

war memorial

cat on Noosa river Satori Two
Jo sharing a ginger beer she brought back from London.
Happy faces.... Full tummies!!!

We all had a day on the boat here at the marina. We walked over to the beach and had a swim for a bit. Then came back to the boat for some dinner. It's good Friday and I made a pot of spaghetti & meatballs. We were all so full but it was SO good!

finally got a sail with the group

We finally got a sail in, and it was a pretty decent one. We left out of Morton Island through the NE channel. With changed channel markers it kept us on our toes. Once out past the bar we could fall into a more comfortable tack. Then once again we were called to attention when we drew nearer to the shipping channel. We had 5 different ships we had to keep our eye on. Once we even had to haul ass across the shipping channel to keep out of the way. Added a bit of excitement to our day!
As I said in an earlier post after looking at weather conditions we decided to head to Mooloolaba a day or two early. Now that we are back in I know we have made the right decision. We sailed in on Saturday, and the gang all left on Sunday afternoon. Today we have had nothing but heavy winds and heavy, really heavy, showers!

It is a full moon so this doesn't surprise me at all. Would love to stay in tonight, but promised Samantha we would come watch her dance.

2nd day onto lamb Island

here we are in the kitchen at Bruce & Sandy's notice the rum bottles going.
camera's set for timed photo's. Couldn't get mine working.
I LOVE this photo!
John at the dinner table
Me & Phil
3 men in a tub. hahaha
In Chubby's dingy off to his boat.

We all were quite excited to be seeing Bruce & Sandy. It has been nearly 5 years since we were all together. Bruce also known in the past as Chubby was going into surgery the following day. We're all having a roast dinner at their place.Weather was to calm to sail but was a beautiful day anyway.

Tangalooma

Still to calm to sail from Peel to Tangalooma. We had another good swim onshore at Tangalooma. Looking at our weather options we decided that we would be better to head to Mooloolaba in the morning.

Lamb Island to Peel Island

Marge raising Bruce's shoes to see if they were till stinky!
A beautiful sunset.
drunken laughter
Big smiles for our dear friend!

The day was pretty calm conditions still no canvas raised. Once at peel the first thing we all did was jump in the water. This was the day that Chubby had his surgery. We didn't find out how he went until nearly 3:30 in the afternoon. Well we decided to have rum in honour of Chubby's successful surgery. We continued on through the night celebrating, singing, talking and playing poi.

We also had to do something with Bruce's stinky shoes. We decided we would tie them up to a rope and throw them overboard. Here are a few photos of the night.

First day

I guess I should have started from the beginning. Our first day was Tuesday the 12th of April. We all had a coffee with Katherine before we went aboard. I also bought us all some sushi. We left the marina around 12 and anchored the first night at the jumping pin. We left early in the morning for Lamb Island to visit with Sandra & Bruce.

Bus into town

We did catch a bus today into Southport. It was a very rainy morning this morning. Heavy rain fall during the early hours and into the morning so much so that we didn't think we would get away today. The rains eased and we found the schedule for the bus service to Australia Fair shopping plaza, so away we went. It was a fun day, and I was able to buy the tea I went there for!

There was a cinema there and we had a look at what was playing, but didn't have a clue as to what any of them were about. We had a walk around and had a bite to eat for lunch.

In a few days we will be leaving the Gold Coast and heading for Mooloolaba. We will stop at Lamb Island to visit with Bruce & Sandy, may even stop at N. Straddie for a day and have an explore, then onto Tangalooma before going into Mooloolaba. We will have some friends on board as well, so it should be a couple of fun days ahead.

LOVING our time here!

Bruce and I have been having a good time here. We are at the marina still, and have been enjoying being together! It's nice to be able to have a bit longer hot showers, and use the lights without concern for our power supply! We've had a lovely time on the boat working on getting her all ready for our first leg of our journey north. We've had some long walks around the area. We've been making meals aboard listening to good music, long talks. Tomorrow we will take a bus south for a day out to lunch and shop at health food.

Back on board

We are back from our travels today. We will put some groceries on board tomorrow and head out into the board waters on Thursday.

Back on board

We are back from our travels today. We will put some groceries on board tomorrow and head out into the broad waters on Thursday. We will be picking up Phillip. John & Marge on Monday to start the journey north.