The first-class passenger is eight months old...

...and sporting six sturdy little chompers!

All the better to scare off the ducks...

All the better to chomp on pizza...when my silly parents leave it where I can get to it...

(and yes...one of these pizzas did land on the floor...upside down of course!!).

PS. The Manta Ray Cafe pizzas are very good...even after you've had to scrape them up off the floor.

A day at the Audi Hamilton Island Races...

I know this post is out of order...we still have several posts to add here covering our visits to Middle Percy, Brampton, Shaw and Lindeman Islands (I have been a pretty slack blogger of late)...but I was so excited after witnessing some of the maxi yachts up close today (part of the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week), that I couldn't wait to pop up a few pictures.

We left our anchorage at Lindeman Island at 8:00 am this morning and sailed under spinnaker up to Hamilton Island and through Dent Passage, arriving just as the race fleet departed the Hamilton Island Marina.

We weren't sure where the races started from, so we dropped the spinnaker and followed the back of the fleet right up to the start line (and then promptly got out of the way).

Check out the water!! The current through Fitzalan Passage was about 3 kts...against us!

We ended up in Turtle Bay, on the south coast of Whitsunday Island, and were bobbing about directly off the start line, where we got the following shots...

I had to put this one up, because I got one for my birthday! A silver Pandora bracelet...not a Hanse 540e racing yacht ;-)...

As soon as the majority of the fleet had departed we motored back past Hamilton Island and anchored off Henning Island, just in time to catch the race leaders come flying back home...

It was a poopy, overcast and drizzly day, but it was so much fun watching the race fleet that we hardly noticed the poor weather. There were hardly any spectator boats out either, which surprised us, but enabled us a good clear view.

We finished off a fabulous day with a quick jaunt ashore on Henning Island, where we helped the kids construct a driftwood shelter on the beach. This project was inspired by one of Emily's Distance Education units on different types of shelters, and someone had even thoughtfully started the shelter for us too!

Anyhoo, way past time this chook was in bed.

Night!!

Grandma and Grandpa visit Lucey Blue

While we couldn't find the old plaque on Middle Percy Island, Grandma and Grandpa have still been a part of this voyage. After helping sail Lucey Blue up from Sydney to Brisbane they set about cleaning up Najat and getting ready to meet us out at sea.

After some hard work and careful renovation – including nearly burning out the bathroom diesel heater much to the amusement of Emily and Ryan – Najat dropped in on us at Lady Musgrave Island.

The kids loved having Grandma and Grandpa around. Ryan even started to snorkel properly again after swimming with Grandma around the edge of the coral lagoon at Lady Musgrave.

Lady Musgrave is a beautiful Island and the reef is fantastic (even if most of the bigger fish seem to be missing in action when compared to my last visit in the mid 1980s), and sharing it with family makes the experience even more rewarding. As an added bonus, Najat acted as a supply ship taking food orders via email and then hand delivering fresh produce and mail on arrival. Thanks Mum.

Hanging out with dad...

Been meaning to drop you a line and let you know that this little first-class passenger is doing well!

I generally spend my days lounging about on the lido deck, watching the people go about their business and enjoying the fine fare on this cruise ship. The service leaves a little to be desired though...not always as quick and professional as I would have expected on a vessel of this size. The staff sometimes even take my shirt off when they are giving me lunch...they say I tend to drool a lot, and that we don't have endless fresh water to wash clothes in...the cheek of them (especially as I KNOW they have a watermaker onboard [it's under my bed], so theoretically they do have endless fresh water)!!! I have been looking around for my receipts for this trip, thought I might ask for a bit of a refund, but oddly enough there is no evidence of my having paid in the first place. Just a small problem ;-).

This pic taken of me on the lido deck enjoying the dining facilities (while still in Brisbane).

Lately I've been enjoying spending lots of time with dad, just hanging about and watching the others get up to mischief snorkelling and stuff...

I know my feet look a bit blue in these shots. I don't remember it being cold, they were taken at Lady Musgrave Island before the never-ending south-easterly started up, and it was a beautiful day. Maybe the corally beach was a bit too hard for my little six month old bottom! Might ask them to bring along a cushion on the next excursion ashore.

