HOME! (getting settled and clean, clean, clean)

Good to be home surrounded by familiar things and lovely Miss Molly.

Leaving Southern Belle on Saturday morning was sad ... for me ... outwardly.  Not sure how the Captain really felt but the whole morning but he was very quiet and a tad grumpy.  Considering we've spent the past 6 months living cheek to jowl on a 40ft boat, I know he was feeling more or less sad and worried and disappointed at leaving the boat in the Rosslyn Bay marina.  It couldn't be helped due to his foot but that didn't make walking/limping away any easier.  We checked and re-checked the mooring lines and did all we could to make sure she was as safe and secure as possible.  Walking down the marina I kept looking back, saying to myself, "stay safe".  George didn't look back.  He's Scottish ... not outwardly sentimental.  I tend to over compensate for his inscrutable emotions.

The trip home took almost all day.  Buses, taxis, 2 planes and we were finally back home in Sydney!  The traffic, the people and the sheer size of the place was certainly something different.  Over the past weeks, as I got more and more excited about going home, George's typical reply was, "why do you want to go back to sit in traffic jams!"  No question he wants to stay forever on the boat .. it's such a carefree existence.  Me, I don't mind traffic and I want more ... period.  This disparity between our living ideals could be a concern, not sure - hope not, we'll need to see how it plays out in the future.

As the taxi pulled away leaving us standing on the edge of the driveway I couldn't help but relish the scene.  The huge maple tree in the front had lost all it's leaves when I left in June and now it was lush, shading the yard and the front of the house just right, the way I remembered.  The yard was tidy and everything certainly looked in place and in order. 

One thing though, Molly wasn't barking her head off like she usually does when she hears a strange car pull up.  We both realised it at the same time and started calling her name simultaneously.   Then, there she was, walking around the edge of the back porch with the most confused look.   Molly didn't bark or cry or go crazy like I thought she would.  She just quietly walked up to the open gate looking at us then, as we both hugged and loved her, she started to cry excitedly.  I joined in, it was so good to see our dog again!

The past few days here at home have been so good.  Molly doesn't venture very far away from us.  Unlike other dogs she hasn't tried to punish our absence.  On the contrary, I think if she could wrap herself around us we wouldn't be able to peel her off.  Even at night, she either sleeps with us or on the floor next to George - sweet.

The parrots have come to welcome us.  I asked Stephanie if they fed them while we were gone and she can only remember doing it once.  I wonder if they saw us back and thought, "great, they're back, time for free seeds!"

I've completely lost my mind and descended deep into a cleaning frenzy.  It's not that the house was particularly dirty.  Steph did a great job.  It's just that while living day to day you gravitate towards taking it all for granted often not seeing what needs to be done.   Believe me, coming from looking at the same 40ft of boat for the past 6 months I can see EVERYTHING that needs attention!  I just about asphyxiated myself with bleach and mould killer in both bathrooms over two days.  Honestly.  At one point I thought I'd done terminal lung damage.  Serious spring cleaning is now due to happen .. but I'm going to take it easy and do it over a few days/weeks.   The Captain has even been bitten by the bug, he was hobbling across the back porch cleaning windows this afternoon.

I love being home and can't wait to catch up with friends next week.  I wish - we both wish - Southern Belle was here, in Sydney, at her mooring.  But, hopefully, that will happen soon.

George in Boot + Brian and Megan our good friends

George is fitted with his boot - Not Good.

I haven't blogged for a while .. sorry. I felt like I needed to wait for the prevailing mood to get better .. and it has, a bit, thank goodness.

Last week we went to the specialist in Rockhampton hoping that the skipper's tendon injury wasn't as bad as originally thought ... as we rode the 40 minutes or so there was a real feeling that things were going to take a favourable turn.  But, after 10 minutes with the specialist, this "up" feeling was quickly squashed as he told George surgery should have happened in Cairns and, unfortunately, now it was too late.  Scar tissue had already formed where there should be new growing tendon - and the fact that the Captain was walking on his cast hadn't helped matters.  We both sat in stunned silence as the doctor told George he may always have a lazy foot but - as long as he didn't want to be a runner - he could live with it just fine ... IF, he kept the foot in a special position for the next 7 weeks!  I think the seriousness of the injury finally sunk in.  Georgio was then sent to a physio to be fitted with a special boot which has risers in the heel to keep his foot at an angle allowing the tendon/scar tissue to attach.  At least he can walk on it - a bit - but because its uneven with his other foot it means going any short distance can be painful.

