Merry Christmas!

Electrical storm

I don't know why this is not straight! But it's a great shot Lindsay took - real Cristmas Lights!

Bundaburg to Mooloolaba

Celestial navigators on passage to Bundaberg

Not long after arriving in Australia we met Bayswater friends Shaun and Erin off Whimsey and had a super evening under the setting sun!

We spent about 4 days exploring Bundaberg and generally sorting ourselves out after the ocean voyage. We have been amazed at how friendly people are here. Some of it is because it is a rural community but people seem very open and relaxed.

We are really conscious of opportunity the boat provides us to enable us to visit and see wildlife in their natural environments. This is something that is becoming harder and harder to do with diminishing habitats. So it has been great to see some amazing Australian animals here.

We find the Pelicans incredible – they are so big! One of the children’s first experiences was getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning and going to the back of Bundaberg’s Port Marina area where they watched a group of Kangaroos playing in the grass

We enjoyed the trip up the Burnett River and visited a small zoo. The zoo had wallabies, Emu’s and several other birds.

In the bush beside the river we saw a large Water Dragon (Lizard). We stayed there a short time mainly to re-provision ready for the passage south.

Even the ants are huge here!!!!

From Bundaberg we sailed down through the Sandy Strait which flows between Frazer Island and the mainland. Frazer Island is the largest sand island in the world and we were disappointed not to get to see any dingoes there. We stopped at a spot called Gary’s Place for morning tea with friends Dennis and Joy off Molokai and there we heard our first Kookaburgh laugh.

From there we sailed to Tin Can Bay and anchored for the night. Early the next morning we all went ashore to join the locals who feed 2-3 dolphins at 8am every day. Kate and Hamish got to feed a couple of fish to these Indo-Pacific estuarine dolphins. They were very friendly and quite confident around people. It was well controlled and a great experience. Sadly there are only about 50 of them left in the area.

We had to leave promptly so that we could cross the large sand bar at the entrance to the Sandy Straits on the high tide. That was quite tricky and for a while the roughest sea we had seen for a long time. After that it was plain sailing down to Mooloolaba. This is a canal type holiday town about 100 kilometres north of Brisbane. Hamish thinks he is in heaven as across the road from the marina is a beautiful white sandy ocean beach. He wants a surf board for Christmas!

We have been thrust into the Christmas Season all of a sudden and it was a bit of a shock. The first Saturday here was a Christmas parade of boats lit up with flashing, colourful lights and a Santa playing an organ on the deck of an old runabout. We have also hit the wet season so it is hot and muggy with spectacular lightning storms most nights. Great after dinner viewing! (No T.V and not missed)

So what are our plans for the near future? Well we really like it here so will be here over Xmas -New Year apart from a visit to Brisbane to stay with Lindsay’s brother and do some theme park stuff. After that it is a whole new year with some decisions to make over where we will go and what we will do next.

Our trip to Isle of Pines, New Calendonia.

This is a little out of order as I had problems getting a connection before we left New Caledonia. But we had such a great time we still want to share what happened with you.

The Isle of Pines is south of the main island Grande Terre in New Caledonia. On the way down we stopped in Baie de Prony. This is an eerie kind of place but quite beautiful. The Kanack people refuse to live near because, in past many battles were fought in the bay and they believe there are too many warrior ghosts around. It cetainly has that feel about it. It was also stripped of its trees to built the first houses in Noumea. Now the bush is starting to regenerate.

We sailed up to the very end so that we could have a dip in a natural fresh water pool built in the bush by a river. It was lovely and refreshing.

Both Lindsay and I were woken up during the night with strange noises which we took to be large fish jumping. Early next morning while weighing anchor Hamish and Lindsay saw a 10ft hammerhead shark swimming beside the boat. It was about ¼ the length of the boat. As we motored down the bay we saw a large turtle swim past too.

In fact it turned out to be the best day for sea creature spotting we have had. Later that day we had common pacific dolphins swimming at our bow. This was the first lot we have seen since NZ. But wait there’s more! As we approached Isle de Pins we saw in the distance whales leaping out of the water – what a display as they leapt clear and also slapped their tails. Although it would have been spectacular to see close up I was secretly glad that they were so far off.

We stayed in a lovely white sandy bay called Bay de Kuto. Hamish and Kate enjoyed snorkelling and turtle spotting as there were about 5 turtles swimming around. The best part was when they got towed behind our dinghy on their boogie boards by their father. The weather was pleasantly warm although we had to motor sail most of the way back to Noumea due of lack of wind.

We then had to prepare for our last big ocean passage for a while. There was a lot to do. I made and froze 5 dinners, bought provisions to last the 6-7 day trip, caught up with all the washing, Hamish and Kate completed as much school work as they could and we posted it off. Lindsay built a cover for our new generator and there were lots of forms to fill out for both New Caledonian and Australian Officials.

Pics from Isle de Pines

Being dragged though the water on the back of the dinghy

Hamish hand feeding seagulls in Kuta Bay.

There were three or four of these strange shark like fish called Remoras under our boat. They loved the bread that Hamish and Kate threw overboard for them.

Guess who took this photo? Hamish is becoming more and more confident snorkelling. He spent ages exploring the rocks and reef in Kuta Bay.

Arrived in Australia!

We have just arrived in Bundaberg, Australia. The passage from Noumea took 6 days. There were 2 days of very light winds and the rest was nice comfortable sailing. The night before we arrrived we watched a lightening storm over the horizon. That was close enough thank you!

People have asked what sort of things do we do on passage. If the weather is fine and the sea flat the children do school work. If not we read, watch DVD's, play on Nintedo's, read, fish (no luck since Fiji), do cooking, eat, do dishes, spot sea life and identify them (saw Brown Boobies and our first Pelican today), read, keep a look out and try to keep comfortable. Pretty much the same sorts of things we did when we sailed around the coast of NZ.

This trip was a very nice trip but as Hamsih said it seemed to go on forever - he was beginning to think Oz was a myth. But he was the first to see it. Now we are here and when the welcome party of thunder and lightening let up (thank goodness it started after we arrived) we are keen to go exploring. Stay tuned for some photos.

Noumea and Isle of Pines

We have had a fantastic time in the Isle of Pines. It is an island 60 miles south of Noumea.