Carrying on the Mackerel Tradition

I know that you are probably well and truly over all the fishing photos...but I'm putting this up because I think it is amusing that with an ocean full of different fish, it really does appear that Mackerel (or Mackerel-themed fish [aka Mackerel Tuna]) are pretty much all that we are going to catch! Obviously our lure is a 'Mackerel-only' lure!

We left Bundy on Wednesday and had a terrific Spinnaker ride down through Hervey Bay, stopping behind Bookar Island in the Great Sandy Strait for the night. It was a glorious day to be out on the water, capped off with another catch of....you guessed it, Mackerel! This time we caught a lovely, golden-hued, Broad-Barred Mackerel (or Grey Mackerel), 80 cm long and weighing in at 3.5 kg.

Apparently the bars fade into grey patches...so you can't really see them above, but Emily caught them nicely in this picture below.

He was delicious, as usual. We are now on the hunt for a Jack Mackerel or Wahoo to top off our Mackerel menu!

I thought I'd also show you a cute picture Emily snapped of one of the Bundaberg Port Marina natives...

These little Green Tree Frogs came out to sit on the grass along the marina walkway in the evening, much to the delight of the kids.

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!

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.

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 :-)

Tin Can Bay Wash Day

Today is wash day on Lucey Blue. Five loads of washing, all carted from our berth to the Marina ammenities block (one of the very furthest berths from the ammenities block of course) and back, then strung up across the foredeck...

But you can't really complain when the weather is gorgeous, sunny and a balmy 22 degrees (sorry to my fellow Canberrans and Sydneysiders, don't mean to rub it in ;-)...and you know you have this to look forward to again this evening...

We are also preparing for a possible day-trip to Fraser Island tomorrow with some friends from Canberra. Topping up fuel tanks, repairing the hole in the dinghy, tidying away accumulated 'stuff' like charts, tools etc. I may even break out some cake-making goodies later and try a Peach Blossom cake (recipe courtesy of Emma's Grandma...thanks Emma and Grandma!!).

The more we see and experience of Tin Can Bay, the more we like it. Such a relaxed little community, and such friendly people. It has been a real pleasure to stay here.

Hope your Monday has been a good one too.

Tranquil Tin Can Bay...

After a successful crossing of the Wide Bay Bar, which I think put on its very best behaviour for us, we meandered down the Tin Can Bay Inlet and found a berth at the Tin Can Bay Marina. Sitting on the sugar scoops with Ryan this afternoon, this was our view...

Well...our view wasn't crooked like that...but it was very tranquil!

Goodnight!