The biggest kid shows them how it's done...

Just a quick post tonight because the Mac is having another spack attack...and I'm completely over it! My MacBook Pro does not seem to like iPhoto and Photoshop to be running together, but unfortunately that is exactly what I need to be running whenever I'm choosing and playing with photos for the blog. Normally I take deep breaths, and imagine a place where computers do not come with attitude, and eventually I get the photos done and posted, but tonight...I'm about to send this thing on a flying start to its very own DEEP SEA voyage, it could hardly make it run much slower!!

This morning we moved from South White Cliffs up to North White Cliffs. It wasn't where we had intended to stop. We had originally thought we'd head to the Kingfisher Resort anchorage, but as we went past North White Cliffs the sand slopes and clean white beach beckoned...along with an anchorage all to ourselves...it was a no brainer.

We spent a large part of the day playing and walking on the beautiful beach. I liked it so much I've made a postcard!

...and the biggest kid, showed the little kids how to go about breaking a limb having fun jumping down sand slopes...

Bed time now...all this holidaying business is making me very sleepy ;-).

Hope you had a lovely weekend.
Sam.

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!

A Quiet Night at Garrys Place

It was a quiet night here at Garrys Anchorage...which on a boat is a good thing! A bit of wind came up during the night (I was listening to it while feeding Eric at 01:30, but it had died right down again by 05:30) but it didn't sound too bad, and we had the AIS anchor watch on, with an 80m diameter, and the alarm didn't go off...hooray! Finding ourselves lodged on one of the nearby sandbars this morning would have been a real bummer of a way to start the day ;-). The Rocna is proving to be a very reliable anchor, and well worth its weight in steel.

Before I turned in last night I dug out my remote release shutter cable and went and played with the camera outside (all the boats with their various coloured cabin and anchor lights looked pretty cool from our stern). I had to balance the camera atop the BBQ, because the tiny tripod I have here won't hold it up with the wide-angle lens attached. I let the camera decide the shutter speed on the first few tries....30 seconds later this is what I got...

...nice light effects, but not exactly what I was hoping for (I guess you get that when you are in a boat on the water....no matter how still it 'seems' there is always going to be some small movement).

I then changed it to shutter mode and played around with everything from 2 seconds to 8 seconds, and I think 4 seconds (and probably a bit of luck WRT boat bobbings) gave the best results...

In the high-res version you can even see hundreds of stars...very cool!

This morning after I'd fed Eric, the sun was just coming up behind Fraser Island, and giving a very pretty light show on the clouds...

We might move up the Strait again today, if it doesn't rain...and see what there is to see.

Have a good one,
Sam.

PS. It would appear that all Nick's work at making Lucey Blue mozzie and sandfly-proof is paying off, because we haven't found any stowaways yet.

Sojourn on the Great Sandy Strait...

We left Tin Can Bay this morning bright and early, and motored up the beautiful Great Sandy Strait behind Fraser Island.

I guess you could say that it was a fairly peaceful trip...

...I even got to dry some washing along the way...

We stopped at Garrys Anchorage off Fraser Island (along with numerous other cruisers)...

...and went for a wee wander in the bush...

We finished off a lovely day with a yummy BBQ dinner...

Now we are all tucked up aboard Lucey Blue, watching episodes of 'Black Books' and hoping that no nasty little sand flies find their way inside!

Fraser Island Dingoes

Another interesting part of our day trip to Fraser Island yesterday were the Dingoes.

We watched them, they watched us, we watched the kids, they watched us...you get the picture. When some of the smaller kids in our group were getting nervous Ryan made up a rhyme which went along the lines of 'you konk them on the head and they turn in to bread'...an interesting concept! Needless to say, we didn't actually try that approach.

I'm glad we got to see them in the wild. Looks like they could use a bit of a bath though.

We plan on heading up the Great Sandy Strait tomorrow, perhaps to Garry's Anchorage on Fraser Island.

A Picture Perfect Day on Fraser Island...

We took a day trip from Tin Can Bay to Fraser Island with our friends from Canberra today...and what a perfect way to spend the day it was too!

We could not have asked for better weather. The kids even went swimming!

Only a short post now though...very, very sleepy :-)