New Owners for Georgia Wray
25 August 2011
Since arriving in her home port of Mooloolaba in 2008 GW has seen a few adventures. Keith and Lesley sailed her to Sydney in December 2009 and had an awesome couple of weeks in Sydney harbour. We experienced the start of the Sydney - Hobart and the spectacle of New Year's eve fireworks.
In 2010 we sailed her to the Whitsundays, had lots of fun on the way up and down and got to see a little of what must be some of the best cruising waters in the world.
Alas we just can't find the time to use her enough so made the tough decision to put her up for sale.
We are delighted that the new owners are going to take her to Airlie Beach and live aboard. Lesley and Keith are giving them a hand sailing GW up to the Whitsundays in September.
20 September 2008
Georgia Wray finally arriving Brisbane River!
Vanuatu to Brisbane
20 September 2008
The "See Vanuatu in a day" tour turned out to be quite entertaining with just Steve and I and another couple being bounced around in a 7-seater van on some very rough dirt roads. The outrigger canoe ride was cancelled because the canoe had sunk, but the lunch and local dancing and welcome ceremony was good value. The World War 2 museum that boasted nothing but old coke bottles and the wing of an unidentified war plane had us chuckling.
The next morning Monday September 1st we pulled out of Port Vila on route for New Caledonia - the winds, as has become the norm for this trip, were fickle with strong Easterlies blowing up to 35knots in the first 24 hours and then no wind, requiring us to motor for the next 24 hours.
We passed between two of the Loyalty Islands, Lifou and Mare, and entered Havannah Pass into one of the nicest cruising waters that we have seen, calm seas but with 15 knots of wind, numerous islands, inlets and bays.
We pulled into Bay de Prony early on the afternoon of Sept 3rd and spent a very pleasant night at anchor in a calm and picturesque setting.
The next morning we rounded New Caledonia and headed up the coast to Noumea, we had our first close encounter with a whale, having to turn suddenly to avoid running into a large character that didn't look like he was going to move!
We entered the harbour at Noumea through the steep sided Petite Pass and took a berth at Moselle Marina.
We soaked up a few days of very French atmosphere in Noumea, enjoyed the company of the crew of Mandrake - another Australian yacht headed for Mackay, and left on Tuesday Sept 9th bound for Brisbane.
We had heard some disturbing stories of yachts getting into trouble on this leg - "Illusion" that was abandoned and "Blessed Be" that is still lost, so were pleased with the good weather window that became available. If anything the winds were too light, very large swells but for a couple of days we were lucky to log 100nm per day.
Finally, on the evening of Sept 8th, the radar picked up the first sight of Australia. Lots of ships to dodge coming through Moreton Bay - and we watched the skipper of a ketch play chicken with a freighter. We pulled into the Brisbane river mouth first thing on the morning of Tuesday September 9th, nearly 7 months after our trip began in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
Lesley was waiting on the dock to meet us at Rivergate Marina, just below the Gateway Bridge but had to wait a couple of hours for us to be cleared by customs and quarantine, including some full on searching by customs teams and sniffer dogs.
Georgia Wray was confined to Brisbane Port until we initiated the importation process, but is now released and we will be bringing her up to her home Port of Mooloolaba around the 24th September.