Noni comes to stay

Noni finally managed to visit us at Emerald Beach, so we've had some quality girl time, at the beach ( personal training is so much better in the fresh air) the park, (with Australian marsupials) the Pet Porpoise Pool! Yes, regional tourist attractions are fun and where better to bond with your child than being kissed by various sea creatures ie: porpoises (really dolphins!), seals and sharks (if you really wanted) we passed on that one. Anyways...one more day with my baby and then she flies out of here...missing her already!

Life at Emerald Beach...

Our New Home

We are now in Emerald Beach, near Coffs Harbour, working in the Emerald Beach Caravan Park.

We've moved out of the "teacup" and into a real house with rooms, pretty luxurious.

It's a beautiful park, right on the beach, lots of large trees,lots of birds and kangaroos.

We are working with Mason,Michael and Miah, great guys who are lots of fun,the go karts get a workout racing back to the shed with Bryan,Michael and Miah at the wheel.

Where we've been so far...

We have been working in a great part of the northern rivers, Lake Ainsworth , Lennox Head.

It ended up being the wettest summer they've ever experienced but not flooding like Queensland or further south, so we were the stop for stranded tourists heading in both directions.

I think we have broken the Guiness Book of Records for living in the smallest caravan in the world, in the wettest summer Australia has seen.

When the sun came out it was magic, had some days at Ralph and Marie's over Chrissy and some lovely New Year swims in Lake Ainsworth and Seven Mile Beach.

We loved looking after BBCat, Toby and Chez, even though Toby told everyone he hated us and starved.....he lies.

Sad to leave, we had a great time and loved Lennox.

From Bundaberg to Cairns 2010

Hi everyone, the failed blogger is back...so since we last talked.....a wet,wet, wet winter sail up the coast but some beautiful spots anyhow (pictures following).

Torn sails out at the Percy's, a prolonged stay in Airlie beach with a broken fuel pump injector,a hole in the keel in Cairns ...but hey we finally made Cairns.

We met lots of great people, saw glorious sunsets,islands,reefs and bays.

Our new "pergola" goes on

Terry and Bryan toiled for 3 days raising our new roof ,lifting and fine tuning.

It all takes time......

Amongst the chaos washing still has to be done

Dry rot needs to be removed and repaired

Bryan takes delivery of his brand new railings

Yes, its all true,the nasty comments about boats costing a fortune to take you somewhere slowly etc.

I suffered from "sanders shoulder "after removing all the old varnish from the brightwork, can you tell it hurt?

We have worked to repair and improve the boat and even had some help from a visitor, Terry, as you wil see but it has been slow going.

It can't be all bad you say, well no, while you shiver down south we enjoy sunshine and and just the occasional day of rain and of course we aren't trudging to a job evey day,so i'll shut up and post some photos of our improvements.

What it takes to get things done..

The sunny winter weather continues in Bundaberg.

We thought of all you "southerners" as we watched the blustery winds and rocky seas buffet Jessica Watson and Ella's Pink Lady yesterday and shivered.

People near us have tales to tell of a crossing from New Zealand which was supposed to take 2 weeks taking 79 days because they were dismasted, they ran out of food and were thoroughly defeated by the sea, so congrats Jessica you conquered a tough opponent.

We try to stay motivated and use our time productively while we wait for the new railing to be constructed. We have plenty to do and Leon (my nephew) sent litres of paint and varnish down from Cairns, so we have no excuses not to look ship-shape by the time we depart.

Our method of transporting heavy items is pictured here, if you look closely you'll also see the above mentioned "motivation"!

I miss all my family and friends in Sydney and wish I could be there to see Tristan arrive home tomorrow from Indonesia and say Bon Voyage to my friend Sylvia who is off to Europe, still in only a matter of weeks we'll be on the move again,I hope.