Tuesday 30th December - Gladstone Marina

Earlyish start so we could finish packing.

We loaded up dad’s ute, and he dropped us at the domestic Airport terminal so we could collect our hire car.

We’d left it too late to book a train back up. But having the hire car (a bonus that we got upgraded to a nice Forester) meant we could take more stuff back.

Hadn’t made it too far from the airport before we ran into traffic… and it was then slow all the way to the 110 zone.

Stopped for lunch at the Traveston services (where we stopped on the way south!).

Uneventful drive. Girls watched movies on their iPads, I had music. Kristie did some napping.

We collected a small Woolies order on the way through Gladstone on the way to the marina; we had stocked up on meat before we’d made the decision to head south for Christmas so we still had a lot of food onboard.

Ended up using two full trolleys to get all our stuff from the car down to Lazuli.

Back onboard, and the girls weren’t impressed with finding a gecko in their bathroom!
I tried to throw it overboard but didn’t have a good enough grip, and it landed on the deck and scurried inside the cover for the spinnaker pole :(

Wednesday 31st

I had to drop the hire car back to Gladstone airport. Made the most of the car and went to Coles and Woolies on the way to get some bread.

The girls and Kristie all made the most of the aircon in the lounge (it’s also midge free!).

Back to Lazuli for lunch.

I took some jerrycans up to go top up our fuel.

We both had a nap before the afternoon/night celebrations commenced.

We walked up at 4pm to meet up with Tandanya at the tables up at the Marina, and enjoyed sips and dips with them.

The three girls (Kristina, Emma, and Mia) put on a “band performance” in the lounge.

There was a NYE festival in the marina parklands which we planned to head to.

There were two rides (a spinny tea cup ride, and a bungee trampoline), mini golf, Dagwood dogs, and fireworks at 8pm.

They followed up with a ride on this with Mia.

Then they pressured me into going with them so I could spin them really fast.

The last time I felt this sick was on the rides at Coffs on the way south!
I may not get sea sick… but these rides do me in.

Time for some food and to sit down ready for the fireworks.

I missed out on one.

Fireworks were pretty good.

After the fireworks, the three girls spent quite a while running around with glow sticks and other glowy things they’d bought there.

Got the girls back to Lazuli and into bed.

There were going to be midnight fireworks that the girls both wanted to watch.

Kristie watched a movie while I napped!

Woke up Emma (couldn’t rouse Kristina) for midnight fireworks.
We got off the boat to sit on the marina next to us and watch them.

Thursday 1st January 2026

We leave Gladstone today as we have a shortish weather window to get south. Tandanya would be heading the same way at the same time as us.

Aiming to head to Pancake Creek tonight.

We were waiting for tide to start heading out as we didn’t need to fight that all the way there, and we had to wait until the tide was up a bit to get into Pancake Creek.

Took the rubbish up to the bins and did the usual boat prepping.

Kristie went to lounge and waited in the aircon there until we were ready to depart.

We finally took off at 10am.

Lure in, but didn’t catch anything.

Kristie napped along the way.

We had some light rain, and Easterly winds so we motored the whole way.

The mozzie spray came out early in anticipation of our time in the creek.
We were all prepped before we started heading in.

Anchored in more or less the same spot as last time, dropping anchor at 3:30pm.

Mozzie coils deployed as soon as we were done with anchoring!

Time for Sip’s ‘n dips.

We watched Tandanya come in not long after us. They hadn’t prepped with mozzie spray and they were doing the “mozzie dance” while trying to drop anchor!

As we were in Pancake Creek, we had to have Pancakes for dinner :)

Friday 2nd

Anchor up at 6:15am and followed Tandayna out the creek.

We both had our wet weather gear on/ready to put on.

Motored around the headland and kept motoring until we could get the sails up.

Sail up at 7:30am.

Rain! We had 9-12kts ESE most of the way. Apart from the rain it was good sailing conditions (apparently I was the only one that thought that!)

No autopilot as there was no sun and the voltage drop meant it kept dropping out. I turned off Starlink to help with power but still didn’t do much.

We had to drop the sails and motor around the shallow bit just before the main channel into the river.

Anchored in the middle of the river just past the tug boats.

Nice and calm!

Saturday 3rd

Again we followed Tandanya out of the river, leaving at 6:30am.

Lure out when we could (there’s a few green zones) but no luck :(

Not much wind, but managed to get the sails up at 8:30. We could only sail for 2 hours then the wind dropped, and we had to motor again :(

Saw some dolphins on the way.

Got all the way to Tangalooma and dropped anchor just north of the jetty in what we later found out was apparently Tandanya’s spot :)

Haven’t been off the boat since we left Gladstone.

Sunday 4th

Tender into beach for a swim in the resort pool and hot spa.

Tandanya joined us there as well.

I ordered some hot chips and drinks as soon as the kitchen opened at 11am.

An hour later we still hadn’t got our chips, so Kristie went up to check; they’d given them to someone else.

One of the staff brought out our chips and did the “Sorry it happened can I offer you a drink?” which Kristie promptly said “Yes please, I’ll have a cider!”.
I think she was a bit taken aback assuming we just say “no it’s ok don’t worry about it”.

Went to the shops for ice cream and bread, but lost Emma on the way.
She’d run off to catch up with Mia, but went the wrong way. Then we left and by the time Emma got back to the pool to look for us (she knew she was lost) we weren’t there.
She found one of the staff, who walked her to the boss, who then took her over to the shop to find us.
She was quite relieved to find us (and us to find her!).

I took the girls back to Lazuli for what was left of the afternoon, while Kristie stayed behind on land.
She found a hot shower!

The girls and I came back in for sunset drinks at about 5:30pm, but had a bit of a delay as a dingo came past.
(we then noticed the “no food here due to dingos” sign at the tables!)

Tandanya joined us on the beach, and we helped pull their tender up the beach a bit.

No sunset as it was too cloudy.

We all walked over to go and have dinner at the Sand Bar and Bistro with Tandayna.

Ran into old Unidive friends Tam and Dav, who were also parked out the front of Kingfisher in their yacht.

With dinner done, we went for a night walk.
We had purchased UV lights after our time at Kingfisher on the way north (back in April!) and we hadn’t yet used them.
The same tree trunks still had the scorpion hives in them, so we spent quite a bit of time looking at them (they glow under UV light!).
Ended up chatting to quite a few other random people that Kristina told to come and have a look at the scorpions.

Went looking for the sugar glider, and then the eel under the bridge by the resort pool.

Kristie found a sugar glider, but the girls and I were too far ahead and it was gone by the time we got back to Kristie.

Monday 5th

Left Kingfisher at 8am to head south.
Sheridan Flats is very shallow and we need to do it on high tide.
We had timed it perfectly for the high, and the shallowest we saw was 3.1m depth.
Two other yachts were heading through at the same time (a large cat, and “Tequila Mockingbird” - Tam and Dav’s yacht).

Had the lure out but brought it in for the shallows.

I worked once we were through the shallow sections and left Kristie at the helm.

Dropped anchor down off Tin Can Bay (near were we stopped on the way north).

As soon as we had the anchor down the girls packed their bags and I dropped them into the shallows so they could walk to their motel.

They were abandoning ship and taking the easy way to Mooloolaba!

Kristie walked to IGA, then they all got a courtesy bus to the local bowels club for Chinese dinner.

