The prediction of a year of changes is certainly proving true… Between us we’ve sold four properties, purchased, renovated and moved into another, rented out Richard’s unit, organised my super into a self-managed fund and…. sold the boat! I’m very pleased to announce that Ryan and Sarah, an adventurous kiwi couple, are the new proud owners of the Elliott 10.5…
2016 – Bring it on!
Just realised I never published this draft from January… my how things have changed since! —- The last four months have seen us back up on Children of Phoenix each month for two lovely extended weekends, getting to know some good anchoring spots in Moreton Bay. The two week Christmas office shut down period has us back on the boat…
The conversion continues…
We’ve been back a month today… in some ways it feels like so much longer. Yet people tell me constantly it feels like only yesterday for them that they were reading blog posts about us sunning ourselves in Queensland, sailing between Brisbane and Bundaberg. Just goes to show how things appear different depending on the perspective you’re looking from… In so many…
Homeward bound
The turning point of the trip has come, in more ways than one. As we start heading south again, it’s been a good time to reflect on the last four weeks. From Tin Can Bay we did another straight and shallow expedition; this time through the Great Sandy Straights up inside Frazer Island to Hervey Bay. Wanting to see some…
Too beautiful to be blogging…
No, we didn’t sail overland again! I’ve given up letting the YB Tracker emit signals every few hours; it’s set up to check emails every time it emits a signal, which uses up credits at the rate of knots… given it’s now an information device more than a safety device, usage is being restricted in accordance with budget! Despite the…
Our first coastal foray as a cruising couple…
After meeting with a potential buyer for the boat on Saturday and doing some re-provisioning, Sunday offered us a sunny, light and variable day to motor up to Bribie Island in the northern end of Moreton Bay. We just got out of WMYC in time before low tide, seeing 0.3m under the keel going out of the channel. After that…
So this is what it could be like…
Our first night at Kounungai wasn’t glorious at all… the predicted Easterly didn’t arrive, so instead of being sheltered on the west coast of Moreton Island we were exposed to both the southerly wind and the south-westerly swell.. a rocky, noisy night! Conditions settled the next day, BoM updated the forecast to southerly so we thought about going back to the…
Phoenix finds a new home…
Plans have firmed up to leave Children of Phoenix here at WMYC when I return to Melbourne. A much more appealing base from which to use her for cruising… I can see the frequent flyer points accumulating now! The crowd here have been very welcoming – a lovely, low-key club. The event organiser helped us find some local crew for…
We’re through the straight and narrow!
With huge thanks again to our Blue Nomad friends in Tweed Heads, I’m very happy to report successful navigation of the internal waterways last night. Sea Wafer went past us on Monday afternoon to give it a try but at mid-tide didn’t even get to the shallowest part before they started touching bottom. As they came back past us down…
Trapped at Tweeds and going for Plan C…
Hmmm… it seems I’m destined to get one lesson out of this trip that, while useful, is one I would have preferred to skip. Plan B was put into action a week ago; short day hops north to Queensland, at the most with some overnight sails. Investigations of the northern NSW coastline reveal that although there are a quantity of…