The “Spring of Deception” had arrived in Brisbane and coincided nicely with favourable tides and my Birthday weekend.
Meade Adventures (Justin, Jo, Scarlett, and Alex) were keen to come out for an overnight trip on Lazuli.
With a steady 3knt “blowing” from the East, we didn’t even bother getting the sails ready for sailing.
The Meades turned up at 10:30, and we were on the way not long after 11am.
We motored across a very flat and calm bay, which made for perfect drone flying conditions. It’s much easier retrieving the drone with there are no sails up and the boat isn’t moving :)
About 15min out from Tangalooma we spotted a pod of whales in the bay just in front of us. We slowed down, enjoyed the show, and got some good photos of the whales.
As you would expect with the conditions, there were quite a few boats anchored up around the wrecks. We picked a nice spot a good distance from one of the mega yachts.
With the tide going out, we got the kids and tender ready for a quick snorkel and then play on the beach. We dumped 3 kids in with J and it was a bit much for them all.
Jo took the kids back to the beach while Justin, Kristie and I had a snorkel. I swam back in to try and convince them to come back out with shoes and life jacket on.
Only Scarlett came back out, but she had a fantastic snorkel and saw plenty of fish, a turtle, and massive flathead.
With the kids happy on the beach, I zoomed back to Lazuli to get supplies for the afternoon, and we settled in for our much required sips’n’dips on the beach.
Kristie had done the shopping and bought me my favourite Roaring 40’s blue cheese. Washed down with some fine whiskey. Life is good.
Unlike last time we were here with Scott, we had a great sunset and made the most of the warm weather.
We did dinner for the kids, then us. Brownies with strawberries and cream for birthday dessert.
We were all out on deck doing some star gazing when Jo noticed the bioluminescence in the water. We spent a good 30min making light shows in the water.
(they’ll also make a light show in your toilet if you turn the lights off!).
An early(ish) bed as we’d all had a fairly big week.
The wind had swung around to the North overnight, but was still quite nice in the morning. J cooked up a stack of his homemade bacon for breakfast.
We were then back on the beach for an hour before heading back home.
We had motored out of the channel and then got the kids sorted with food before putting sails up.
Another yacht left Tangalooma just before us. They probably didn’t realise we were racing them. We quickly overtook them and left them in our wake.
The girls (and Alex!) had fun sitting over the side of the boat getting wet.
We were tied up just before 3pm with the help from a couple from another visiting yacht. For a change we drove straight home instead of via Morgans!
Massive thanks to Kristie for making it a very special birthday weekend out on the boat, also big thanks to the Meades for bringing extra fun to the party.
Stuff that broke this week:
- Nothing!
Lessons learnt:
- Drones a cool, hmmkay.
- I need more fishing tips
- Best reset your anchor every day at Tangalooma.