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Email - Ian - iqcarpenter@gmail.com                Janet - tenajm@iafrica.com

This is dated in the future to ensure static info appears first, so do not chirp!

The weather is very unpredictable at this time of the year and we decided to take the weather gap and sail from Mooloolaba to Southport (80nm) and not go all the way to Coffs Harbour (250nm) as that woudl have meant two nights at sea in unpredictable conditions. We left Mooloolaba at 10.30am, and three hours later were still looking for the promised north easter! Well, it eventually kicked in, as did thunderstorms and lightening. At dusk it looked as if we would miss the worst of the storms but not a chance, at 10.00pm we got our share. Ian was a star and took the helm and sat out the six hours in the rain while I monitored radar for ships..... enough of those to make your hair go grey. Well, at 01.00am, a Securite, securite, securite warning was issued that instead of the 20knots of wind forecast, they now have upped it to a developing low with clockwise winds of 25-33knots..... accompanied by thunderstorms and heavy rain that would last 6-12 hours. That would have taken us past our arrival time at Southport and in those conditions entering the channel would have been hard to contemplate.

Fortunately a few hours later they cancelled the warning. Seems to me as if the weather bureau gets so criticised if they do not warn people in time of damaging storms that they now almost panic warn, overstate the case, and then downgrade the forecast subsequently. Whatever, the cancellation was music to my ears, while daylight at 04.15 was beauty to my eyes. We had reached Southport long before our estimated 10.00am, so milled around for a few hours so ensure that we did not go over the bar at low tide. We dropped anchor, had breakfast, and went to sleep for four hours.

Quite a baptism of fire for our first overnight trip. We have a few more to do before we get back to Sydney. It always amazes me that this beautiful ocean looks so benign and yet you can be out there in unimagineable conditions, and when you get to shore everyone wonders what on earth we are going on about!

Now we will have to spend a few days in busy Southport with jetboats, Larcs, helicopters, etc. A far cry from the peace and solitude of Island Head Creek but interesting for a day or two.

We got into Mooloolaba on Saturday afternoon after motorsailing the entire day. It was great to catch up with Chris and Gilli from Westwind and on Sunday the four of us piled into a hired car and went into the hills behind Mooloolaba to explore. After some good rains it is looking much prettier than when we were here three months ago. Sunday evening brought a storm that left Brisbane without power for hours tho Mooloolaba did not suffer as badly barring a clap of thunder that gave me such a fright I nearly vaulted right through the hatch I was trying to close.

Since then it has been drizzling and the weather pattern keeps on making it difficult to move further south. Ian has just gone to the office to extend our stay in the marina.... I took the time to have a haircut, catch up on my photo albums, do some cleaning, etc. The next challenge is to try and get the right phone number for Telstra so we can figure out why our internet is misbehaving.... like all huge companies, you go from pillar to post, and then throw down the phone after 30 mins and no help.

We managed to dinghy ashore to Tin Can Bay and walked into town (taking cover from time to time from rain squalls), looked around, had some junk food and  chatted to the ex-Zimbabwean who owns the boating shop. We then upped anchor and moved 6nm down the creek to Pelican Bay, which is just inside Wide Bay Bar. This will allow us to cross the bar at about 5.00 tomorrow morning.There are at least 30 boats here all waiting to escape the Sandy Straights. Like us they would have been held hostage by the weather for a week now. The wind is howling and the tide tugging at us. Hopefully as the sun goes down the wiind will ease.

We finally escaped from Garry's Anchorage at 6.30 this morning, using the high tide to motor through the shallow bits. A blustery and squally trip to Tin Can Bay, where from a distance it looked as if all the available space was taken. However, once closer there was plenty of space and we dropped our anchor at 11.30 am in still very blusterly weather with winds well above that forecast. Our thinking was to move closer to Wide Bay Bar, so that when we hopefully leave on Sat morning, we will only have one versus 2-3 hours to reach the bar before heading south for Mooloolaba. We also wanted to visit the place with the wonderful name of Tin Can Bay. We have not managed to go ashore yet as it is a fair dinghy ride to the public jetty and the weather man is still throwing wind and rain squalls at us. Tomorrow.....

Garry's Anchorage is full of boats waiting for the forecast southerly change to pass by. It is expected to bring winds of 25-30 knots for the next three days, so we will be stuck here over that time. We had a lovely sail from Bundaberg yesterday, leaving early in the morning and getting to Fraser Island at lunchtime in 25 knots of wind. Once in Hervey Bay waters the winds picked up, so we foresook our first anchorage choice and moved further south to a more protected anchorage, as did a flotilla of other yachts.

We finally anchored at about 18.00 and at 22.30 Ian was up when the tide turned and the boats swung. The wind decided to howl at this point, and was accompanied by torrential rain. Some poor yacht decided it needed to reanchor in this. At first light this morning we did move as we seemed uncomfortably close to a caterman. However, by this time the wind had died,  it was day light and the tide was out so you could see where not to go. Now we are waiting for the big blow to come through and I am cooking lamb shanks for a late lunch. It is going to be a long three days..... no shops, no fresh water. At least the strong wind should keep the mozzies and sand flies at bay.  