Anyway, its about time I took a siesta!
Ciao, ciao...

Dinghy Dreaming...

Some people put their babies to sleep by taking them out for a drive around the block.

Our little first-class passenger prefers the dinghy...

Exploring Lady Musgrave Lagoon

We never actually made it ashore today. Nick and the kids were absolutely BUSTING to get into the water, so after a bit of outboard maintenance, a visit by a friendly neighbouring yachtie or two, and some lunch...

...they donned their stinger suits and wetsuits and were away (leaving me holding the baby ;-)!

(who else thinks that the dinghy looks like it is actually hovering over the crystal clear water in the shot above?!!!).

I spent a very pleasant afternoon snuggling with Eric and reading my Clive Cussler book.

Apparently the snorkeling here is pretty good...

 

...and Nick assures me I'll love it, but the water doesn't feel that warm to me, so we'll have to see about that (and someone has to look after Eric afterall :-).

Nick and I are both absolutely cactus. Nighty night.

Guess where we are...

Last night, after posting here. I jumped into bed...for a very short kip. Nick and I both got up at 11:40 pm, got dressed and sorted and upped anchor at midnight and motored up and out of the Great Sandy Strait and into Hervey Bay. We decided that we'd seen enough of Fraser Island for now, and will probably stop in there again on our way home late this year, or early next year.

It was fun motoring out at midnight. It was a very quiet night on the water (another reason we chose to up anchor with short notice), very little wind and no one else was silly enough to be out and about at that time of night. The moon was up...giving great visibility, and we only found one channel marker that was definitely NOT where it was marked as being. All the rest were where they should be, and flashing as they should flash (the various markers have different coloured lights on them (port, starboard, cardinal marks etc) and flash at different intervals, so you can easily tell which one you are looking at (when you compare them to the ones listed in your chart). We even had the current coming out with us, and it turned our 6 kts of boat speed into 8+ kts over the ground (such hoons)!

Out on Hervey Bay it was very peaceful sailing. I stayed up with Nick for a while, fed Eric and then went back to bed until about 6 am as we were approaching Bargara (where we called Nick's parents and made them come out onto their balcony so we could wave hello). We entered the Burnett River at 08:00, and we were all tied up at Bundaberg Port Marina by a little after 08:30. Gotta love a smooth night sail where no one chucks :-).

Today has been a quiet day here, just wandering around working out where everything is. Nick's parents stopped by to say hi then went into town and picked us up some fresh bread, chicken, Bonjela (the first class passenger is having a hard time with his erupting teeth...) and TWO peach blossom cakes. They are a different texture to the one I made with Emma's recipe, but still delicious. If I remember, I will take a pic tomorrow and show you what the store-bought version looks like.

ETA...this is a Peach Blossom cake from Lushus Cakes in Bundaberg...

I have a mountain of washing to do tomorrow (it is truly never ending), and Nick is going to have another try at fixing a leak on the dinghy as the patch he applied in Tin Can Bay is lifting up again :-(. We plan on staying here for about a week. In that time we hope to do the Distillery tour, have a look around at some of the places Nick remembers from when he stayed here as a child, then stock up on food, fuel, gas etc etc etc. I also have a list of random things we need to get for the boat...just bits and pieces we keep finding we need, but don't have on board (like a nail brush, a wooden spoon, another bean bag and some Aeroguard to name a few....). We also have to pick up a few parcels that we had directed to Nick's parents' place...stinger suits and Emily's NSW Distance Education packs for weeks 3 - 6 of term three.

Our next stop after this is Lady Musgrave Island, and I am really looking forward to getting there. I am hoping it will be warm enough to break out the hookah system we got at the Sydney International Boat Show last year. That is going to be LOTS of fun, and hopefully there will be plenty of pretty underwater pics coming this way as a result.

I'll leave you with one more pic taken at North White Cliffs...(there are more, but I am still not in the mood to fight with this Mac...so I am trying to take it easy, and not fry its little brain)...

... BTW, yes, she did survive this flight. It's not as high up as it looks ;-).