Sometime in the afternoon, all the navigation instruments shutdown and wouldn’t turn back on.
(coincidentally the same thing had happened just before we started sailing south with Justin!).

I had purchased a busbar to replace the setup that was there, but had never installed it. Now was the time to do it!
Sweaty work, but when all done the instruments came back on, and much less voltage drop than before!

Justin turned up about 8:30pm, and I picked him up from the boat ramp and we went back to Lazuli for Zooper Doopers!

Tuesday 6th

Up early as we’ve got a big day today. We had the anchor up at 6am and started motoring towards Inskip.

With high tide not for another few hours, we were pushing hard against the incoming tide the whole way.

I had called the CoastGuard the day before to get updated navigation points, and they were still more or less inline with what our Boating app had and used on the way north.
They had also mentioned the conditions were about as good as it ever gets!

Logged onto CoastGuard for the crossing.

We were the first boat heading out, but two others started following not long after we got past the barge landing areas.

A very easy bar crossing; maybe 0.5m swell max, and no wind. Still pushing against the tide.

Wind was maybe 8knts or so, but SE, so we motored out across the top of the Wolf Rock conservation area (we were trolling).

The large cat had overtaken us and was heading out on a SE heading past the cape, we followed.
They turned and set sails to sail south (maybe just west of south).

We did the same, and our heading would put us halfway between Noosa and Double Island (the wind was supposed to be more East!!).

We followed, maybe sailing higher into the wind than them, but slower (they would have been motor sailing for sure!).

The closer we got to Noosa, the more the wind swung around to the East. It eventually let us sail around Noosa headland without having to tack.

Justin and I took turns sailing, but it was mostly J at the helm.

At one point we hooked something massive, it took our line and ran; with J not letting more line out it busted off :(

The wind dropped a bit when we were down towards Old Woman Island.
Once it dropped below 8kts we started motor sailing.

Dropped the sails and set fenders and lines before we got into the river.

We had come in just after low tide. The river entrance was fine, but coming past the park on the left (and trawlers on the right) it got down to 2.6m.

I logged off at 6:30pm.

Berthing was easy (but still nerve wracking) - I reversed down the arm, and could then drive forwards into the berth.
Our allocated berth was nice and wide, and with Kristie and Russ on the dock to catch lines it went very smoothly.

That was my day!

Kristie and the girls

While J and I were sailing, the girls hung our in their hotel until the 10am checkout time!

Kristie drove Justin’s car down to Mooloolaba and checked into the Marina to get the keys.

With that done, they walked into town for lunch.
Then off to the beach for swim; they got there and realised they didn’t have any of the googles.
Back to the car to check, but they weren’t there.

They ended up just swimming across from marina, and borrowed a pair of goggles from lifeguard.
They were too big for Emma.

With the swim done, it was back to the marina for a hot shower, then across to the park for “Sonic Boom Beach Mission” that had free face painting, Jenga, and ball games.

Back to the marina to charge the phone and some iPad time while waiting for Lazuli to come in.

The girls were on lookout at the end of the marina arm as Lazuli came in, and Kristie caught lines with Russ (thanks Russ!).

With Lazuli tied up and secure, the four of us and Justin walked down to get fish and chips, however they had closed at 7pm (it was 7:01) :(

Justin drove the girls to Savvy Squire while I walked.

Enjoyed the dinner there, then J drove home.

Wednesday 7th

I had quite a bit of work to catch up on today (after not getting any done the day before).

Kristie filled up the water, hosed the boat down, and did a trip to the laundry.

I flushed tender engine then got stuck into some work.

Lunch on board, then the girls got ready to have a swim with Rach.

They also enjoyed an ice cream, and another round of face paint from the Mission.

Many moons ago, Viv and Russ (and Nic & Kenny) had mentioned that Wednesday night at the marina was “Steak Night”.
We had been looking forward to that.

I cooked up sausages for the girls, while we went out to dinner.

Turns out that “Steak Night” is now “Rice Boi Night”. Viv and Russ, and some other cruisers were already there.
Delicious food.

When Russ had caught our lines yesterday, he had mentioned how they’d given up drinking and were on to day 7 of no booze (Kristie and I were equal parts surprised and disappointed!).

Viv, Russ, and I all shared a bottle of red :)

It started bucketing down while we were at dinner; I called girls to ask them to shut the hatches that we’d left open.

They did a pretty good job, however I had opened Kristie’s window (above her bed) and the girls didn’t know it was open so it didn’t get shut :(

The top of her bed and pillows were saturated :(

I took both of the pillows up to the laundry and put them through the dryer; one still a bit damp afterwards.

Thursday 8th

More rain.

Headed up at 8am (in the rain) to get our Woolies delivery.

Peter and Teagan took Kristie and the girls up to Coolum to have some fun at the Aqua park.

Exhausting work, and then stopped off at a pub for lunch on the way home.

Kristie had an afternoon nap, while Emma and I did banana muffins.

The girls had been trying their best to convince me to get my face painted for the last two afternoons.
We finally went out and got a family face paint!

Girls then played beach ball games with the Mission crew.

On the way back to Lazuli, Kristie and I had been contemplating what we’d have for dinner.

We ran into Viv and Russ at the marina gates, and they were on the way out to dinner (Indian).

They invited us to come along and were happy to wait while I sorted out a quick dinner for the girls: sausages and pasta!

Kristie and I didn’t have time to change/shower, so we went out to dinner with face paint still on!

Rain again, so another call to ask the girls to shut the hatches.

Walked home and discovered that the marina hot water system broken: cold showers only (unless you want to walk way across to the other side of the marina).
To be honest, it’s so hot that cold showers aren’t a problem!

Friday 9th

My brother Simon and his family are also up in Mooloolaba on their yearly beach sojourn.
They had set up at the beach just across the road from the marina, so it was easy to go meet up with them.

One of my sisters (Suz) and her daughter Abby were coming up to stay the night on Lazuli.
They turned up after 11am (would have been sooner except my sister is navigationally challenged while driving!) and didn’t swim.

Back to Lazuli to get out of the sun for a bit: lunch and Minecraft for the girls.

We walked up to Simon’s apartment for swim and dinner. Kristie and Emma went via Coles to get some supplies.

My parents had also driven up to see us. We enjoyed a swim, spa, and takeaway pizza for dinner.

The pizza delivery was quite late due to them being very busy.

Before we could head down for ice cream, we were treated to a 15min dance performance from the five girls.

Walked down for ice cream, then walked home.

Saturday 10th

Suz and I went for a Parkrun at Brightwater, which is only about 10m drive away. Good flat course, although half of it was in the sun and really quite hot.

We had left some towels and ham at Simon’s place the night before, so we dropped in there on the way back to the boat.

The three girls did some more Minecraft :)

Eventually we got going and tried to go to the Aqua park, but we’d left it too late so came back for a swim.

Kristie had booked a massage on the assumption we were going to the Aqua park and there wasn’t room in the car for her; she enjoyed her time there.

Swim at the beach, Simon and family were there again.

Kristie stopped at Coles on the way back to get a hot chook.

Said goodbye to Suz and Abby and we spent a few hours inside hiding from the extreme UV!

Kristie did some laundry, and then walked up to Sunreef to get a wetsuit (girl there had ‘confirmed’ they had the one Kristie wanted in stock) but turns out they had a different one in stock.

