So I cant see the wind speed/direction or the barometer reading as I've been in Brisbane since the 14th Nov, doing my annual slave fest for my friend Michelle, woo hoo, digging in the dirt, where it's been quite cool..(16deg min) so use to FNQ weather. Poor skipper suffering & waking in a sweat at 4am with A/C pump dying, so drama involved there, stay tuned. Well update, at airport now, thankfully Skipper has received new pump for A/C so boat will be nice & cool for my arrival. The motor for the anchor winch was irrepairable so awaiting new motor from NZ. Rod has been keeping up with our friends in the marina, with a nice bbq enjoyed.

We certainly have been busy, me slaving away on the sewing machine & making a constant mess, I should point out, all this sewing is on a $139 Elna, not a Sailrite Sewing machine. Skipper has made even more changes (read more expense) changing the saltwater feeding impellor pump for the generator over to a 240v driven NO impellor pump, we think that it will fix the problem of a dry start up on the impellor, thus splitting them (see 14/8/22). Sanded & re-varnished cockpit table & the big job, removed our awesome, "strong as" anchor winch, located some new bushes, pulled it apart, given it a clean & taken the motor to an auto electrician to hopefully work his magic for approx $250, so seriously fingers crossed!

We certainly have been busy, me slaving away on the sewing machine & making a constant mess, whilst skipper has made even more changes (read more expense) changing the saltwater feeding impellor pump for the generator over to a 240v driven NO impellor pump, we think that it will fix the problem of a dry start up on the impellor, thus splitting them.

So a current update has had us catch up with some friends & get on to our job list. So skipper has upgraded our solar panel to a 400 watt, which put in 29 amps on start up (more than the existing 3 we had all together), so now we're getting 50 amps in total, we assume we can then keep our wine fridge going whilst underway, not necessarily for wine! I have just completed a 90% UV block out shade screen that we can keep up whilst underway, shading cockpit whilst still being able to handle/access mainsheet traveller. So it's now onto additional rain covers at sides (over side entries) completely protecting open cockpit when it rains, of which we had 2 days of, quite pleasant.

Well thats it, we've both cracked it (along with everyone else) how BOM can get it so wrong, weather not going to improve so we've bashed our way across the sea & come into our berth a couple of weeks early & get set for cyclone season.

Worst trip this year BOM says 10 knot E, try 20+ knots SE on the nose, washing machine seas, awful! We have anchored back at Bolger Bay, Maggie Island besides our marina neighbours Sailaway. We had little choice but to go today as it's going to blow incessantly for another week, need to get away from mangroves, full moon tomorrow!

We have started our run back to Townsville by departing Haycock Island, Hinchinbrook Channel at 6am arriving at Orpheous Island 10.30am, we will stay here for the night on 1 of 2 mooring buoys and then back to Maggie tomorrow. It is a really pretty prehistoric type place Hinchinbrook but man the bugs, so by the time I finished making 14 screens & perfected the enclosure for the cockpit all hatches have been closed as we have actually been getting rain, something we've seen very little of!

So after a lovely sleep, skipper actually got a coffee in bed (rare event) & upon alighting got tripped up in the sheet, fell & smacked his head & shoulder on the bedsit so expecting great bruises! We went for dinghy ride ashore, albeit wary, absolutely no swimming, theres a caged camping area set up there with bbq, showers & water (you have to treat it first), got some great pics! With another blow expected this week we have returned to Haycock Island, midway down the channel saw a hundred "alien" bugs come out of the gaps in the portico, gross, sprayed madly. Thinking of skippers mum today, RIP Coral 5yrs.

We have left Gayundah (still bugs/midges galore, but much better than on a full moon) & twaddled on up to the top of the channel ( past Cardwell) & gone right, around to Missionary Bay atop of Hinchinbrook Island, quite a pleasant trip, lovely breeze & a couple of good looking beaches which will have to wait until tomorrow as we arrived here near on 2pm & we need to make some water & get organised for a roast for tea & hot showers, oh, finally finished cockpit screen, yay!

We left from Haycock Is. & went on up the channel to check out other anchorages, went up passed Gayundah creek (eaten there in 2020- full moon) to suss out "Boat Passage" looks good & deep enough just not enough "swinging" room, ideal if you're 30', so turned around & we are now anchored in Gayundah Creek. Still sewing screens!

