A somewhat showery stay at South White Cliffs

We got up early this morning to catch the rising tide up the Great Sandy Strait. We left Garrys Anchorage at 7 am, and made it to South White Cliffs at about 9 am.

It was a grey and wet old day up here, so once we had settled in I set about making that Peach Blossom Cake I mentioned a few posts back. Making a cake is a great way to warm up the boat (in addition to the yummy food that you get to eat at the end)...so I think there will be more boat warming going on in our near future :-). Except for needing to call Emma at one point to confirm an ingredient quantity (thanks for your help Emma), the cake went off without a hitch and was delicious!

After lunch, and a hearty serving of fresh Peach Blossom Cake...Dad and the kids went ashore and proceeded to throw themselves down any small sandy incline they could find (another must-do on Fraser Island...shame the sand dunes on this side are mostly covered in scrub...). It was a trifle terrifying to watch from the boat, so I didn't...

When they got back to the boat I couldn't believe how filthy they were, so I told them they should go find another boat to stay on, as they weren't coming aboard Lucey Blue looking like they did!!

Emily is looking slightly sheepish here because I was laughing pretty hard about how funny she looked (that is sand caked around her raccoon eyes)! She reminded me of something out of the Addams Family!

Dad stripped them down and managed to sponge off a good bit of the dirt, sand and mud they were covered in, before throwing them both in the shower. Their clothes are still in a bucket soaking outside...I am not sure they will ever be clean again.

The sun managed to come out for a few minutes this afternoon, so I asked Nick to take me ashore for a quick explore and to take some happy snaps (I'm not a very capable dinghy driver as yet...I'd probably manage to drive us up on some rocks and snap the shear pin off the outboard).

I'd only just jumped out of the dinghy and taken about 10 shots when the clouds and rain came slipping back over...so we high-tailed it back to Lucey Blue for shelter.

We just had to go play musical anchorages in the dark, because Nick noticed that we were dragging backwards...slowly but surely. The tidal current here is ripping by at 1.5 kts....so I guess the AIS anchor watch will definitely be on tonight!