George was pretty depressed on the return trip from Rockhampton.  He's been on the boat since May 2 and does NOT want to leave her behind.  He was very quiet for a day or two and getting him to discuss the next steps was impossible.  But, as usual, he finally came around.

Now we're going home.  The skipper realises its just going to be too hard to try to keep the boat going south.  We'll leave the boat here in the marina until mid-December.  I'm glad - but I do wish we weren't going home under these circumstances.  We've moved in with Brian and Megan for the week with our flight to Sydney booked for Saturday.  I'll be in my home by 6pm next Saturday night!  Yippee!

Good Times with Good Friends

The upside of all this has certainly been the time we're spending with Brian and Megan.  Last night we drank the bottle of champagne I had set aside to be our "arriving back in Australia" celebratory bottle.  With all the running to the hospital and living with George's cast in Cairns we never had a chance to commemorate arriving back in Australia properly.  

We sat on M & B's front veranda taking in the view over the ranges and enjoying our Champers with nibbles!  I do feel sorry for people who don't, or can't, drink.  Because the simple pleasure of sharing good wine with friends is absolutely one of the finest - and less complicated - enjoyments I can think of!

The moon was full and we shared a howl or two.

The group "howl" was particularly funny.

This week ahead will be a busy one.  Megan, unfortunately, left for New Zealand today to take care of her mom who is having surgery next week so we won't see her again this trip.  The captain and I will clean the boat and take as much "stuff" off  as necessary.  Plus we have to be sure we secure the boat for the month with double mooring lines and plastic tubing to prevent any of the ropes rubbing through.  Brian has to be finished with the apartments he's building by the 30th of November and I'm hoping to help with some of the clean up work that Megan was doing. 

I can't wait to see Miss Molly, our dog, again .. soon.

2200+ Miles there and back .. and a sad discovery

Roslyn Bay Marina as viewed from the laundry.  The laundry is always one of the first places you go to when you arrive in a new marina - that and the showers!

Arrived in Roslyn Bay Marina yesterday at 2pm after travelling well over 2200 ocean miles!  Good Grief .. Holy Shit .. and all the other exclamations I can come up with and still stay nice on the blog.

It is hard to believe that we're here - back where I started this extraordinary adventure 5 months ago.  Time has past so quickly in one way and in another way it appears to have gone as slowly as accumulated ocean miles.  And let me tell you time goes very slowly when you're out at sea traveling in a small boat!  Sometimes the boredom and/or anxiousness about getting to your next destination can be hard to manage.  It can be quite beautiful or boring or exciting - such is the nature of this kind of sailing.  There was a time that I would have considered the possibility of traveling over 2000 miles in a small boat on the ocean as utterly inconceivable.  Yet here we are once again in Roslyn Bay Marina.

But the jaw dropping coincidence ... fluke ... odd happening .. is how we've managed to leave here and get here in the same situation, only reversed.  When I arrived back in June I was at the end of my recovery from a broken foot and still tenuous about walking around the marina and getting on and off the boat.  Now, arriving months later, George is doing the same!  

The Captain getting ready to climb on board using his free foot and his knee to get up the side ladder. 
YOU COULD NOT MAKE THIS UP COULD YOU?

It's great being here.  Our good friends Megan and Brian live here and when we're at home in Sydney we only ever get to see them on special occasions.  Last night they came down to the marina around 6 to say hello and we laughed and told stories and had a wonderful time!  We're certainly looking forward to a lot more time with them while we're here.

Megan came to the marina early this morning to take us to the local hospital to see if we could get someone to have another look at George's Achilles tendon and also re-do the cast which is in appalling shape.  The Skipper - my husband - is a stubborn and hard headed man.  He will not use his crutches or stop walking on the cast.  Now, after a few weeks and lots of sea miles out of Cairns the cast has lost all firmness and its a dirty mess.  The hospital put another cast on today and gave us a referral to a orthopaedic specialist for tomorrow morning in Rockhampton.  It will be interesting to see what he says.  When they removed the cast this morning his foot was working reasonably well and he didn't seem to have pain so maybe the injury wasn't as bad as originally thought.  Here's hoping.

The Sad Discovery

Last night, before Megan and Brian arrived, George took a walk down the marina finger with his cane.  I know, he's not supposed to be walking but what can you do?  He came back excited and told me I had to come and have a look!  Our previous boat - Southern Aurora - which we had for 8 years and George loved so much was here, in this marina.  We hadn't seen her since we sold her last in 2009.  The years we had her were good and she was loved and polished and cared for with the same intensity that we give to Southern Belle.  The sad discovery is that she hasn't been cared for since.

