We have arrived back in Manly, Qld.
Had a wonderful cruise up to the Whitsunday Islands and back with great weather and lots of nice people.
Not many posts on this blog site as internet coverage was patchy in a lot of the anchorages we were in... Will try to do more next year!!! Still getting used to this Blogging thing!

Whitsundays

We're still here!!! That is online and still in the Whitsundays...
Having a great time with good company, a mixture of sundowners, lots of snorkeling, swimming and some kayaking.
Some friends have already gone south, others we look forward to catching up with when they get here from up north.
 Did a tiki tour over the school holidays when friends visited from Rocky. You are limited to how much can be squeezed into a few days, but they got the sailing experience. Collected oysters and caught some fish - swam with some too, while snorkeling. Did a small trek to the caves at Nara for a bit of land touring and aboriginal art.  Saw mantas and dolphins but didnt find whales or sharks- think they were pleased about not finding sharks!!!  Fun was had by allllll.
I had to move Morgan out of the way of a shark at Whitehaven beach last week. I was standing on shore watching it approach her ( she was about 2 meters in from the edge) I thought it might divert around her, but it wasn't. So I just called her out of the water and it continued on straight past. we then walked along with it to get others out of its way. It was about a meter and a quarter fat looking  grey reef.
We still have a couple more weeks around here before we start to look at going south, allowing 5-6 weeks to get back to Brisbane, hopefully getting some northerlies to travel on.

we left on August 7 and we saw some whales! 

August 8 Last night we did an over nighter and i woke up at 10:30 AM. We saw Dolphins and went to Kingfirher Island.

Nothing interesting happened for the next few days, we sailed everyday all day

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When we arrived at Percy Island on August 15th there were 2 other boats with Kids onboard- yeah!!! we dont find many of them. We all had a couple of days here, while waiting for the wind to come back,  so we hiked up to the homestead, played in the kayak, had bonfires each night at the A FRAME  fire pit, with lots of other yachties.

A FRAME - Its a building on the beach that looks like an A, with upstairs and down. All the yachts that come there make some kind of plaque with their boat name on it and put it in the building.

I managed to get some school work done here 

After the wind came back we all moved onto the next island, Digby Is - 18th August, for another gathering on the beach. Its great to have kids to play with.

A few more days of moving every day, all day, then we arrived at Airlie Beach. Here we went ashore for breaky - yum I had pancakes. Then we did washing and shoping and refilled our water etc. 

Left the next day for Gloucester Passage where there were lots and lots of other boats and friends.

More kids and 1 of my friends had a sleepover. Had a few days here with all our friends, some even had a cabin ashore.

Its now the 28th August  and I finally get a chance to get on the net and do this blog, and catch up on more school work.

We're back!
Departed Brisbane three weeks ago today after replacing the engine and getting over terrible coughs.
We had a good trip up to Wide Bay Bar but had to motor all the way due to lack off wind - at least the bar was flat as a tack. Hid behind Big Woody Island for a strong SW change for a couple of days then had a great sail to Bundaberg where we overnighted.
Next day another good sail to Pancake creek then on to Great Keppel Island for another night and then on to Island Head Creek and finally another day sail to Middle Percy Island where the wind left us for a couple of days so we had a good rest.
In light winds and fog patches we sailed to Digby Island then the following day on to Scawfell Island. Finally, two weeks after departing we sailed from Scawfell to Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays. Next day was laundry, shopping for food and refilling with fresh water - a busy day!
Then we sailed the following day around to Gloucester Island for the Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club Rendevous. This has finished now and we are relaxing for a few days and heading out to the Whitsundays to carry on cruising. (Hopefully will now have more time to fill in the Blog!)

We are leaving in about a weeks time.

Departing soon, hopefully next week! Weather depending.

Sitting in the rain!

Still in Manly watching the rain come down! We were going on a sea trial today but the outboard engine bracket bent and the rain came so we stayed put in port.