Bye bye for now...
:-)

Soon there will be Gnashing of Teeth!

Guess wot!?

I've cut my first tooth! It really hurts and this morning I asked my mum where the infirmary was, and she calmly told me that this was no 'Love Boat', and that if I wanted an infirmary, I'd best book a trip on the 'Freedom of the Seas' or some other rinky dink cruise liner! Isn''t she rude? Is she allowed to say that to me? I think this is a classic case of the passenger (first-class, no less) is always right!! I want to go to the infirmary….right away. If they don't take me there I am going to make a big fuss, and cry until the cows come home (betcha glad you're not here with us now eh?).

I'm gonna go back to chewing on my fingers now. They don't seem to do much, but at least I can't lose them, and they don't need sterilising every day either.

Tootles…

PS. My mother asked me to tell you that we stayed at Garrys Anchorage today. It was a poopy day, overcast and drizzling.

Dad took the stinkers ashore to have a play this afternoon. He nearly took me too, but I kicked up a fuss about missing my afternoon tea, so he left me with mum.

They appeared to be having fun ashore, finding star fish...

Digging up soldier crabs...

Checking out the Mangroves...

Pretending to be channel markers (as you do, apparently)...

I had a good chuckle when they got stuck in the thick, black, oozy mud though...

We might try and make South White Cliffs tomorrow instead.

Dolphin Feeding at Tin Can Bay

Yesterday the kids and I got up at stupid o'clock and marched at double-time down the road for the Dolphin Feeding at the Barnacles Dolphin Centre in Tin Can Bay. It was a 'groundhog day' moment for me as we had done the exact same thing the day before, but those pesky wild dolphins must have got some water in their wrist watches because by 08:30 they hadn't arrived and we were all chilled to the bone (having arrived at 07:00), so we had hightailed it back to Lucey Blue without seeing them.

Yesterday however, they'd obviously got their watches fixed and by 07:30 the two dolphins Mystique and Patch had arrived and were ready for their feed (thank goodness for that because I don't think I'd have been up for a third try ;-)...

 
The pelicans were also hanging about hoping to cash in on the fishy action.

Before I pack it in for the night...we had a beautiful sunset here that I thought I'd show you. I know you are probably sick of my Tin Can Bay/Snapper Creek shots...but I can't help myself. I love the serenity :-)...

I can see me developing a bit of a thing for these panorama shots (thanks for that Tony!!). I am going to have to work on them though because for some reason the Sony α55 is not stitching them together as well as we had hoped.

Night night.

A message from the First Class Passenger!

Last shots of Sydney...

I just had a few remaining shots of Sydney flagged in iPhoto, so I've edited them and popped them into this quick post to share.

One clear memory I have of our last weeks in Sydney is rain. Rain, rain, rain, some wind and then more rain. So I could hardly NOT have any rain-related shots, could I?

Our newly acquired mini-olympic-sized swimming pool/baby bath tub/emergency water supply/drogue/PITA :-)

...and of course, what goes in, must come out...

Taking due precaution against howling gales...

Our time in Sydney was also filled with lots of last-minute tasks, like changing the port of origin on Lucey Blue's transom. We said 'adios' to Leesburg Virginia (a past port of origin for Lucey Blue) with my hairdryer (talk about heart palpitations - using a hairdryer in a dinghy on the harbour - I was very pleased when that job was done).

...and bonjour to Sydney!

...and putting our name on our bows in order to satisfy the requirements for registration...

We had some left-over vinyl lettering, so I decided to decorate the life rings too (see, you can take the girl out of the craft room, but you can't take the craft-room out of the girl ;-)...

It wasn't all work though. The kids enjoyed hours of playing lego on the marina pontoon...

Talking to each other...

Lounging about...in true, first-class passenger form

...and I enjoyed watching the sun go down over Middle Harbour (once the rain finally cleared)!

In the end though, we weren't sad to say sayonara to some Sydney skyline pollution.

Thanks also for all your comments and emails. It means a lot to know that family, friends and fellow bloggers are thinking of us, and I will reply to your messages as soon as I can get the baby back to sleep ;-).