Having departed Orpheus Island we've lined up the lead light & gone over the shallow bank along side the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere, traversed the channel & dropped anchor at Haycock Island in Hinchinbrook Channel, it is really quite beautiful, somewhat prehistoric, much like the oversized bugs, march flys etc! I've commenced fortifying Bubble & have been busily making more screens, just put our large back mozzie screen on, which still needs a few reno's from last trip! Much excitement instantly as skipper spots a crocodile dragging/being dragged by a runaway crab pot, called over some locals, croc dragged himself up onto the island & pot now floating in channel, great!! Trying to get someones attention to retrieve pot so as not wrapping itself around a prop!

We left Bolger Bay at 8:30 & arrived at Hazard Bay, Orpheus Island 14:30 (we came here the 1st time, near on exactly 2 years ago 25/9/20)! Aim to catch the tide in the morning into Hinchinbrook Channel (near Lucinda).

After a very busy day for us both, skipper giving Bubble a scrub & a bubble bath, I've cleaned, washed etc & grabbed a few more stores, we have departed the marina & come back to Bolger Bay of Maggie to stay in range for a signal to watch the Grand Final.

Left Horseshoe Bay came straight over into the marina, fuelled up, gas refilled, loads of washing, shopping, now sitting with Lisa, yay! We decided to spend an extra day as we had a lot to do

With a change in wind direction we have up anchored & come down to Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island (Maggie)! We got to blow kisses & give a wave to "Big Mama" Lisa out on a charter heading to Picnic Bay, can't wait to catch up & may go into the Breakwater for one night soon to re-load etc & perhaps catch up then. We're thinking about visiting Hinchinbrook channel again soon so we will stock up.

We have moved on past Townsvilles port & continued up along Magnetic islands west coast up to Bolger Bay & despite all weather maps saying wind to be in a NE direction it's a NW onshore!!! I've been wanting to stay here often but am concerned about midges now, we shall see.

As a postscript; fire up mozzie coils @ 4pm & burn whiite sage incense, no bites!!!

Up at 5am this morning, (just got to sleep at 4) and after 69nm, averaging 7kn we have chosen to drop anchor in Cleveland Bay for the night. We are 2hrs out from Picnic Bay, Magnetic Island & 3 1/2hrs out of Townsville and preferred to get settled in daylight & decide options in the morning, probably into Breakwater, Townsville grab more fuel & maybe go around Maggie Island as we've not been across the top!

Ann came and met us in the marina, very kindly drove us to the shops, droppped us back for a few chores, clean fridge & oven etc, fill up with some water then she came back to show us their new home & catch up with John, & we hope his health continues to improve (a lovely couple) nearly 2years to the date that we last saw then. We departed at 6.15 (goody), love being up early, not! So on an average of 6 knots we moseyed along for 7& a bit hours & dropped anchor in Shark Bay, Cape Upstart (think Home Hill, just below Ayr)! Few more beach shacks since we were here before, about 10 boats.

Just coming up to the entrance beacons to Bowen Marina (as opposed to anchoring) so we can have a catch up with John & Anne, get a few things & head to Townsville (Magnetic Island), Sunday. Lovely trip up, lots of coral spawn on the top of the water. Bowen marina is not up to the usual standard, we had to move berths as a broken off weathered wooden mooring pole nearly pierced port aft hull, they've put plastic tubs around some of them, which don't really help, it's mostly for fishermen & the Far Nth Cruising Yacht Club has no room at the inn.

It has blown 20knots continually whilst at Airlie, we had our final catch up with Duet & other friends who all departed to different destinations down south. So as Duet left a few hours later Martica May arrived (our marina neighbours from Townsville, Mick & Marta so with a great catch up I preceded to spend the next three days making curtains for their saloon, now with that job done & a northerly approaching, we have parted ways, with them heading south (along with hundreds of others) we have come back up to Woodwark Bay (sth of Double Bay, just 2hrs up from Airlie) to wait out this blow & prepare for the northern trip to Queens Bay, Bowen, fitting as we have woken this morning to hear of the Queen's passing, very sad.