Her sails are torn, there is about 6 inches of growth on her bottom, she's dirty and really bashed up - like someone has driven her drunk into things - all down the side.  It was heartbreaking to see her like that.  George was particularly disappointed and angry.  So sad and so unnecessary to not take care of what was once such a lovely boat.

A New Island!

The beach and distinctive rocky outcrop on the island of Curlew.

If hard pressed to say what I absolutely LOVE about this Australian Coral Coast Cruising I'd have to say one of the big, most enjoyable and satisfactory things would be discovering new places!   Certainly on the way up to Cairns everything was new and had an almost extreme WOW factor.  Now, on the way back, we've found ourselves in much the same places we visited previously.  Not so much because of the familiarity factor (although that is welcome after over 50 nautical miles travelled in any one stint) but because the places we stopped the first time are in just the right place for tired sailors to rest after an 8-10 hour journey.

Today we had a different destination .. and one we took with just a little bit of trepidation.  This morning at 0600 (6:00 am) we raised the anchor and started out for Curlew Island about 70 or so nautical miles from Goldsmith Island.   All the guide books told us the island was lovely.  One even called it, "doubtlessly the jewel of the area".  But in direct contradiction to the books, the chart and the GPS plotter showed the anchorage as having only 1metre of depth as well as being particularly tricky to enter around a large sand bank.

Anyway, top make a long story short, we got here.  Entered the bay without the help of the GPS plotter - which, by the way, I LOVE and depend on when driving - and motored slowly into beautiful blue, but very unknown, waters.  Well, obviously, it turned out well or I wouldn't be writing this blog.  The island anchorage is lovely!!!  A big white sandy beach goes the length of the lagoon which looks very inviting.  There are only two other boats here and in the distance there are islands as far as you can see.  As soon as the boat settled down the Skipper - George - spotted a turtle and the fish have been literally jumping out of the water.  Sensational - calm, blue, beautiful.

Islands, islands, islands as far as you can see.

Tomorrow, unfortunately, we're off again .. this time headed further down south to Pearl Bay.  Again it will be a new stop for us .. we didn't go there on the way up .. so we're expecting more magic like today.

Last night we caught up with Brett and his crew member, Jen, from 'Wind of Change' - or 'Windy' - one of our rally boat friends.  They came over for drinks and dinner and we had a terrific time catching up and meeting Jen who is here from France.  I hope we see them again on this trip south.

Hopefully we're only 3 or 4 days from our destination of the marina at Roslyn Bay - in Yeppoon.  Our good friends Megan and Brian live there and, as well as looking forward to seeing them again, also taking the skipper back to the hospital for another look at his foot.

More adventure ahead.

Position Update and on the move again

Southern Belle in her berth in the Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach.

Hi Ya'll!  A quick update on what's happening with us.  From my last post you can get the clear feeling that I was well and truly "over it!" stuck behind a hill enduring a howling southerly.  Well I was over it.  The next day with the weather forecast not much better we woke early to the skipper saying, "it will calm down, let's go".  I wasn't too happy about moving but we pulled up the anchor and left Cape Upstart headed for the Gloucester Passage. 

It's over now so no need to go on about it but the 50 (give or take a few) nautical mile trip was not enjoyable.  More of the same motoring into a 20-25 knot headwind the whole way.  Luckily we left very early - first light about 5:30am - so we arrived at the Gloucester Eco Resort by 1400 (2pm) in the afternoon.  Desperate to get off the boat we launched the dingy - for the first time since Nimoa - and went ashore for lunch!  I know, George should not be lugging the outboard, launching the dingy and walking across hot sand in his cast but he is impossible to stop or to try to make any sense so I've - to some degree - given up trying.

Lunch was OK.  It was Sunday afternoon and the Eco Resort had a lot of families there for the weekend and/or Sunday lunch ... to entertain the lunch crowd they had a guy on guitar and amplifier singing - loudly.  His voice wasn't that bad but he insisted on singing popular songs, but changing the beat and word emphasis with every one.  This made listening to him really really annoying.  After all the hassle of launching the dingy George couldn't wait to leave.  The best part of the afternoon was being on land and not eating my own cooking!

After a gloriously quiet night of little wind plus being on a mooring we got up at the more acceptable hour of 7:30 to a beautiful Queensland Whitsunday morning ... Clear skies, turquoise water and not too much wind.  Perfect.

Again I tried to capture the stunning beauty of the turquoise water and the photo just doesn't do it justice.

The mooring was slipped gently off the front of the boat and we motored in less than 10 knot winds to the marina at Airlie Beach.