I got the washing from the dryer.

My boss Gary and family came to check out Lazuli, and brought some fish and chips (lots of!).

Sunday 11th

Kristie and I are diving the HMAS Brisbane this afternoon, so Rod and Chris are coming up to look after the girls.

They arrived at 9am and enjoyed a cuppa onboard.

It was getting quite hot under the canvas so Kristie took them up to the grass area and nice shade under the trees.

Early lunch, then Scott picked up Kristie and I to go to over to Scubaworld to dive HMAS Brisbane.

The viz wasn’t that great, and surface conditions were pretty rough.
It was interesting to check out the changed structure since Alfred smashed past.
We saw rays, a leopard shark, octopus, lots of fish.

While we were diving the girls did some rock painting, and enjoyed lots of baked delights, and decimated the lolly box Grandpa takes everywhere.

They finally managed to get the girls off the boat and walked to the beach, but the water was green and stinky and full of algae, so no swimming.
Walked and got an ice cream instead :)

We all (family + a few of the divers) went to the fish and chip shop for dinner.

Back to Lazuli to hang up dive gear, then it started raining.

Monday 12th

Rained all day.

I worked.

The girls all had lots of screen time.

French toast with Bacon for lunch. Yum.

I needed a quick power nap after lunch, then managed to do some more work.

We were going to have Nelly and Pete over for dinner, but it was too wet, so we went out to Rice Boi instead.

Got a lift home with them (it was raining).

Tuesday 13th

Viv and Russ dropped by to say hi as we were originally going to be leaving this morning, but with the given forecast we’ve been pushing it out and this stage we’ll leave on Friday.

Rain.

Work.

Screen time.

Dirty Boat Bottoms turned up late afternoon to give Lazuli’s bottom a clean.
All was good down below.

Our first home cooked dinner here in the marina!

I did a load of washing/drying.

Wednesday 14th

Work.

Kristie went for a walk to the spit.

Kristie, Kristina and I went for a late swim at 3pm. Waves were good, but the sea lice smashed us so we got out earlier than planned.

Rice Boi with just us and Viv & Russ (the girls were on board with sausages and pasta again :)

Thursday 15th

I went up the mast on Bella to check the Radar connection.

Work.

Dinner out with just us and the girls at the Savvy Squire.

We walked to get ice cream from the same shop we went to last week; Kristie pointed out that we walked past 7 to get to the one we I wanted!

Saw Viv and Russ at the laundry (they were waiting for us) - they had a lovely departure/thankyou gift for us.

Friday 16th

Left at 9am. Viv and Russ came to help with lines, but not before another round of goodbye hugs.

No wind, so motored.

Had the cover on as there was light rain.

Once the rain cleared, the wind died off altogether.

Lure out the entire way but no luck.

With low tide in the afternoon, we wouldn’t be able to get into our berth in Scarborough until tomorrow mornings high tide.

Arrived at Bribie and dropped anchor just before 3pm.

Sip’s ‘n dips, our last on Lazuli!

With the others in bed, I enjoyed a quiet whisky up top, reflecting on the trip of a lifetime that was almost done.

Saturday 17th

Up at 6:30 and motoring at 7am (no wind) so we could get there before high tide.

Uneventful trip. Shame our last passage had to be motoring :(

They’d given us the berth right at the bottom of the ramp, so we had to go around all the boats.

Thankfully we had enough depth so no issues getting stuck.

Two of the lads at the marina came to catch lines, but it was one of our easier landings: light blow on and no boat next to us!

My mum and dad had driven our Landcruiser up for us and arrive not long after we got there.

It was all systems go to get our first load of stuff off Lazuli.

We loaded up my parents car, and then went around to a local cafe for a late brunch.
Great food!

Mum and dad then took the girls back to their place while Kristie and I continued filling up the Landcruiser with gear.

We were back at Graceville late afternoon.

Enjoyed hot showers :)

It has been 400 days since we left Brisbane to head south.

The trip is officially over.

We’ve had an amazing time, but it’s now time to focus on land based activities: schooling, waterskiing, scuba diving, camping, and catching up with friends and family (and going back to work full time).

I’ll do one more follow-up blog with stats and all the trip details, but that will be a month or so away.

Friday 5th December - Coral Sea Marina

Our friends on Tandanya are heading off today, so farewell to them. The girls gave Mia a big hug!
They are heading straight down towards Gladstone, where as we will have a few days around the Whitsundays before we head south.

Did the usual pre-departure boat jobs - filling the water and dropping off the rubbish.

I dropped our car keys up to office as my parents are flying up to come and drive our LandCruiser back to Brisbane for us!

Discovered we were nearly out of sunscreen, so Kristie walked off to go and purchase some more.

We finally got going just after 10:30am.

Got out clear of the moored boats and we quickly had our sails up and sailing at 9kts towards Blue Pearl Bay.

There were a few available moorings so we choose one close to where the sculpture was supposed to be

I was 5min late for my Friday afternoon meeting, joining the call as Kristie was still trying off the mooring lines.

As soon as the meeting was done, Kristie and I geared up to go for a snorkel and find the Maori Wrasse sculpture that we hadn’t found last time we were here.

Note: Kristie wasn’t leaving the Whitsundays until we had found ALL the sculptures ;)

The viz wasn’t the best so it made finding it difficult.

We both had a few jump-scares from a real Maori Wrasse that came out of the gloom to check us out.

We swam around in circles for ages, before I got into the tender to make a call to get directions.
Russ gave me the right directions/instructions; we needed to look for an “X”, not a “+” (cross).

I lined up the tender and Kristie swam over and found it straight away.

We went back to collect the girls and brought them to see it as well.

We never really planned to spend the night here, the swell wraps in quite a bit so unless conditions are great it’s not the nicest bay to stay in overnight.

Motored across to Stonehaven, which compared to our last visit was rather quiet and we had the pick of moorings.

Sunset drinks, followed by a light rain shower

Saturday 6th

I caught up on some work.

Got going early and motored across to Langford to get a mooring.

We started lowering the tender when the rear winch rope snapped and the tender fell to the water (with the front still up high)!
No damage, I cut the broken rope off and tied it back up.

Kristie and I jumped in to go and find the turtle statue. This one is marked on the navionics maps.
However, when we got there, the position was right under the back of SV Summer Jo.

Depending on which way they swung we could get down and check out the turtle.

Went to get the girls but by the time we got back to the spot, SV Summer Jo was hanging right on top of statue, and they suggested we come back later. They weren’t happy we were close to them.

We weren’t happy they were anchored in a no-anchoring zone and were sitting on top of both public tender moorings!

They claimed they were doing nothing wrong, and had anchored outside the “No anchoring zone”, and they had 100m of chain out.

Fun fact: in a “No anchoring zone”, no part of your anchor or chain can be inside that zone!

On the way back to Lazuli Kristie jumped in for a swim and to take a photo of a real turtle.

Tender up, and we motored towards Manta Ray Bay, but both moorings were occupied so we picked one up in Luncheon Bay.

We all got into the tender and went over to the tender moorings in Manta Ray Bay.

The usual enormous schools of fish that we had last time weren’t there; it was mostly just the GT’s and George (the local Maori Wrasse) eating our bread.

We swam over to the Manta Ray statues, and we all took turns swimming down to touch them. Only I had seen Emma swim down last time so she wanted Kristie and Kristina to see her do it again.

