2010 Life at Sea

Still in the Queensland bush/outback. Last night we were in Carnarvon Gorge in a wilderness lodge. Kangroos and wallaby’s at the front door. We did about a 3 mile walk into the gorge….the easy one..

we decided to drive N&W some more. Ended up in Rubyvale, fossicking for sapphires. The cows roam free thru the little town, if you want to keep them out of your yard, you have to fence. What a hoot. H

we drove all day from Bundaberg and still not very far west , fun to look at all the different trees and stuff.. Staying the night in a mining town at the Coal & Cattle Motel and Bistro. Did have a wo

yesterday afternoon when we arrived in Tin Can Bay we went to the little Cafe’/Marina where dolphins are supposed to come into the creek. We spoke with one of the ladies in the cafe’, she said that th

we had a great day driving around through the mountains. About 3pm we realized we were near Tin Can Bay, didn’t have time to stop here with Special Blend. There is a little place right at the tip of t

We are off this morning to do a walk-about. Got word yesterday that the boat will not be loaded til the 4th or 5th of Nov at the earliest. It is being held up because of the rains somewhere north of h

nothing exciting goin’ on here. Wish you were here to help pack up. Jane Nason “Venture” came yesterday to take all Jim’s ex-tre oil, flares ( we could have had a great fireworks show) booze, etc. We

Scarborough Marina, Australia. This is where we started our 2010 Adventure in May. Glad to back back safe and sound and sad our South Pacific Adventure is over. The next few days will be a busy time.

Mooloolaba Marina, Tom and Betty Lee (Quantium Leep) met us last night to help us tie up when we came in about 9pm. Went for a bite to eat and ended up at Mickie D’s, everything else was closed. This

we have had our very own whale show, this last one was so close to the boat we could hear the plop. I was focused on the baby showing me his tail when the BIG one did a full breech, the spray was yard

We are about 12 miles off shore. Tonight is the kind of night we all love (motor boats) clear sky, little wind, stars, moon….no rough seas. The past few days have been horrendous. We will be going i

25*22′.650S/153*00′.238E we are making our way through the Sandy Straits between Bundaberg and Mooloolaba, have to go into it on the incoming tide and exit on the out going. One good thing is that we

Today- Sunday, finally having a better ride. since Friday morn it has been horrendous. We can only do 1300rpm, or we start to run hot, right now we are doing 4.2kts. Have gotten as low as 2.5. Jim thi

Slow going at the moment, currant against us only doing 3.2kts UHG! Having a bumpy ride, didn’t expect it. Wind got up to 30kts earlier. I’ve been down for the count but back up again. We may make a s

7:30pm our time, we are headed out of Mackay Harbor. Had a BBQ with some of the other cruisers and we’re off for Brisbane..Scarborough Marina, will probably be a 3nighter. Will let you hear from us in

6:30am-your time. We have turned back engine running too hot. Not taking any chances. Will be in Mackay Marina till further notice. Martha

8:30am, when Jim replaced the alternator he put the belt back on wrong, so It was slipping at high RPMs. he worked that through in his mind last night ,quick fix this am, so we’re off. Have about 500n

Yesterday we took a taxi into town, about 15 miles ($20.00) one way. Went to the mall had to mail all our paper work to the Sevenstar Transport people, had lunch, and decided we didn’t want to spend a

All is good here, enjoying eating someone else’s cooking and cleaning up. Wind is still up so looks like we will be sittin’ here for many days to come. Working on getting Special Blend ready to load o

Well my birthday had a rip roaring start. We did an overnight passage from the Whitsunday Islands to Mackay Marina, in Australia. I was on the 4am watch, about 4:30 the engine didn’t sound right. Any

We are back at Black Island (Bali Hai) 20*05′.021S/148*53′.407E. We will snorkel here in the morning, hope the turtle shows up. This morning we snorkeled the reef. The first time the currant was so ba

Looks like we might put SB on a freighter coming to West Palm Beach, it will leave here sometime the end of Oct give or take, still need to iron out all the details. We’ll see how it all goes. Martha

we stayed a little too long at the snorkel spot, after you’ve seen the best, it’s hard to se just so-so. BUT I did get in the water and saw a gorgeous hot pink parrot fish. No good pix thought just to

We have terrible visibility this morning, cannot see your hand in front of your face, trying one more spot before we head out. I’m not giving up with out a fight. Martha

Yesterday early we came out the the Reef, Hook,Line and Bait Reef to be exact. It has several big bommies called The Stepping Stone. They are in about 50ft of water and come up to a few inches on top.