OZ-Bundaberg & Fraser Nov 16 2007

Hi all,Well, it's the day after the final event of the rally--Tuesday, 11/6. Itwas Melbourne Cup day which is like the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakesall rolled into one. The festivities started at 11:30 with champagne and anice buffet lunch followed by speeches and a few more awards from the raceat 2. There were the obligatory betting pools raffles, etc. Massiveamounts of champagne were consumed, reminiscent, Pete and Phil, of thatinfamous Sunday Brunch at the Hyatt. Anyway, the captain was fine, but thefirst mate was overserved--wedidn't leave until 7PM. The upside isthat, in spite of consuming mass quantities of champagne and quite a bit ofwheat products, Rose didn't feel too bad the next day. So much for hertheory that detoxing that stuff will help her improve. Of course, in herimpaired state, she did manage to invite the entire marina to dinner on ourboat tonight. That should be interesting. We had planned on leaving forSydney in a day or two, but the forecast is for continuing rain andsoutherly winds (the direction of our travels) so it looks like we might behere over the weekend.Trying a new "time line" format for this thing as it seems easier to writeas we go, rather than try to remember later. It's now Wed., 11/14, and wehave finally left Bundaburg. Last week, the weather was okay, but therewerehigh wind warnings all week. The party on the boat last Wed, was a greatsuccess with Rose providing a couple of curries and others bringing salads,etc. Everyone but one couple left around 10:30, but the captain and Joeystayed up drinking and partying until about 2. It, needless to say, was aslowday Thursday. Fortunately, we were at the end of the dock, and the loudmusic didn't bother anyone, although Rose thought we must have kept thewhole marina up--as we did her! By Friday, it looked like we wouldn't getout of there until the following week, so, rather than just sit around, wedecided to rent a car again and check out the environs. one boat did leaveFriday in spite of the wind warnings, as it was almost dead calm first thingand only about 30 miles to the shelter of Great Sandy Straight. Turned outto be a good decision, and we wished we had left as well. Anyway, ourtouring took us to the large shopping area at Sugarland for a few odds andends, including special adhesive to redo our leaking hatches and a 240V bugzapper with a 240V inverter to run it. This was our 3rd try at getting one,and we had to replace that one too, but now, finally, have a working one.This is a great success (remember, we're easily amused out here), as we havebeen trying to get one for 2 years. I figure we have about $400 invested bynow for what would cost about $50 in the states!!!! Then we went down toBargara on the coast, a cutesy tourist place, for lunch.Saturday, again the wind was very light at the crack of dawn. but we stuckaround to tour some more. This time we headed south to Wood Gate beachwhere there are kangaroos in the wild. After driving around a bit, we wenta street or two back from the beach, a beautiful stretch of 16 k, and therethey were, just lounging around in peoples' yards. On the way we wentthrough Childers, another tourist town and actually found a great place forlunch that had Mexican food. Found out there, that there was a shortcutback fromWood Gate and we'd gone 50 k out of our way on the way down. Nice drivethough.Sunday dawned again with light air and the talk of the entire marina waswhen to leave. We decided to fuel up and be ready at the crack of dawnMonday. Ran a few final errands Sunday morning including a promised stop atSubway for the lad, and left the dock to get fuel around 1:30.Unfortunately, a large boat, unbeknownst to us, had been directed to thefuel dock for clearance and was going to be there an hour or so. Okay, backto the dock but the wind was blowing 25 knots off the dock. Fortunately,yachties are a helpful sort and, we had 4 guys help us get back on. Finallyfueled up at about 3 and cleared our marina tab, which was very reasonable,planning to depart on the light air Monday morning. Of course, by now thewind had kicked up to about 30 knots, and it was really a fiasco gettingback on the dock. fortunately, the boys helped out again, but, ultimately,we had to use the electric winch to haul us in. Good thing we were on theend as navigating into a slip would have been impossible.Of course, Monday