We had a big high tide, so possibly a bit deeper than last time; about 6m to the statues and they both got down ok.

Motored back to Stonehaven as the ENE swell made most of these bays on the top of Hook Island pretty unpleasant!

Sunset drinks.

Sunday 7th

Woke up and motored back across to Langford Island to try and snorkel the turtle statue without SV Summer Jo.

Half a dozen turtles were swimming within a short distance from the mooring; they were feeding on all the jellyfish in the water.

Family snorkel on the Turtle statue. Lots of little jellyfish in the water so we didn’t spend too long in the water.
With the turtle found we then had a go at finding the coral polyp statue. It also was marked on the maps so easy to find.

Motored around the top of Hook Island to head around the corner to Mackerel Bay.

We grabbed one of the two moorings there.

The Marine Parks guys came to say “Hi” and just check we knew what zone we were in.

Kristie and I had a snorkel. We had the spear gun in the tender in case we found any lobsters but we didn’t spot any at all.

Great coral; a few fish and we saw a stingray.

Sailed out towards Chalkies. A bit of a slow sail, and we eventually had to drop the sails so we made it there before sunset!

The resident turtle turned up when we got there, but we weren’t quick enough to feed it so it didn’t stick around.

Sips and dips on the beach for our last night in the Whitsundays.

We went for a walk down the beach to get some photos.

We climbed the sandhill to get a bit of a view and some better sunset photos.

I had a bit of an emotional moment on the beach; we have a lot of good memories from our time around the Whitsundays, and many of those good times were on the beach here.
It is bittersweet leaving it all behind: we have to go south, but we could easily spend more time here.

I put our green squid light out. Last time we were here with Jess and Chris there was a school of tiny squid (maybe about 6 inches long).
Tonight we had (maybe the same?) similar sized school turn up, but they were now about 3 times that size. Kristie and I both put lures in but still couldn’t catch any of them :(

The turtle turned up to check out the green light and gave us a second chance; we fed it some of the squid we had.
But with the tender already up for the night, all we could do was throw the squid over the side.
The turtle kept swimming round to the back of Lazuli as obviously, that is where he is meant to be fed.

Quite a few big GT’s hunting in the green light.

Monday 8th

The turtle came back, and this time we were ready (Kristie had asked me put the tender down as soon as I got out of bed so that we were ready if it did turn up!).

We all had a turn hand feeding the turtle; we got through an entire large bag of squid bait.

With the turtle fed, and all the sculptures found, it was now time to leave the Whitsundays and sail south :(

We were planing on having the night at Thomas Island, but with the wind more ESE we were going to have to sail around the western side of the Lindermans and then turn south.

We had an upwind journey ahead of us, having to tack our way across to Thomas.

We had the lure out as usual, but no luck.

We dropped sails and motored into the bay at Thomas Island. There was too much swell was still coming in, so we turned around and continued on to Goldsmith Island.

Kristie enjoyed a nap while I enjoyed overtaking another yacht heading the same way.

The horseflies turned up as soon as we got into the bay before we had even stopped moving :(

There are two moorings there so we grabbed one of those.

Kristie and I went in for a walk on beach and enjoyed a swim.

Met “Moonshine” (who we overtook on the way here) in at the beach and had a chat with them.

Back on the boat Emma and I baked some banana bread.

Tuesday 9th

I wanted to get the tender outboard up onto the pushpit ready for when we did the bigger sails over the next few days.

I tried to remove the padlock, but it was rusted closed; I applied lots of WD40 in the hopes it would loosen it. But no luck.

Dropped mooring and tacked all the way down to St Bees.

The only mooring available was a yellow (10m mono max, and there was Marine Parks boat was on anther mooring next to it). It was also a bit rolly at the end so we motored back out and sailed across to Scawfell Island.

There are four moorings there, and all were empty. We did a bit of back and forth trying to work out which one would be best.

Ended up settling on the one with more wind but seemingly less swell.

Kristie and I went for a walk on the beach. We saw quite a few turtle tracks, at least two of them very fresh.

Had a swim.

Back to Lazuli for dinner.

At night we were surrounded by glow in the dark jelly fish. You couldn’t spot them with a torch, but you’d see the flashes/lights all around when it was dark.

At 8pm I dropped Kristie back into the beach to be on turtle watch. She was hoping that some would come up the beach to lay eggs.
We would wake the girls and bring them in to the beach if it happened. It never did, and I went back in at 10:30pm to collect Kristie.

It was low tide, and she had to walk quite a long way out to get to the tender!

Wednesday 10th

I needed to work all day, so we’d have another night here.

Kristie and Emma baked GF apple scrolls.

Lunch.

We all went in for a family swim and play on the mat.

We took the GPS positions for the 14 turtle nests that we could see on the beach.

I managed to get the outboard engine off and we hoisted up to the back of the boat.

More glow in the dark jelly fish at night.

Thursday 11th

Early start, up before 6am to head towards Curlew.

We sailed for a bit, then wind dropped so we motored. Wind came up so sails up again.

Tried the main beach/anchorage at Curlew, but it was not good, so went back around to the western side to a little bay there that was a bit more protected.

Anchor down close to 5pm.

Our anchor alarm had a busy night as we kept moving around.

Friday 12th

We had a rolly night :(

Kristie was up before 4am.

Had our anchor up before 7am.

Light rain shower while sailing towards Percy.

Caught a Spotty (Sharky? School?) Mackerel 3nm out from Middle Percy Island.

There weren’t any other yachts in West Bay so we had the pick of where to anchor.

The cruise ship “True North” was there with the 6 run-abouts and helicopter on top: the cheapest birth was $21K for the 13-day tour from Cairns to Brisbane!

We all went to the A-Frame and looked for the signs our boat friends had left (those who came north after us and south before us).

Had a lovely swim.

Both girls went to up see if there were any passion fruit, but no luck.

Kristina found a coconut and I opened it up on the spike out the back.

We had our drinks and a chat with the very friendly crew and some of the guests on True North.

Kristina borrowed one of their SUP’s to go for a paddle.

Back on the boat we were having Bacon and Eggs for dinner. Emma was helping me with the eggs, when one of the ones she cracked in there was green/rotten.
She and I both nearly threw up from the smell.

Had to start again and use up the rest of our eggs :(
(We’ve since learnt to be more consistent with cracking eggs into a smaller container one at a time.)

Put the green light out again, but only saw a tiny baby cuttlefish.

Kristina did some star-gazing. We are a long way offshore, so the night sky is quite amazing.

Saturday 13th

Woke up to find we had the bay to ourselves (True North travels during the night).

I caught up on the last blog.

Kristie did some hand-washing.

I dropped Kristie in to the A-Frame, and she met Don (82 years old) who’s the caretaker at the Homestead.

Picked up Kristie to bring her back for Lunch, then dropped her back in.

Kristie radioed from the beach to tell us there was a dugong swimming around Lazuli. Kristina came up to check it out with me.

I came in for a swim with Kristie, leaving the girls onboard.

As the tide was up we could go and explore the lagoon in the tender. Not too much to see but interesting nonetheless.

On the way back to Lazuli we stopped by to say hi to “Esconder”, a nice aluminum “Coral Coast” power cat with Pat, Courtney, Riley, and their toddler.