11 days later it has stopped blowing 20+ knots for a few hours so we have made our escape from Double Bay back to Airlie Beach for a final catch up with Duet a re-stock of everything and we are out of here, you get 2-3 days (if your lucky) then 10 days of rubbish, over & over since May, with another La Nina coming we have decided to take our chances with a cyclone up north as opposed to down south. We have had the whale & calf at the entrance the whole time just hanging out, very cute & 1 seagull hell bent on living on port pulpit!

11 days later it has stopped blowing 20+ knots for a few hours so we have made our escape from Double Bay back to Airlie Beach for a final catch up with Duet a re-stock of everything and we are out of here, you get 2-3 days (if your lucky) then 10 days of rubbish, over & over since May, with another La Nina coming we have decided to take our chances with a cyclone up north as opposed to down south.

We have left Airlie Beach & come north up to Double Bay, with only 1 other boat in here (in our spot), as we came around the corner a mum whale & her calf were splashing about at the entrance, unfortunately we'd already gone passed before skipper spotted them so not the best photo! We have a week of wind heading our way hence the move to tuck in here & just hang out.

We've arrived back in Airlie Beach to drop off Michelle after a fun filled time at Macona Inlet with it's 5 different beaches. Joined up again with Duet for super fun filled time on the beach playing Boccie and back to Double Bubble for curry feast for skippers birthday, Nigel making curried cauliflower & Michelle making 2 curries, slaving away, much mirth & merriment was had by all....very quiet the following day!

Better late than never, we moved back to Airlie Beach (PROSERPINE ish area) after catching up with Stewie at Cid Harbour and so after collecting our special cargo, best friend ever Michelle, we've moved back to Macona Inlet. We've had fun times with Nige & Kez off Duet in Airlie & will meet up again possibly tomorrow, got a great fireworks display last night for Race week, lots of yachties everywhere, and now anchored near Tip Er Ova & Liquid Insanity, (great name)!

After a couple of stunning days enjoyed at Macona Inlet, lots of little beaches, heaps of turtles, still can't get the shot, lots of fish, none caught though (if only it could be like that all the time), but alas the wind is returning for another few days so we have up anchored and are heading back to Cid Harbour - WHITSUNDAY ISLAND, where we know Bubble sits comfortably in 20/25kn SE.

After a fun few days we have left Airlie & currently underway to Macona Inlet- HOOK ISLAND, as we've not been in here where not sure about signal (I hope so we play today), poor husband may have to send modem up the mast, anyway I thought I would update now just in case. Met up with "Tip Er Over" enroute & there telling us of lots of whales about so, luckily skippers not seen them! So all things anchor winch, thought we'd dodged a bullet as Rod replaced the solenoid in the switch box, sounded good, woo hoo, lifted anchor this morning, still dodgy, so it looks like $1000 for replacement motor which will then have to be altered to fit, or $7000 for a new winch & the footprint will be totally different, both coming from NZ, then that means going into a marina $200 a night in Airlie so...stay tune on that issue. Had a fun night last night at bbq on the beach, met some new boaties & finally met up with "RodKat" a boat that was anchored beside us in Raby Bay at the start of CoVid, nice, fun people!

After a cruddy trip back to Airlie Beach going around the corner from Woodwark Bay (10-15 knots, NOT, more than 25kn) we have finally settled amongst the other 80 odd boats here getting ready for next blow from the north, thats it, thats all it does, blows, blows & then blows some more, had to come back for mail & possible catch up with some special friends arriving soon! Still having issues with anchor winch, looking more like motor than switch, of course, parts not available, will have to see what clever skipper comes up with!

Status update, the wind has finally eased up so we departed Airlie Beach at 10am, with it's horrible, rolly anchorage and have come around into calm Woodwark Bay 2 1/2hrs later, lovely. We will spend the next few days here for exploring & testing new Celfi Go signal booster, seems pretty good already, was lots of fun trying to solder antenna wire outside in the wind (& no, you would have to completely pull cable through boat). We had issues again with anchor winch today, we've already replaced the deck switch once, skipper has now cleverly made up a remote hand switch to ascertain if problem is switch or winch motor (more expense)! We will hang here for a few days or so, Daystar is here & Duet will join us on Monday, before we head back around for mail.