AM didn't have light air, so we didn't leave, but spentthe day relaxing and putting the boat into a bit better shape for the trip.According to the weather forecast, the wind was going to be continuingstrong and out of the southeast, exactly where we needed to go. We don'tmind motoring, but not into high winds and seas!!. Anyway, we decided,barring really bad weather, we'd leave Tuesday AM at the crack of dawn. Theconsensus with the fleet was to wait for Wed or even Thursday when the windwas supposed to clock around and die down some. Up we got with light airand left with another boat about 5:30. It was still pretty blowy and a bitwavy, but nothing as bad as some of the stuff we'd encountered. For thoseof you sailors out there, it was sort of like the conditions from Tortola toSt Martin. We just motored on the slow side and, once we hit theStraights--between Fraser Island and the mainland, conditions eased.Nonetheless, it took us 10 hours to do about 50 miles. that was better thanthe poor guy who left with us. He doesn't motor very well, sailed the wholeway, and arrived at the anchorage around 9PM!!! I think he said he tacked11 times or something. Ah, the joys of a cat with twin engines.A bit about Fraser island and the Great Sandy Straight. Fraser is thelargest sand island in the world, 40 or 50 miles long, and is one ofAustralia's best attractions. There are wild dingoes here and only 4WDvehicles are permitted. You can rent one and go dune buggying on your own,or take a guided tour, which is what we are doing today, hopefully, as it'searly and, we need to call to make arrangements. We're anchored off one ofthe major resorts and the tour operator is right here, so, hopefully, itwon't be a problem. The plan is to do that and leave for Tin Can Bay at thesouth end tomorrow. They are forecasting much lighter winds clocking aroundto more northerly which will be perfect for our trip south. Next stop afterthat is Mooloolaba where Steve Irwin's Australia zoo is which is supposed tobe a "don't miss" stop. So to keep this reasonable length, we'll justreport on Fraser and start a new one for the next leg.Okay, last part of this letter. We did our tour of Fraser Island a coupleof days ago. Awesome place. We really felt like tourists as they pileabout 40 people into a 4WD bus and drive around. There's a huge amount offresh water trapped in the sands with hundreds of creeks running millions ofgallons of fresh water into to the sea, so there are several beautifulinland lakes. There used to be aborigines there, but the white guys threwthem off and started logging until only about 15 years ago when the placebecame a world heritage nature reserve. The eastern shore, about 100kilometers long is all white sandy beaches and a few of our group did a flyover deal from a couple of planes the land on the beach. Sort of likeDaytona Beach. We also visited the rain forest, unfortunately not beerguzzling pigs like St Croix, but our guide was quite good and reported allsorts of uses the abos had for the fauna. The highest spot is about 800feet and all sand. The tour took from 8AM to 4:30 and we had a nice buffetlunch at an eastside resort as well as morning and afternoon tea. Reallynice and we're glad we didn't do the self tour with a rented car as wewouldn't have seen half as much. Pays to be a tourista on occasion!!! Abunch of the boats from Bundaburg were in the anchorage on our return, andwe're sailing with another cat south right now.So the next morning, bright and early--the sun rises here about 5--we headedoff down the channel 40 miles to a quick overnight stop at Tin Can Bay. Wereally stopped there to meet up with one of the rally guys who lives there,but when we called he told us he'd be out of town the next day or two. Wepulled in anyway to a really good marina--they even lent us the car to dosome shopping and lunch. Nothing there really, so we were off again at dawnto Mooloolaba, about 60 miles south to see the zoo and the largest aquariumin the southern hemisphere, so we'll probably be there a few days untilmoving on. We're sailing right now after beating into it for a couple ofhours getting over the bar into the ocean. Making about 9 knots and shouldarrive much earlier than planned as a result. Right now we're heading intoa fleet of fishing boats and will probably need to do something to avoid acollision, but that's another story for the next letter.CheersTim, Rose & Joey