Back on the boat we had to up anchor and move further out as the wind had swung, and we were now sitting too close to the beach and would just be touching at low tide.

Sip’s and dips on the beach with the girls, as well as Pat and Riley. The girls and Riley had a great time running around.

Met some campers who’d turned up in a small fishing boat.

Also met the new volunteer helping out on the island.

Opened another coconut.

Late dinner back onboard - we enjoyed some of the mackerel I caught the other afternoon.

Moonshine came in sometime during the night.

Sunday 14th

Woke up to see new turtle tracks on the beach.

Pat dropped off a bag of Yellow Fin Tuna, and then took Kristina for a fast ride in their tinny (they have a 25HP on the back!).

Family tender around the corner to the sand hills. We were on a mission to find some glass tubes in the sand made by lighnting strikes.

It was a steep climb to the top. While up the top we watched Esconder powering towards Yeppoon on the flat seas; Kristie was wishing she could travel that quickly!

Didn’t find any glass tubes (Nauti Kitty had found some on the way up), but did find an interesting rock and some coral at the top of the sand hills.

We stopped by the other sand cliffs on the way back to get some more photos.

Lunch on Lazuli.

Kristie made some sour cream (long life cream + vinegar) ready for the baked potatoes tonight.

I dropped Kristie into the beach.

I cooked banana bread, and prepped for dinner at the fire pit at the A-Frame.

Picked up Kristie to get ready, then we all went back into the beach.

Two little fishing boats stopped in for a bit, but they didn’t stay the night. One of them left a sign in the A-Frame with a lure attached to it on the back of one of the seats next to the walkway.
It was perfect height for a toddler to grab or to snag your leg on the way past.
We relocated the lure after they left!

Kristie and Kristina went off to collect wood while Emma and I got the fire going.

I had prepared roast jacket potatoes in alfoil back on the boat, so put them in the camp oven on the fire.

With that all done and on the go it was time for a swim.

Sips, kabana, nibbles, coconut (soft flesh!) with pineapple and honey and soy sauce (another thing we learnt from Nauti Kitty)! Yum.

Kristie and Kristina made a barrier around one of the turtle nests using some coconuts.

We had our dinner at the A-Frame by ourselves.

Marshmallows on the fire after dinner.

Had a walk down the beach looking for turtles (there were fresh baby turtle tracks from the night before).

Lots of bioluminescence on the tender on the way back.

Just us here in West Bay tonight.

Monday 15th

Dropped Kristie into the beach.

I spent the morning working.

Kristie came back on board for lunch, then dropped back to the beach.

Goats were introduced in 1874 by the British Admiralty to provide meat, milk, and skins for shipwrecked or passing mariners.

I had more work to do.

I went into bring Kristie back to boat to get ready for an afternoon swim.

Kristie and I enjoyed a swim/float with drinks and popcorn.

I then spent some time prepping Lazuli to be ready for a BIG sail to Keppels tomorrow - it’s going to be over 100nm!

Had the bay to ourselves again.

Tuesday 16th

Alarm at 5am. Motoring soon after with breakfast when underway.

I worked while Kristie helmed.

Kristie had a nap, but was rudely woken up when we hooked a fish.

Got this one in easily enough - turned out to be a 108cm Spanish Mackerel.

Quickly processed, bagged, and into the fridge.

The wind turned up, and we could start sailing at 10am.

We saw quite a few rain clouds ahead and behind us, but we managed to avoid all the heavy rain.

Up wind all the way. Had to motor around a few rocks/headlands.

Lots of slow bits as we were trying to point and couldn’t make good speed.

Once we got around the last headland we could bear away and get a bit of speed sailing directly to Great Keppel Island.

Sometime after dark the wind hit 20kts; we dropped sails and motored the rest of the way.

Motored around to the Pub side thinking it might be ok, but it was terrible.

Motored back around to Svendsen’s Beach. Had a few good lightning strikes to light up the beach for us so we could see where we were going.

There were half a dozen other boats already over there, so we couldn’t get in too close.

Dropped anchor there and in bed by 11pm… a LONG day. Too long.

Wednesday 17th

Very rolly, possibly the most rolly we’ve had on the entire trip!

Moved in close to get out of the swell. Dropped anchor in a spot that was probably 0.5m LAT (it was currently high tide so we had nearly 5m depth).

We waited there until we could call the marina to confirm we could come in early.

As soon as they confirmed we could come in early we left to head straight to the marina.

Motored all the way there (about an hour).

We had just a bit of rain as soon as we got there.

Kristie and I went up to the marina office to pay. Dropped off some rubbish and booked the courtesy car while up there.

Kristie did two loads of washing. It took longer than usual as she broke one washing machine and only one dryer was working.

I did some work.

Strong winds today (which is why we are here!), it got up to 20kts in the afternoon.

Heavy rain, but thankfully we had a break just as our Woolies delivery turned up.

Wind got to just over 30kts in the evening; we were very, very glad that we weren’t stuck out at the Keppels on anchor.

Thursday 18th

Work.

Courtesy car into Yeppoon Central for Santa Photos.

Big W so Emma could spend some of her birthday money, and I needed some headphones as my Airpods don’t even last a full hour meeting now.

Back to the marina.

I cooked up the rice, and then Kristie and Emma put together Sushi from the Yellow Fin Tuna. Yum.

I did more work.

Kristie had a nap.

We all got an afternoon bus into Yeppoon to go for a swim. Bus was free as their EFT wasn’t working.

Windy, and cold. We didn’t last long in the pool.

Kristina had a quick climb in the playground, but it was too cold for Emma.

Takeaway dinner - nuggets for the girls, Thai for us.

Free bus home as EFT was still broken.

Friday 19th

Kriste and I walked up to “Fan Rock” after breakfast

I had meetings and spent the morning working.

Kristie and girls bussed to Town Hall for Christmas activities.

They walked to cinemas to watch Zootopia 2 which they all enjoyed.

Then onto Yeppoon Central to collect their winnings from entering the receipts at the shopping centre yesterday.
~$360 worth of ‘Christmas Fashion’ prizes.

Bus back to Marina.

Kristie and Emma walked over to Exhale to leave Charlee a pressie.

Kristie filled the water (two of the three tanks were empty).

Saturday 20th

Easy morning, no rush. We are planning to get to Gladstone via the Narrows so we don’t have too far to go today.

Kristie did a rubbish run.

I bought a Yeti Esky (an extravagant purchase, but we plan to take two bags of frozen mackerel down to Brisbane and I don’t want it thawing out!).

We stopped at the fuel dock on the way out of the marina.

Easy sail down to the entrance of the channel.

A bit slower when we had to go dead down wind and against ~2kts current flowing out of the river system!

Dropped sails and motored to within a few miles of the start of the narrows.

There’s one other boat (Whoosh - we first saw them on a mooring at St Bees) we can see who will also be going through tomorrow morning.

Emma and I baked some chocolate brownies.

Enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.

Mozzies came and found us as soon as the sun dropped. There wasn’t any wind to keep them away :(

We had dinner up top, and while we were all eating Emma spotted something weird in the sky.

It was a whole row of lights, one after another going across the sky in a line.

After a bit of googling we worked out it was a recent (14th Dec) launch of 27 new Starlink satellites.
As the launch was still so recent they were all still in a train. Very cool to see.

Tomorrow we motor down through the Narrows and into Gladstone.

