Have had a great, past few days, with get togethers & a long walk along the beach, through what appears to be a Stingray, Shovel nosed Skate & puffer fish nursery! It's not a particularly comfortable anchorage at Sandhills in a Southerly so we have left our friends & come over to Raby Bay (not a very nice trip, I should add) to collect a new thermostat for the fridge (which of course now appears to be working just fine)! It's exactly 1 year ago today that we first met Alcatraz on the slip in Adelaide.

After having all met up on Alcatraz on the 19th for a bbq & excellent lightning show, we had a day of chill waiting for the weather to mosey on down to Tangalooma Sth for my birthday & after a bit of a lumpy trip we had an excellent afternoon - evening onboard Double Bubble & a fab day had by all. We have now up anchored & moved further down to Sand Hills as a bit too tidal & swelly where we were.

Departed Newport @ 7.30 arrived at Bongaree, Bribie Island 10.30 w/ Tramp II, waiting on Alcatraz to join us. Tangalooma, Moreton Island is an easterly anchorage and with the current northerly no good for today, so will chill out here & enjoy the peace.

We have accomplished quite a bit in the last few days as planned, with Skipper completely re-doing the companion way (think hallway into Saloon) something we've wanted for a very long time & had hoped to achieve at The Boatworks! Been great having "the Tramps" within co-eee & catching up w/ Gypsy Lover John once again allowing us both the use of his car, very kind. We are now prepping/re-loading our vessels ready for departure on Wed to Tangalooma to meet up w/ "the Thieves" ergo Alcatraz ready to celebrate my birthday swimming & snorkelling w/ the turtles and having some very much needed rest & relaxation, yay!

Having all met up on Alcatraz on the 19th with bbq & incredible lightning show across the skies we all had a day of chill waiting for weather to move on down to Tangalooma Sth for my birthday & after a bumby trip there, we all enjoyed an excellent afternoon/evening & a great night had by all, cheers!

Had a great night onboard Alcatraz Sunday, with return dinner Monday night on Double Bubble & a great catch up. With the approaching Cyclone we decided Tuesday to mosey on up to Newport marina & finalise some jobs onboard & catch up with the "Tramps", we were greeted by Mandy & Paul, Ali & Sol & John who helped tie up as the skipper skillfully got pulled into last spot in the marina between to commercial whale watching vessels. We all went over to the BBQ area for drinks & a gasbag & a great evening.

After travelling on through Moreton bay we are now anchored at Dunwich and just seen the arrival of Alcatraz to join us for a long overdue catch up. It was the 18th Aug, (Ali's bday Tramp II) last we've seen them. Just need the rain to stop for dinghy ride over!

After saying our goodbyes to all at the yard we have finally departed from Coomera & travelled 20 nm upstream towards Moreton Bay having to anchor for the night due to non stop rain & poor visibility. There is so much rubbish, logs, branches etc floating along that we would prefer not to hit & take out a prop!! At last we're free!

Well woo hoo & "whoopty doo" finally ready to leave in the morning, 102 days later! 1st little man did a fab job on welding our gooseneck unfortunately welds brought tangs in too tight so had to find 2nd little man to adjust "uni joint", took all week! Now painted, greased, in place & working, with mainsail rolled up on boom & boom bag & lazyjacks in place. Massive weather system with lots of rain passing overhead & NO leaky windows - hooray! So we will depart back down the Coomera river & start making our way up north through The Broadwater to join up 1st with Alcatraz & then the "Tramps" yay.

All went according to plan, 25 mins from lift in the shed to drop in the water, hang around for crane at midday with Col - Quinrig doing an awesome job stepping mast in 35 mins & all new rigging & furler attached by 3pm in stinking hot temperature, then we uncovered a problem! Luckily (& I use the term loosely) we discovered 2 cracks in the gooseneck in the boom furler which connects to the mast (think universal joint). Imagine sail up, under load, & it breaks, it could've have taken off your head or smashed in the cockpit roof so have spent all day trying to come up with a solution, find a replacement part which are long since discontinued or find a little man to fix it, weld cast iron!! so we think we may have had a win, stay tuned!

Well that's it folks, we're done, 7.30am in the drink, 12pm for mast, let there be no kibosh on it! Michelle has come down bringing her awesome curry, to feed us & to assist with the stepping of the mast. The boom & furler being lifted this morning with the help of Jess & his mates, thank you. We had a great catch up with Liberty II, Darren & Tracey over the weekend & met up with Bruce from Astrid who we met through mutual friends on Australia day in Adelaide exactly 1 year ago to the day, amazing things happen!! Here's hoping we're floating..ha!

Had a lovely visit with Pa albeit too hot for him in the end with temp 28% & 84% humidity @ 21.31pm. We also had a return visit from 2nd cousin Kelly & a nice reprieve from work. The new trampoline is finished (my fingers will never recover I'm sure) & the final bastion on a slip has been reached with primer, tie coat & antifoul finished, props & anodes in place, all she needs now is propspeed painted on & we're good to go. The new furler has arrived & Col & Rod spent the day putting that together & connecting up all the stays "for deployment" when the mast goes in. Due to the long weekend it currently looks like Wed next week we finally get back in the water & the mast to go in an hour later, here's hoping!

Hallelujah, our girl is finally painted with non skid on deck (13th) so off to Tweed Heads for the night to see Aunty Eva & her kin, lovely, lovely people & a great night was had in NSW! So back to the boat in the morning to unwrap our girl which took all day, celebrating with champagne & bubble bath under the boat. We are now having our windows coved & setting up for our new trampoline, with our rigger Col- Quinrig ( our friend coming to set up the 29yr old Profurl thankfully discovering furler ready to die in months (which it seems parts are no longer able to be replaced) ergo $3600 for new furler! On a good note however I drove back to NSW today & collected Pa from the Coolangatta airport & he will be staying with us for a few days!

After 68 days in the shed we've reached the summit, Double Bubble has been hand sanded, hand washed, the shed cleared & hosed out & DB wrapped AGAIN & for the final time (locked in, with no hatch access, getting good at this).We are prepped & ready for the non skid paint to be sprayed on, assuming there's no rain in the morning (too much moisture in the air makes the paint de-laminate).! So with a bit of luck Aunty here we come for an overnight visit. Oh and apparently, red, is oh so nineties!

Monday saw the return of the Boatworks tradies & opening of The Galley for food & ice from Christmas break, much has been achieved. The hull has been sanded & wet rubbed ready for a few fills, primer & prep coat for different (warm water temperature) antifoul. Masking up of the boat has nearly been completed, working out the rounds & lay of non skid is time consuming & complicated. Lifelines are tied on & ferrules covered with amalgamating tape. The dolphin striker timbers are now coated (4) in DWD as is the repairs to winch & block bases (when you remove masking tape sometimes the coatings are damaged). So we wait now for Choice Stainless to measure & whip up inner railings for new trampoline hopefully today.

Well Happy New Year all, after approximately $1200 worth of Fixtech's been used the windows are now finally in & absolute huge thank you to Ally & Sol aka "The Tramps" for arriving in time as our spirits were waning & helping us to get them completed, as well as the deck & window hatches, painted. As usual we have had a couple of great days/nights together, & lots of fun & fireworks were had last night. Next we move onto antifoul whilst windows set for 7-10 days, pre having final coving applied.