Hi Everyone,

 

We are heading back towards Sydney but not sure if we will get that far south as it depends on the weather.   Dave is looking forward to spending a few weeks in the Pittwater/Hawkesbury area again. 

 

Currently we are at Garry’s anchorage on Fraser Island.  They are forecasting strong SE winds so we will wait here until the winds turn to the North or as least become lighter.  Then it’s across the Wide Bay Bar and into Mooloolaba. 

 

As most of you know, our stay in Cairns was a lot longer than expected due to Dave having an operation and needing 6 weeks to recover, before being fit enough to sail the boat again.  He seems fine now and has no more doctors’ visits until a follow-up next August.  We had a pleasant two months stay in Yorkeys Knob Marina and visited one of the reefs (Upolu).  We had a fairly uncomfortable night there but it was very beautiful with aqua blue water and golden sand in the lagoon.

 

We left Cairns on 29^th September and we tracked south with a days break here and there until we got to the Whitsundays where we spent time in Nara Inlet, reprovisioning at Airlie Beach.  Then the winds turned to the north so we had no excuse to stay any longer and sailed via Goldsmith Island and Port Clinton to Keppel Bay Marina where we had to stay for a week while some strong SE changes went through.  It would have been ideal to stay at Port Clinton or Island Head Creek for this time but, as luck would have it, the army was conducting “live firing exercises” and had closed all the anchorages in the area.   

 

We have had to do a few overnight sails to get this far, but as there are no whales around at this time of year it’s been fairly easy and trauma free.   We sailed past the spot where we hit the whale in 2007.  Sue was on watch and it was the middle of the night again!  When we left Bundaberg at 4am there were about 20 other boats leaving at the same time.  So we have got back in sync with the rest of the cruising population.

It will probably be the same number of boats leaving Wide Bay to go to Mooloolaba so the anchorage in the river and the marinas will be very busy.

 

Fishing has been pretty good up until now with lots of Spotted Mackerel about.  Only problem is these are big fish, generally over a metre in length and provide meals for quite a few days.  So we had to think up lots of fish recipes to give us some variety – pan fried, curry, fish cakes, stir fried etc.  Had so much fish at one stage that we had throw out some meat which had gone off.   

 

Hope to see Lake Macquarie / Sydney people in December. 

 

Best Wishes

 

Sue & Dave

Gannet II