Sunday 21st

The Narrows has a few sections that actually dry out at low tide. LAT is about -1.4m (i.e. at the lowest possible tide the land is 1.4m above the sea level!).

The official guidance is “1.5m + your draft” (ours is 2.3m) as the minimum height of tide required.

We have a high of 4.1m this morning, so we will hopefully have at least 30cm clearance going through!

Gladstone high tide was 9:46am, and we were advised to start heading through at 9:15am.

We had a bit of tide flowing in with us, but still we didn’t get to the first section until 9:20am.

The Beacon-to-Beacon has a dedicated section for The Narrows with good detail, and our navigation app has the purple line to follow!

There are three main sections that are shallow.

The first we only got down to 3.3m depth, but coming through the next two we saw 2.6m (i.e. 30cm under the keel) on two occasions.

The water floods in from the north through this part of the Narrows, and also flooding north up from Gladstone, meeting just on the other side of these shallow sections.

With quite a bit of water flowing, you need to be on the line (and on the ball!) the entire time lest you get washed into the shallow sections.

Once out the other side we could start riding the ebbing tide south towards Gladstone marina.

We had a bit of rain after we got through.

From the end of the Narrows there is still a two-hour trip to the marina.

By the time we got down to inline with the marina we would have had 2-2.5kts of tide going with us.

Fun fact: this is the first time we’d managed to get the tide in our favour here - every other time we’d come into port against it and gone out against it :(

We had an easy time getting into our berth. We had been allocated a blow-on berth, and also there was no other boat on the other side.
Two guys from the marina (Graham, who is great!) were also down to help catch lines.

With the forecasted weather for Christmas not looking that great, we were going to pick up a hire car tomorrow and drive back home for Christmas.

As such, we had a few boat jobs to do:

• cleaned the decks.
• washed the dodger/infill
• cleaned out the bathrooms
• emptied the compost toilet
• flushed the tender outboard
• removed and cleaned the boat logs

We did more packing.

Shaan from Tandanya offered to take the girls for a play at the park with Mia while we got jobs done.

Kristie did some laundry.

Once boat jobs were done (and the girls back onboard) Kristie and I went over to have a drink with Bride and Andrew on Hoot, who were back up for the night to get stuff of their boat that they’ll leave up here for a while.

Kristie had booked for us all to have dinner out at the Yacht Club. Hoot and Tandanya joined us there.

It was a lovely end to this part of our journey south.

Monday 22nd

Had breakfast then we finished packing and emptying out the fridge of any perishables.

Filled up the current water tank as it was down to maybe 1/3.

We needed two trolley runs to get all our gear up to the lounge.

Seeing all this, I was a little dubious how it would all fit in the little hatch we’d booked!

The girls and Kristie waited up in the lounge with luggage (and the aircon) while I got a taxi to the airport to collect our car.

Heavy rain started just as the taxi turned up!

Quick drive back to the marina and did some Tetris style packing to get everything in!

Drove home. Just one stop for a late lunch (pie and chips!) at the Traveston services.

Home to my mum and dads to unpack and then go pick up some delicious GF Chinese takeaway!

And relax.

We’ll be spending Christmas with family.

Not sure when we’ll be back up. That’ll depend a bit on the weather.

We still have over 250nm of sailing to get back from Gladstone to Brisbane, but that’s something we’ll deal with after Christmas!

Wednesday 12th November - Coral Sea Marina

School in the morning.

I went to office to pay for our stay, sort out fuel, and book the parking (more on that later!).

We had motored a lot (too much!) to get down there, so I needed to fill up the diesel.
With Lazuli already secure on the dock, it was easier for me to make a few trips in our tender to top up fuel using the jerrycans.
Also, no need to book or wait if you just turn up in your tender!

Since we were going to be here for a month, and possibly sell Lazuli here we decided having our Landcruiser up here would be handy.
We also wanted to have the storm-sails and some other equipment we’d left in storage onboard when/if we sell.
Slight problem - it’s all still in Brisbane.

Kristie came up with the idea that I should drive a hire car down instead of fly.
This way we could load it up with all the stuff we have on the boat that we don’t need anymore and declutter ready for any inspections.
Timing worked out well, as Dad was going into surgery today so I’d be able to see him when I got down there.

Kristie helped the girls pack all the stuff they don’t need - oodies, blankets, most of their warm/winter cloths.

We got a bit of rain throughout the day.

Emma and I cooked Banana Bread during one of those rain periods.

Kristie took the courtesy car to Bunnings and Silly Sollys to get packing bags and boxes.

I got busy on the boat:

• Packed away the wind generator (it’s not that useful when you’re plugged into shore power!)
• Removed the boat logs (speedo/depth sounder) and cleaned them; no point keeping them in if we’re not going anywhere.
• Lashed the sails on the boom.
• Filled water.
• Flushed tender outboard.

More packing.

I walked into town at 2pm to get hire car, ended up with a nice hybrid RAV4.

We packed the car, needed a few trips with the trolleys to get all our stuff up there!

Charlee came over for a play with the girls (Exhale was on the public pontoon for the night - coming into the marina the next day).

I took Kristie to GP and pharmacy, then a quick trip to Coles.

More packing.

I had everything sorted so I could just get out of bed and head straight to the car in the morning.

Thursday 13th

I was in the car and on the way to Brisbane just before 4am. Iced coffee to get me through to my first stop.

Back on the boat:

• the girls did school.
• Exhale came in so Kristie and the girls helped/see them come in.
• Back to the boat for more school.
• Charlee came over for another play.
• Arlo (another boat kid) got dropped in, and they all went for a swim at the resort pool.
• Kristie and Kristina walked home, leaving Emma with Niki.
• Kristie cleared the clears.
• Girls hung our on Exhale for a bit more.
• Kristie walked to town for postcards and Woolies.
• Laundry - soaked the cousin covers.

I was making good progress.

• Maccas for Breakfast in Mackay.
• Had a good chat with my brother while he was driving to work
• Lunch at a servo
• Listened to lots of episodes from my favourite podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/on-the-wind-sailing/id711410636
• Got to Graceville by about 5pm after nearly 14hours driving.
• Unpacked the car.

Shower, and then went out with mum to get takeaway from Ceylon Inn (our local Indian).

The girls FaceTime’d before their bedtime.

Friday 14th

Busy day for me:

• Walked over to the Graceville shops to get dinner - caught up with my cousin Chris.
• Dropped off the hire car at Rocklea.
• My brother picked me up from there and took us over to our house where the Cruiser was in the shed.
• Discovered both batteries had died completely and couldn’t even hold charge after jump-starting :(
• Borrowed my brothers ute to go buy two new batteries.
• Fitted batteries - drove back to Darra.
• Dropped one of his staff back to Oxley to drive his ute back to Darra.
• Back to Darra to get stuff out of storage.
• Back to Graceville via the shops.
• Fitted a wireless CarPlay adapter to the Cruiser
• Train into the Wesley to see Dad. Good news - he’s doing very well and he’ll be out tomorrow
• Train home
• Dinner with mum.
• Went over to catch up with Evan and Prue - his 50th party was on tomorrow and I wouldn’t be able to make it as I’d be driving back to Airlie :(

Back in Airlie:

• The girls did school.
• Kristie 2 load of washing.
• Girls sorted and packed the washing away
• Hung out the heavy cousin covers.
• Girls played on Exhale.
• Kristie cleaned deck and cockpit.
• Rust remover helped with the cleaning
• Borrowed a Gernie from Exhale, but our inferior hose couldn’t handle the pressure :(
• Lunch.
• Kristie took the curtsey car and the girls (and Charlee) shopping for stinger suits. They had to try Annaconda, BigW, Best & Less, and finally BCF (to get the same suits they had at Annaconda!).
• Woolies.
• Back to the marina the girls walked to the pool with Kenny; Krisite gave them a head start while getting a few more jobs done before joining them in the pool.
• Picnic dinner on the ocean deck. It’s much nicer for Kristie to sort dinner and dishes when not on a moving boat (Kristie assures me that even if a boat is tied up in a Marina it still moves).