Two nights in the Keppel Bay Marina and now it is time to head out again. The northerly winds should be in our favour for a few days and allow us to head south in gentle breezes - tho you never can tell! So we will be saying goodbye to scenes like the one below until next year when we plan to be back in Queensland. Must wash the boat down before we leave and top up the water tanks. Chiao for now.

We have been out of range for a week now and not near a shop for nearly two weeks. Not much lettuce left but otherwise we pretty much have all we need. Most of the trip down here has been fair winds and fair weather. This excludes Thursday, when the forecast was for 10-15 knots of E/NE wind but we had E/SE 20-30 knots most of the way. This meant we were heading pretty much straight into the wind for most of the time, added to which we had current against us. The one possible stopover anchorage was closed cos the military were playing war games there.....  Thank goodness for our engine, as we motor sailed our way to Island Head Creek, where others had similar tails barring the one boat that did not realise that the military was playing war games and anchored at Supply Beach but fortunately did not get blown up! In Ilsand Head Creek we were treated to a dugong feeding near our boat. Looked a bit like a hippo.

We are now anchored off Yeppoon at Great Keppel Island and will have to go into the Yeppoon Marina to restock for our next sortie down the coast.

We have been hanging out to the east of Airlie Beach in Cid Harbour (just a bay) waiting for easteries/northerlies so that we can start heading south. Yesterday we motored around to Hill Inlet - just north of Whitehaven Beach, and this morning left there and are finally headign south. Managing to get some internet connection from the upmarket Hamilton Island airwaves.

Light easterly winds are predicted for the next few days, so we will use these to get as far south as possible, which will only probably be 200nm or so. Do not expect to hear from us for a few days, and maybe longer. Other friends have been out of touch for over two weeks due to wind and anchorages. Bye for now.

The phone call finally came - roughly seven months later..... Ian's visa has been granted and he is now legal! What a relief. When I heard the visa agents on the phone, my first thought was what more do they want but it was to tell us to send his passport in so that the visa can be stamped into it.

The day has also ended with our mainsail now having a boom bag attached to it, which should make sail handling easier. In addition, we installed an upgraded solar panel regulator to handle the extra power we expect to be getting. So all in all a great day.

Over a month later and our new boom is finally on. It was fitted two days ago minus the clutches for the reefing lines. However, when Andrew came back to fit these, he found working upside down in the hot sun with delicate springs, etc impossible, so back it went to the workshop. Lunchtime today it was re-installed and we will only know for sure if all is okay once the wind drops a bit and we can rig up the reefing lines. Strong wind is forecast for the next week, which is likely to delay our move down south. Enough stuff to keep us busy on board and at least the wind cools down the temperature a little.

Please can someone switch off the wind!!! It has been blowing hard for the past two days and is set to continue for a few days more. Enough!! We took refuge in Nara Inlet on Friday night to get out of the swell and had a lovely peaceful evening. Then back to Airlie last night to join friends for supper at the club and the infernal wind and swell are hounding us. It must blow when we want it to and at the right speed!Tomorrow we are checking into the marina so that the new boom can be brought on board. Will have to make the most of marina time doing chores such as washing, printing stuff out from the computer (power usage remains an issue despite the new solar panels), etc.

World financial markets are scary and fascinating. Not having the TV/radio on constantly helps as it keeps you removed from the minute to minute freefall in indices, prices, and misery... We are going to have to work on becoming yet more subsistence orientated. Maybe resort to eating seaweed. Going to look in the cupboard to see what is available for lunch.

We are motoring back to Airlie Beach having spent the most wonderful two days at Bait Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef. Adam and Rachel on Cabellero had been there before and were going again, so we tagged along. Night one we spent at Blue Pearl Bay on Hyman Island, where we had our deepest anchorage ever at 20m. This meant we had to put out 80m of chain, which left us with no more to go. Anyway, the night was peaceful and the snorkling okay. Cabellero and Rebel set off at 06.00 the next morning for Bait Reef, some 18nm north east in the middle of the ocean... The maritime people have put down five public moorings there and both of us were lucky enough to get one. Despite buoys having two hour time limits on them, with no other boats around, we stayed for two nights. Adam and Ian towed the dunghies with ropes around their waists and we drifted along on top of the Stepping Stone bommies. The variety of coral and reef fish was fantastic and sadly my photos do not do justice to what we saw. (Glasses are needed to operate the camera... I must take a magnifying glass next time!) Adam is a dive instructor but has only ever snorkled on the Great Barrier Reef as there is just so much to see that way. By the look of the boats steaming towards Bait Reef early this morning it looked as if it was going to get much busier, and before we had thrown off the mooring line someone had come over by dinghy to ask if we were leaving. The minute we dropped the line they pounced on it! It has been a hot windless day with the sea like a mirror, meaning we had to motor the entire way back to Airlie Beach. Tomorrow we are going to look at our new boom  and hopefully by Friday it will be fitted and Rebel will look normal again.