A Christmas Prep Pitstop

I'm afraid our poor old blog has been passed over in the rush to prepare for Christmas on Lucey Blue, but I thought I should just pop on here and let you know we are still alive and well!

After a quick trip down the Sandy Straits (where I was completely mauled by Sandflies one morning) and a few lovely, quiet, sandfly-free days in Tin Can Bay (above) we travelled to Mooloolaba, and thence to Brissy, where we are currently berthed at the Dockside Marina.

Dockside is an excellent place to be based while in Brisbane. It is a quick ferry ride into the heart of Brisbane, where we have finished all of our Christmas shopping, seen a movie, watched the big Christmas Tree being lit, visited with friends and family, and even managed to acquire a lovely shot of the kids with Santa. I have taken Eric for a long walk every morning (he tends to wake at o'dark thirty-ish). We go along the cliffs walk to Southbank (along with every other man, woman, child, dog and bike in Brisbane it would seem), then we cross the Goodwill Bridge into the Botanic Gardens and walk to the Eagle Street Pier, catch a quick ferry ride across to Holman Street and finish up by walking back under the Storey Bridge to Dockside. Some mornings we swap bridges and walk up to the Victoria Bridge and then walk back down the Queen Street Mall to Eagle Street. I love being in the city, and we have loved our time in Brisbane so much that we are currently umming and ahhhing about when to leave. We still think we'll make it to Sydney before Christmas, weather permitting.

Other jobs happily accomplished in Brisbane include the repair of our screecher. As we were screeching down Moreton Bay towards the Brisbane River last Tuesday morning our new (second-hand) sail suddenly fell from the mast and plonked unceremoniously into the Bay. The webbing at the head of the sail had given way. Nick called Doyle Sails, Queensland as we entered the river and they offered to come by the marina and pick up the sail as soon as we'd docked. They also offered to drop me at the airport, where I needed to pick up a rental car! They fixed the sail and dropped it back to us at the marina in less than a week. I was surprised and delighted, to say the least. We can highly recommend Doyle Sails, Queensland for their excellent and friendly service!

Anyhoo...that's us in a nutshell! I have more pics of this and that to download, but they'll have to wait for another night.

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.

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!