After a not particulary nice trip we have moved back to Airlie Beach to gather up more supplies before hiding from next blow. People that cruise around here yearly have all said they've never seen this much wind & awful weather, still despite being cold it's definitely warmer here than down south. Rod did a trip over to Hamilton Island on Duet to help Nigel collect Kerry from the airport, says we won't be taking Bubble in there, plus it's $200 a night! We had a bakers dozen of mega expensive boats (1 carried 40,000 litres of fuel) worth multi millions, looked like a city at night!

We have left Bauer Bay & charter boat loons & moved over to Cid Harbour - WHITSUNDAY ISLAND (early I might add) to wait out this next blow, can't recall how good internet was so posting now.

An update purely to upload some pretty cool vista shot's, (especially since I had to endure nature walks) again!!! So minding our own business, doing stuff, I'm down stairs & hear a voice, see hands holding the boat through the open hatch & Rods yakking to someone, tis only one of his best mates from primary school, seriously, dropped his anchor in front of us! I had lots of dealings with his adorable dad Norm & mum Jan through Quins & Searles.

Well just like that the switch was flicked, the rain stopped, the fog lifted & hello blue skies & sunshine, yay! Should not complain as the entire east coast gets hammered again & goodness me did it get a bit chilly, we had to locate, trackies & jumpers, socks & slippies for 15 degree days in the Whitsundays. So with the sun out everyone made mad dashes into town (18 tenders tied up when we arrived), laundromat totally chockers, grab more stores & watch all the boat take off in different directions, Double Bubble dropping anchor in Bauer Bay - SOUTH MOLLE ISLAND, Duet having departing earlier in the day (a 2hour trip here from Airlie Beach. Got a few different jobs done with skipper replacing griller hob he raided from a stove in Breakwater Marina.

Little update, so firstly found a dentist with the lovely Taylor doing a great repair job & didn't cost a fortune, hurrah! We're still waiting for 1 more big blow, expected tomorrow (todays was a bit of a blow out) & then we'll up anchor later in the week, to an, as yet, undetermined destination. Been fairly blowy & rolly here, we thought about moving but we can dinghy in & walk up the hill to the shops, & catch the bus to Bunnings, where we're going tomorrow (yay)! We've also had a few bbq's ashore & catch up's & sundowners & a lovely meal aboard Duet last night.

After a few catch ups w/ Duet & Daystar & a bush trek across the island (nature argh) we have moved on from Happy Bay, Long Island & have returned to Airlie Beach where Te Poe Rava & "M" are, as well as P&O's Pacific Explorer & the HMAS Shepparton. Unfortunately I thought we'd enjoy a fantail on the trip & lost half my filling so now I have to locate a dentist in Airlie, just great!!!

HAPPY BAY - LONG ISLAND (SHUTE HARBOUR ish)! Again with the early morning wake up & so we have now rocked & rolled & washing machined our way across "Three Fathom Patch" & anchored in a lovely little bay having left Gulnare Inlet can't say we'll be going back there, very wind on tide & it's still blowing, see how we go here. Blue bayou playing.

WHITSUNDAY ISLAND - Updating now as we traverse Hunt Channel (talk about Unpleasant channel) as we will be turning off into Gulnare Inlet & not sure about signal, seas very choppy & blah! We had a lovely night aboard Duet, meeting their friends Andrew & Anna, also met ""M" & Tracey & John, great fun night, all of us moving now to snug anchorages for next blow, Duet dropping friends off at Hamilton Island & will join us in Gulnare, just have to watch out for the dangerous reefs on entry.

Well quite obviously I'm still having issues with certain people understanding I'm retired, seriously, happily sleeping & made to get up at 6AM, honestly!, so here we are now at Cid Harbour after awful trip across "Unsafe Passage", I kid you not, crappy trip. Anyway Skipper foolishly about to show his prowess & do a 4 hour turnaround trek up the Whitsunday Peak, me I'm going back to sleep!!

Update, sorry for delay, but Double bay is a far better anchorage than Woodwark bay and we have now moved back to Airlie Beach & caught up with Tip er ova!