Saturday 15th

I was able to hang around and pick up Dad from the hospital at 10am.
Mum got the train in early, and I waited for their call.

Pickup went smoothly. Got Dad home and settled in.

Early lunch and got in the Cruiser to start driving.

I’d booked a motel in Gin Gin, so it wasn’t a big driving effort and was done around 4pm.

Back in Airlie:

• Kristina went to shops with Exhale. Emma needed to rest.
• Kristie scrubbed cushion covers and some more soaking.
• Charlee came over for a play.
• More stainless steel polish.
• Lunch.
• Swim at the lagoon with Charlee.
• Swim at the resort pool on the way back.
• Take away dinner on Lazuli.

Sunday 16th

I was up early again to drive the rest of the way back to Airlie.
Had rain/light spitting for the first half of the drive.
There’s nothing between Gin Gin and Rocky, so Maccas breakfast when I got to Rocky!

While I was driving:

• Kristie did more washing. How is there still things to wash?
• Charlee came to play on Lazuli.
• Kristie did more stainless polishing.
• Lunch and rubbish run.
• Walked up to meet me and help unload.

Kristie then took cruiser to Coles, Silly Sollys, and finally to get some sushi ready for tomorrow.

Viv and Russ arrived - they had been back in Mooloolaba for a week and got back to Airlie today.
Had a quick chat with them.

Kristie got the cushion covers on, and then baked a cake for Emma’s birthday tomorrow.

Goodbye sips and dips on Exhale. They are off south now; hopefully we’ll see them again when we sail south.

Monday 17th - Emma’s Birthday

Birthday pressies.

Breakfast: Fairy Bread for Emma, and French toast for the rest of us.

As Exhale was heading off this morning, we had Birthday Cake straight after breakfast so Charlee could be part of it.

We were then off to Bredls Wildlife / Farm: https://bredlswildlife.com/
We had a great time and loved it here.

Kristie ended up with quite a few scratches where the Koala was clinging on a bit too tightly!

They were very relaxed about everything (except for this one time a toddler ran off towards the pond where crocs live!).

Once the tour was done we sat down at the shelter shed there and ate our sushi, and chatted with a family from overseas who were heading south in a campervan.

Back on the boat, and sorted out our insurance (need to extend our coverage again for being north of Gladstone in cyclone season).

I needed to have a quick arvo nap, still recovering from the drive down and back up.

Drove into town for Hogs Breath dinner.

Followed by Cold Rock afterward.

Tuesday 18th

As well as the resort pool, as marina guests we also get use of their gym.

It’s not massive, but it has a few cardio machines and weights.
I was there not long after 6am.

Girls had a sleep in - (8:30 for kristina).

School and work.

Our boat friends Stuart and Sanne (Vanetta) have left their boat at the marina while they spend some time on land.
She’d sold their surfboard (not much surf up this way) so I grabbed that from inside and walked it up to the gate to meet the buyer.

It was then time for cleaning. We need photos to put online.

I cleaned and took photos of both bathroom and all 4 cabins. It required quite a bit of moving stuff around as we still live in it, and despite taking a car load home we still have a lot onboard!

Fed the girls dinner, and went to have a few cocktails and some cheese with Russ and Viv on Bella Amalfi (a few boats down from us).

Viv put together another one of her amazing platters, and Russ made a lot of tasty cocktails!

Late night, lots of drinks any never any “proper” dinner, just lots of nibbles. Got back to our boat sometime after midnight.

Wednesday 19th

Sore heads all round, no gym this morning!

School and work.

Had to have a quick mid-morning nap.

Lunch.

Cleaned and took photos of saloon and kitchen.

Another nap.

Got a bit of work done.

Caught up with Viv and Russ. Apparently we’d gone through a bottle of vodka, a bottle of gin, a bottle of red wine, we’d finished off my port, and a had a few shots of their schnapps as well.
They had been suffering nearly as much as us - they have aircon in their boat which would have helped!

Thursday 20th

Gym in the morning.

School and work.

Farewell hugs with Viv and Russ. They are off to Mooloolaba, we definitely plan to catch up with them when we sail south (or drive up to go diving!).

More work.

Kristie did another load of washing.

Released the back stay to get the stay sail down and off as we had to replace the chain plate.

Friday 21st

Gym to start the day.

School.

Removed the chain plate, which was hot and difficult work as I needed to climb into the anchor well, and Kristie into the sail locker.

Delivered it to the local fabrication mob to get a new one made up.

Hoot turned up - said hi to them. They’ll be in for 2 nights before they head south.

Work.

Kristie off to woolies and postbox.

Sip’s and dips with Andrew and Bride, this time on Lazuli: one of the benefits of being right down the end is we get a good afternoon breeze.

Off to dinner at KC’s with Andrew and Bride and our girls.

Posted the add to list Lazuli for sale online.

Saturday 22nd

Girls and I did the Parkrun/walk (just over 1 hour and only just ahead of the tail walkers).

Breakfast at Rainbow Cafe with Bride and Andrew.

They borrowed the Cruiser afterward to do jobs/shopping.

We were going for showers, but the girls ended up just playing with Mia (off Tandanya) at Ocean Club.

We all had some down-time on Lazuli.

Andrew came over with some glue to help fix the lining. I’d been trying to find a solution for the last year but nothing stuck.
The stuff he had was magic and worked very well! Thanks Andrew.

Swim at resort pool - happy hour - so we enjoyed a Mango Daiquiri’s with Bride and Andrew.

I walked back with wet togs and to get our BYO drinks, and met girls back in Airlie by the lagoon.

Out to pizza for dinner. It was busy, so we had to wait quite a bit. The girls were done, it’s been a big day for them!

Kristie ordered an Uber, so she, Bride and the girls went home in that, Andrew and I walked back.

Sunday 23rd

Quick walk to Hoot to borrow the glue to stick down some ply. Worked a treat.

Then spent some time changing some of the remaining lights over to the LEDs, and to fix the wiring on some of the others.

Goodbye hugs with Bride and Andrew as they are off. We probably won’t see them on the water, but we’ll be catching up once home.
It’s been awesome to hang out with them these last few weeks since they got to Lizard.

I went out to by some oil and new step for the toilet. The old step was a left over from family day care, so a new one will look a lot better.

Replaced fine fuel filter, and then changed the oil (and oil filter).

Rubbish run.

Monday 24th

Went for a run in the morning. It’s a nice path all the way out towards Cannonvale. Just over 2km each way.

Back on the bot, I found that the hot water hose split and dumped a tank of water into the bilge.

School for the girls.

I did the hot walk to chandlery at the other end of the marina, but they don’t have any suitable hoses.

