Southport to Bundaberg

Steve's new boat, Castanet, is lovely - I'm really happy for him. She's large, forty feet, and spacious with it, but in many ways is a cousin to Contessa II, with the same classic lines.

In between tinkering with the alternator and inspecting Castanet, I was treated to a tour of the HMAS Bundaberg, which was tied up at the Soutport Yacht Club. A friend of Jo C. and my brothers' happened to be on board, and when I looked him up he showed me around the ship, leaving me with a severe case of navigational instrument envy.

I have another recommendation to make: Joe Gergay of Mojo Marine was working with Steve on his boat, and kindly took some time to look at my alternator. He helped out and gave lots of good advice - anyone looking at marine electronics in the Southport/Brisbane area should certainly give him a ring on 0434375375.

From Southport we made pretty good time, and I'm now more like two-thirds of my way to Townsville. I expect to slow down a bit from here on in, as the better weather, the Whitsundays and the reef will probably encourage dawdling - especially as Emma is joining me here in Bundaberg.

Eugene and I stopped in Mooloolaba for one night. It's a strange town - home to Jessica Watson and Steve Irwin, if that gives any idea. There's a few Mooloolaba photos in the latest set:

Yamba to Bundaberg

Most of the photos, though, are of the Great Sandy Straights and Hervey Bay. We went inside Fraser Island to Bundaberg, rather than around the top - trading stronger offshore winds and easier navigation for a shorter but far more scenic route and tricky inshore pilotage. We started late in the day from Mooloolaba and made it to Wide Bay Bar the next morning, then moved about half-way through the Straights to the South White Cliffs and the anchorage known as "Ceratodus", where we stopped for the night. It's a beautiful spot, I could have lazed there for days.

I didn't, though. The next morning we got off early, and spent the day racing to Bundaberg as best we could with no wind. We got in after dark, with no moon and a tidal current running quite strong, which was a bit tricky, but there's a shipping "runway" (Eugene's mot juste), so there was no chance of missing the entrance. I sort of expected rum piped to berths here, along with water and power, but as it turned out we had to wander all the way to Burnett Heads before we found an open pub, the Lighthouse. We had to find a pub, though, because after over a fortnight Eugene was disembarking and heading back to work - a great shame, we made a good team.

I'll be resting up here for a few days, doing some maintenance and cleaning and resupplying. And drinking some rum, I expect.