We have left Double Bay anchorage & come back down an hour south to Woodwark Bay (just up from Airlie Beach). Woodwark is where the tele series by Jack London, "Tales of the South Seas" was filmed in the 1990's, we've yet to explore. Skipper says he read it's $14,000 for min 3 nights to stay in Paradise Cove Villa's the resort here!! Das Almos & Plan B are both at anchor here too. Despite the promise of gaining better reception it appears to be worse, Skipper having to put the router up the mast (already missed the footy), now I'm going to miss JB & Billy on the radio! Whipped up a nice batch of pikelets for brekky today, haven't had them in years. Still not strong enough to upload photo's. Must add it's been really cold like 16 deg at night, not use to this, I vote going back north, had to put heater on.

DOUBLE BAY - After a lovely evening aboard Duet for dinner we have parted ways with them heading down to Hamilton Island to collect friends, a $200 overnight cost in the marina. We have opted to come back to this lovely bay, all tucked in by ourselves & wait out the forthcoming blow! Rod spotted his first boat "Opal", 35' Duncannson, sans mast, a triple planked oregon (she could be getting sand/varnish job), no-one aboard. She was built by our friend & riggers dad Barry Quin, he sailed her up the east coast of Tassy & up to Qld - Runaway bay.

AIRLIE BEACH - We decided to leave Whitsunday Island at 10am & come up & over to Airlie for a few supplies before moving tomorrow for a more protected anchorage from the South Easterlies that are going to blow for the next week. Yesterday we had pretty much the whole anchorage at Sawmill to ourselves and it was the 252nd year anniversary on the day 04/06/2022 of Capt Cook being there! Oh and as a "by the by", worldwide 10 people DIE from shark attacks compared to 150 dying from falling coconuts annually! Going to have to watch where I walk on the islands now!!!

SAWMILL BAY - WHITSUNDAY ISLAND, 10nm off Airlie Beach. With the wind changing direction we have moved down to the next bay offering a bit better protection, it's nearly 2 years since we were here last that was on the skippers 60th bday. We had Duet over for a "Rod's roast" last night, they have gone out to the reef today, only 8 moorings there, & with the wind blowing up it will reduce visibility, so we've opted to give it a miss this time.

Had sundowners last night with Kerri & Phil in the beautiful Double Bay, very serene. We departed for Whitsunday Island this morning to finally catch up with Duet's Nigel & Kerry who we've not seen for 6mths, anchored in pretty Mays Bay.

DOUBLE BAY EAST - 10kn North of Airlie Beach, next bay south of Earlando. After a less than comfortable night at Gloucester we departed at 7am through the Gloucester passage and out into the Whitsundays group anchoring here in Double bay for the next blow, signal a bit "iffy" again, trying to watch the footy yesterday was a bit tricky but at least we won, yay! We have just been joined by "Te Poa Ovre" & we will hang here until Wednesday. Beautiful blue water here, yet still can't swim, stupid sharks, skipper says no getting on paddleboard either! Got a few more nice photo's.

ECO RESORT - Gloucester Island, (off BOWEN) have arrived safely, beautiful day, Bubble got a bit of a "giddy up" there for a bit, (naturally weather not as presented)! 12 knots on the nose, then 20+ from behind! Tried vinegar as a mosi deterent on my skin last night, seemed to work, (still had mosi coil & citronella lamp going)didn't stop a 3" locust scare me in the cockpit! Have set up our remote control candles in the saloon, fairy lights in cockpit & back deck, & my pretty in the saloon, no power drain necessary (& looks pretty)! We're off through the Passage tomorrow a shortcut & will anchor at Double Bay (above Airlie, off Grassy Island)!.

CAPE UPSTART - Rough parallel to Ayr - travelled 67nm. We have anchored right on sunset (& another pearler sunset I might add)! Wind started out at 6-7kn petered out to between 2.6 & 1.4 knots, still we managed roughly 6 nautical miles per hour (6nm p/h)! Just a few beach shacks here, very protected. Off in the morning to Gloucester Island (think Bowen)!

And we're off, finally leaving Townsville & Maggie Island behind us as we travel south enroute to The Whitsundays, may go through to Cape Upstart or anchor at Bowling Green for the night, yet to be determined! Had a bbq on the beach with Phil & Kerri - Te Poa Ova with yet another awesome sky show sunset & had Mick kindly drive us around the island for some more fuel & a few more stores, nearly $7.00 for a continental cucumber, so not having that. And a big Happy birthday to you Garry!