Walked back to the Cruiser and then went for a drive to a local hose/plumbing supply store.

Replaced hose and sponged out the water.

Kristie did a load of laundry

Disposed of the old oil (you need to get a key from the Marina).

Kristie went off to Woolies.

I got in some more Work.

Kriste filled up the water and cleaned up bird poop. As more and more boats leave, the chances of getting unwanted attention from the birds goes up proportionally :(

Tuesday 25th

Gym. Morning storm while I was at the gym, the girls shut the windows.

The Ocean Club here also has a coffee machine, so morning routine is Gym –> Shower –> Coffee –> long walk back to Lazuli
(it’s just over 500 steps from our boat to the Ocean Club!)

School downstairs as upstairs was still wet after the storm.

I worked.

Swim at the lagoon after lunch with Mia and Shaan (Tandanya).

On the way back I bought a new float switch for our bilge pump.

Krisite got post from the marina (we have had quite a few deliveries sent to the marina here!).

I drove out to get the chain plate as that was ready.

Kristie did a quick check on Vanetta to see how it was going inside.

Wednesday 26th

Work and school.

Empty water - still more coming out of the hose fittings - needed to tighten the hose clamps more.

Removed the old/broken float switch and fitted the new one.

Thursday 27th

Run. Same track as last time.

Attached the new chain plate. Still hot with Kristie in the sail locker and me in the anchor well.

I dropped one of the nuts into the pile of anchor chain and couldn’t reach it; Emma climbed into the anchor well and tried to get it but only pushed it further down.

School and work.

Lunch.

Kristie drove out to the newsagent and then BigW.

I cleaned the stainless steel that hadn’t already been done.

Friday 28th

Gym, followed by coffee.

Off to the chandlery to get some stainless steel nuts and washers.

Kristina had to help put the last/top nut on the chainplate, as it was right up behind some mouldings and there’s no way I could bend enough to get in and reach it.

Swim at the pool with Shaan and Mia.

Ice cream on the way home.

More Work.

Emma had a play on Tandanya.

I re-attached the forestay to the chainplate.

Kristie and I enjoyed a date night (no kids) at the Garden Bar. Food was amazing, and they have some great cocktails!

Saturday 29th

Rain showers in the early morning.

Parkrun day - Emma had already tapped out the night before, and Kristina decided not to run in the rain.

It stopped spitting just before the run started. It would have been nice if it had kept up as it was so hot.

Kristie did a load of laundry.

We got a message from someone looking to inspect Lazuli. Arranged to do that on Monday.

Headed out to the markets. It was hot, and not much stuff of interest there (except for a bag of delicious lychees.)

Woolies. Hot chook for lunch back on Lazuli.

Time to tidy up downstairs ready for the inspection.

Kristie and the girls put the Christmas tree up; my involvement was extracting it from its storage location.

Baked banana bread with Emma.

Attempted to hoist the staysail, but it was too windy (and in the wrong direction).

Cleaned all the underfloor storage.

Still more water coming in. Tightened another hose clamp.
Ended up needing to remove the old hose, but I had to go get smaller (6mm) spanners first.
It takes longer to walk from the boat to the car than it does to drive to Bunnings!

Back to replace the hose.

BYO dinner at the Ocean Club with Tandanya. Girls enjoyed making some necklaces.
They have a BBQ at the top, so we cooked sausages and steaks and had a nice salad.

Sunday 30th

Hoisted the staysail back up the tracks and furled it.

Filled water.

Kristie washed and scrubbed the cockpit.

I checked water and didn’t find any leaks!

Cleaned engine bay (changing the oil is a messy process for me!) and checked oil.

Cleaned out the salt water foot pump - removed the intake hose and flushed it many times with fresh water, disinfectant and finally vinegar.

Kristie did some more polishing, our bimini frame looks excellent now.

Drove to Bunnings to get endcaps for the ladder, BCF for more toilet paper, and supercheap for a cloth.
Click and collect Woolies on the way back.

Kristie and I enjoyed a swim at the pool by ourselves. Happy Hour so had to have a few more Mango Daiquiri’s.

Light rain while in the pool so we had it all to ourselves.

More rain after dinner.

Monday 1st

Gym and coffee.

Eddie the Elf arrived with advent calenders for the girls.

Tidy and clean inside. Birds had been busy overnight. Perfect timing as we had arranged Dan and his family to come and have a look at Lazuli today. Kristie cleaned the deck, clears, infill and solar panels of their mess.

Glued endcaps on the ladder.

Kristie polished the steering wheel, and then the clears.

First inspection after lunch.

During the inspection, Kristie and girls went up to the lounge and enjoyed the aircon and comfy couches.

Rainy afternoon.

I ended up having to walk umbrellas up to the girls for the trip back to Lazuli.

Tuesday 2nd

Early morning run.

Time to head up the mast to replace the wind anemometer bearing.

Kristie managed the 2nd manual halyard, with Kristina pressing the button to hoist me on the main halyard.

The girls were both keen to have a turn going up the mast. Kristina went up first, all the way to the top at 19m.

She got stuck for a bit at the top, as one of the halyards got a bit stuck. It was easy enough for me to straighten out the sheath and Kristina enjoyed the view while waiting.
Glad it got stuck for Kristina and not me. Kristie made a comment that if I was up the top, she would have had to go for help to try and get me back down.

With the halyard sorted, it was Emma’s turn. She also enjoyed going all the way to the top and was able to wave to Tandanya when they were on the way back in after testing out their anchor.

Kristina ran over to Tandanya and invited Mia and Shaan to come and see Eddie the Elf.

They had a quick visit, then Kristina went back with them to have a play on their boat with Mia.

I worked.

Kristie did some washing.

Took the afternoon to head out to Cedar Creek Falls, only about 30min drive. We thought there’d be more water there given some of the rain we’d had in the last few weeks.

We visited when we drove up 2 years ago. That time there’d been even less rain and the bottom was stagnant, and we didn’t swim.

Movie night. Kristina chose “In your Dreams”.

Wednesday 3rd

Kristie went out shopping for Christmas Presents.

I took up some wrapping paper to the Lookout Lounge so she could wrap the pressies.

I worked.

Movie night, Kristie’s choice: Wicked.

Thursday 4th

Gym.

Work.

Dropped the gas bottle up to be refilled. It wasn’t empty, but it’s convenient to fill it here and means we shouldn’t have to worry until we get back to Brisbane.

Took the big cyclone mooring ropes back to the Cruiser as we won’t need them going south.

Kriste did one last check on Vanetta and replaced their moisture containers.

Kristie off to Woolies and bottle shop.

Two trips to Bunnings for their Christmas activity (we took the 3 from Tandanya as well).

There was:

• Craft
• Free sausages / drinks
• the Grinch made an appearance
• One of the staff dressed up as Santa, the most un-Santa looking Santa you’d see (he must have drawn the short-straw) so there wasn’t much interest in any of the kids having their photo taking with him!
• There were also reptiles, so the girls got to hold a snake and lizard.

Back the marina, and straight to the showers; Kristie stayed there to do laundry while I got the girls to bed.

Whilst being one of the more expensive marinas, the facilities here are great and Airlie is a great place to hang out.

Tomorrow we leave the marina, and leave Airlie as we start to head south.

But first we will have a few nights exploring the Whitsunday Islands one last time before we start heading south.