The marina is virtually empty.

We were here back in late July - goodness it seems so long ago now - and the place was bustling with backpackers and charter boats going in and out.  Now its pretty empty.  The tourist boats still go out but there are only about a third of them from July.

We're off in the morning - early again - headed for Goldsmith or Brampton Islands.  Destination depends on the wind strength which is forecast to be a more acceptable easterly.  If the weather holds we may give Mackay a miss and head on down to Roslyn Bay.   This part of the journey will be long but, hopefully, the Northeasters will start to come our way later in the weekend.

Everyday we get closer to home.... I get happier.

Stuck at Cape Upstart

Shot of the shore at Cape Upstart from the boat.  Wish you could feel the sting of the wind!  It is fierce.

This week has been good ... up until yesterday and today.  Since leaving Cairns we've travelled almost 250 nautical miles in 4 days - only travelling during the day.  That may not sound like a lot to those of you who don't sail or go boating so let me explain how tough that can be.  Our boat - on a good day - averages about 7 knots per hour.  Sometimes with gusts of wind or waves and current behind we can do 8 or 9 but that's in good or extreme conditions.  Which means since Tuesday morning we've done 35 hours of sailing - an average of 8.5 hours a day - or motoring mostly - in pretty good conditions with me and the skipper only half mobile in his cast.  Unfortunately the famous northerly winds of late October/early November have not materialised yet which would make the trip a whole lot easier.

Yesterday - Friday - we left Horseshoe Bay at 0530 bound for Cape Upstart, a planned journey of 70 nautical miles which we hoped would end with the anchor dropped about 3:30pm.  The wind was forecast to be from the east-north-east at a good speed of 15-20 knots.  Unfortunately it came up much stronger and directly out of the southeast right on our nose.  This made the waves stand up and the going much harder and altogether uncomfortable.  Just as 'Southern Belle' gets her speed up she slams face first into a wave which stops her forward motion for a moment.   The forecast 20 knots ended up being 25+ knots (windy) by the early afternoon.  We did mange to sail some of the way which was a welcome relief from the constant sound of the engine.  This meant the 10 hour trip turned out to be more like 12 and a half hours before we could get the anchor down and collapse exhausted into the cool arms of our first beer! 

Then, with a weather forecast for Saturday of  25+ knots again directly from the southeast, we decided we wouldn't/couldn't do it again.  We would take the day off, give George's leg and me a rest and wait for the wind to change.  It turns out that was a perfectly good decision!  Today the wind has been ferocious .. gusting straight out of the south over 34 knots (very windy).  I'm so glad we're not trying to beat into this for another 10-12 hours.  I didn't enjoy yesterday.  In fact I sent a text to our friend Jenny in Sydney saying if I ever get home it will be a cold day in hell before I set foot on this boat again.  Extreme.  Maybe. But yesterday's marathon had me ready to leave the boat - for good, for ever.  I guess everyone feels that way now and again about anything but I am quite over this and ready to go home.  Nothing a couple of beautiful days less windy days won't cure.

Anyway, that's how we found ourselves stuck at Cape Upstart.  Our little anchor is doing a gallant job of holding us in place against the maelstrom.  When I finally get back home I'm going to write a letter to the anchor manufacturer to tell them just how good their product really is!!

Cape Upstart is an unusual place.  The Cape itself is a large outcrop of dry looking mountains loosely covered in trees jutting out into the ocean from an almost featureless area of low lying coast.  The bay it forms is wide and open and becomes shallow quickly - way before a keel boat like ours can get close to the shore.  There are no roads or towns or amenities here.  The shore line is dotted with houses that look to be mainly weekenders or holiday houses - probably for the city/town dwellers up and down the coast.  It's pretty boring to be at or look at from the boat but the mountains do a great job of breaking the impact of the wind so I'm glad to be here.

Our day off has actually been terrific so far - apart from listening to the wind scream outside and endure the rocking of the boat as she pulls against the anchor while riding the wind waves.  (Sorry, I'm complaining too much and I'll stop that right now!)  George decided to try his hand at making fruit muffins with the frozen berries in the fridge.  They came out very tasty.  The DVD player is getting a workout with 2 movies down and more to come tonight I expect.

Hopefully the wind will allow us to be on our way south to Airlie Beach tomorrow which is all up about another 70 nautical miles away.  We'll try to do it in two days if the weather is on our side.

I meant to write the final instalment of our Louisiades adventure - but I think I'm in a bit too much of a negative mindset to give that my best.  So I'll save it for another time - maybe while stationary in Airlie's marina.