Sorry update, after a fun meet & visit with our new neighbours the previous night we left Town at 7.30am back to Maggie Is at 9.30 & dropped anchor. After all the rushing about the previous couple of days the skipper had a day off & we went ashore in the afternoon & caught up with our old neighbour Mick from Marjoriemay (he has the singing dog Wally)! Watch the sky go through some amazing colour changes & came home in the dinghy in the darkness with our fab new sensor light working a treat! We find out this morning that there's been 5 sightings of a crocodile here near where you put the dinghies on the beach so hmm!

So quick update, after a lovely night at anchor (our 1st in awhile), we put bubble through her paces & fired up the desal unit & as half secretly expected, once under pressure 1 of the plastic fittings cracked & 2 others showed signs of splitting we came back into the maintenance berth in the marina on Sunday in search of parts. It is not feasable to go through & change all plastic fittings over to stainless because it entails the breakdown & complete removal of the unit so until it becomes necessary we will just change over as required. Coming back in did gives us a chance to catch up with some other friends we missed saying goodbye to, so now clever skipper has had a big day, driving around, getting parts & has now fixed the desal, so we try "take 3" in the morning!

So with much happiness to be heading out cruising again, yet sadness saying bye bye to friends & no more puppy dog kisses we have commenced our journey & gone over to Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island & anchored for the night, so with a win for the Power & Chicken & veg roasting in the oven, we will decide if we stay a few more days here or head down to Bowling green enroute to the Whitsundays tomorrow.

It's 1 year today, since my little medi vac chopper ride off Fitzroy Island & being Friday 13th we are holding off until tomorrow to depart the marina & hang off Maggie Island for a few days, check everythings working, predominantly desal unit, (not making water in the marina). It's bittersweet leaving as we have met some truly lovely people, & made some great friends who have supported us through medical drama's, loning cars, boosting morales & having great fun times with! We have just had 2 boats from our marina in Adelaide arrive here at the Breakwater marina & I must add that the staff here are also fabulous so as the season changes & the cruising begins, it's "take two" for us with hopefully no more issues!

Well finally we are back in the water, back at the marina for the proverbial clean up. Rod pretty much did everything himself & in record time as I did the hospital thing again & as is typical it commenced raining (200mm overnight) right when we were about to antifoul & continued raining for the next week at one point even blowing whole steel ladders through the yard, it was a bit blowy!! Anyway back safe & ready to make a decision on our travel plans we think we will start with the John Brewer Reef.

I'm excited on so many levels, we are out of the marina (yay), we are finally on the slip (poo, but yay) & not long before we get back out on the water, hooray! So we were going up last week, night before we were due to go travel lift hydraulics died, ergo slip cancelled. Blew up to 23 knots as skipper was steering Bubble into the slip pen & he did a great job getting it in there, so with the help of Alan & Tyler we held her straight whilst she was lifted, several hours later she was propped in place. Boat in good condition with just a few barnacles, the midgies are flourishing here & just love eating us, so let the fun commence!

We should be in the slings right now, as the plan was to slip the boat today however there is a rather narly little whirlygig spinning up offshore so we have chosen to delay being on the hard, just in case it grows into a late cyclone, besides can't do much in the rain! Oh and yes, it's an annual thing slipping the boat, cleaning her bottom, checking the legs for any water, putting on new antifoul & anodes, so annually means, it happens every year, normally around my birthday! We have not yet decided where we will go (4 weeks to go) but think we will probably head south aim for the Whitsundays & meet up with Duet's Nigel & Kerri. We caught up with our Collingwood mate from Bundy for the footy & have been hanging out with friends on the marina, a few other things happening and have our 3rd open on the townhouse this weekend.

We arrived back in Townsville this Friday gone, the temperature is now quite lovely as opposed to stinking hot here & a tad chilly (socks, jumpers, & beanie) in Adelaide when we left. We've both been rather flat & 'fluey' so skipper has just done a test to rule out CoVid, all good, just flu. The townhouse has just listed today and looks quite lovely after our hard work. It's 3 years today since we first departed Adelaide and it's certainly not quite how we planned it! El Nino had a bit more in her than expected with storm & tempest, then a world wide CoVid epidemic wreaking havoc. So now, as we fast approach end of cyclone season and prepare to finally get moving we have Russia and it's ensuing global havoc! We have not decided what we're doing or where we're going, so we'll watch weather, slip Bubble & give her a fresh lick of paint & fuel up (at what price remains to be seen) and hopefully not have to do the "Waterworld" thing anytime soon! ps Happy 94th Birthday Aunty Kath xx

I'm writing this whilst sitting at Palermo's Restaurant in North Haven, South Australia waiting to surprise my old boss for brekky today. Prior to our departure to Adelaide we spent an arvo with Helen & Mark Quin (Rod's mate from his youth) who just happened to be staying at Magnetic Island & then had a final catch up with Tess & Ziggy before we flew down to the cold & they departed Townsville in Perlargic for Jervois Bay NSW. We are staying on our friend Terrys boat for a week whilst we prepare our townhouse for sale, catch up with a few friends & avoid the humidity in Townsville with the ridiculous weather system that's happening, non stop rain down along the south east coast. We fly back Friday when it will hopefully be cooler.

So we had a lovely catch up with Georgia & Aayden & then with Michelle staying for a night, then she was off to Tully for a week whilst Kerry got into full party planning for my 60th, then unfortunately she had to go to Brisbane & Michelle returned to take over the job of personal assistant for the big day. So as well as some beautiful flowers I received some stunning Royal Doulton crystal tea light holders, & a set of 3 wax USB charged candles among other gifts. The marina staff decked out the J to L letterbox surrounded with balloons & a card inside, very kind. So up the top to the bbq area with Michelle & Rod (the engineer) to construct the champagne fountain, a fabulous success with only 2 breaks out of 35 glasses! A great afternoon, evening was had by all!

So after the initial lightning & thunder storm that Georgia & Aayden flew in on last week (which thankfully cooled the town down) the weather came good so we managed to get away yesterday to come over & anchor at Picnic Bay, Magnet Island for the night. We had a bus ride around the island for the kids to have a look see, & a swim inside the stinger nets back to the boat for a lovely bbq tea! We now have fairy lights permanently up around the verandah & inside the saloon so not much drawing of power, I managed to find myself a perfect birthday present at Kuranda and add to the fabulous light display with a multi coloured rotating squid light, awesome. The kids last night tonight with them leaving tomorrow & Michelle arriving in the evening, so it will be a quick cabin turn over!

With the arrival of Georgia & Aayden we have secured a rental car & driven up to Cairns & wandered through the Kuranda Markets then drove down to Palm Cove for tea & then off for the night at Micky's motel. Departed Micky & Sues driving through the Atherton Tablelands & had a lovely time in the Innot hot springs, a series of 5 pools, travelling through Ravenshoe the highest town in Queensland we visited Lake Barrine & copious waterfalls, 1 being the longest drop in the country -Wallamans falls. Next day a few more falls & finally got to Paronella Park, awesome! Working our way back to Townsville via Paluma & Little Crystal Creek, chalking up 1350km.

Ater having had visitors for a huge roast last night that the skipper whipped up, I'm enjoying a lazy Sunday arvo, whilst Rod is back to the A/C, checking, clearing hoses etc. Not a great deal happening at present, although we have had a great deal of rain (380mm overnight) & a extremely wet Australia day bbq with friends, just the usual maintenance jobs as we await imminent arrival of Rod's daughter & her beau on Thursday, we hope to be able to hire a car & do a bit of driving as weather not looking entirely conducive to sailing but waterfalls should be awesome. Still plodding along with Dr's, with one op down & appears to have helped with pain, we shall see.

Finally, we have a cool sea breeze as disgustingly hot @ 39 deg 67 humidity a couple of hours ago with skipper head first in cupboards fixing/clearing saltwater intake on air-conditioner, of all the days & additional sadness as my inflatable pool/bath split one of it's seams, new one on order! We have had lots of get togethers, walks to the rockpool for a swim & even enjoyed a picnic there for Kerri's birthday. Had a lovely bbq up top with Ziggy & Tess, & Phil & Kerri last night, with discussions on what our next moves are after cyclone season. Our friends on Duet chose to go down south instead of suffering the heat here & have now endured lightning strikes, rain, hail & strong winds & not long since received a Tsunami warning! We're still dealing w/ Dr's & hospitals appts hopefully that saga will be over soon.