How to choose / or decide a pretty sunset?
Me personally, an ugly sunset is a thing of beauty. Sunsets, no matter where you are in the world, they are divine gorgeous things - that make me fall in love with Mother Nature all over again.

This was ours tonight, with Sylvia, Ever and myself - after our (Ever and Sylvia's) swim in the ocean (in the nets!!!! Of corse, we wouldn't want those pesky tiger sharks or crocodiles or irikandi or box jelly fish to hurt/mame/or kill), this is what I caught on film.

For dinner tonight, Michel and I had San Choy Bow.
OH YUMCHA.
Homemade.
Fantastic-ness.
Watching MasterChef. I am waiting with baited breath for GLEE.

x

Alright, Alright.

I will never sleep past 4am again. I am slowly coming to the realisation that this early wake up is going to be a permanent fixture in my life. For EVER.
But there are worse ways to wake up, than at 4am with your baby demanding kisses, coffee, cuddles, and boobie - gazing up through the hatch, counting the stars.
We are in Horse Shoe Bay, on Magnetic Island, (a floating suburb of Townsville.).
Yesterday was mothers day here, and we woke early to count the stars, have tea, more tea, then chocolate with tea(because it makes it all better - LINDT).
Michel decided to sail us to Maggie Island for Mothers Day - WHAT A FANTASTIC idea.
But first, there was a drama - there always is a drama - No?
I slipped off our boat, and fell onto the finger in the marina, and then slipped off that, and ping pong-ed against another boat and almost fell into the MARINA WATER.
*My skin just walked off my body now - thinking about the harbour water - EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW*.
After that drama we set sail, and had a great go at about 9knots for half the trip, then the current, swell, tides, waves started acting up, and we had to take down the Main sail (oh happy happy joy joy fun that is), and try not to hit THESE massive boulders. As you do.

We arrived in Horse Shoe Bay - a beautiful bay, that has a road, lined with a couple pubs, restaurants, cafes, a shop, and tourists. - FYI - I am a tourist, so I APPRECIATE the extra bonus of things to look at and do.
Michel took me out to lunch (ah haaaah- I pulled the ITS MOTHERS DAY , and I want my dishes CLEARED AWAY - and not just to the galley for me to clean later CARD), and then Ever and I had a swim on the beach.
Which is FANTASTIC because it is DOUBLE fenced in. To protect us from say oh TIGER Sharks.
Crocodiles.
Jelly fish (the deadly ones).
I LOVE it when they (gov) do nice things like that! What a treat to swim and not loose a limb! WHOO HOO, now thats a fun day at the beach!

Daedalus TOO is in Horse Shoe Bay on their way to Palm Island, Up North, over to Darwin - then to join the Indonesian Rally to *gasp* Indonesia!
Check out their website, and if you want apply to crew! How fun! www.389post.com

Now, Daedalus TOO is not just some random boat I saw and thought *Hmm, thats pretty - lets stalk them*, but are friends of ours from Mackay.
Ever ADORES Sylvia and Gerd, and they spoil her with treats, clothes and SHOOOOES - Sylvia is her favourite person, and she tried to jump off the boat and swim over to Sylvia's yesterday when we were pulling in!

So we are lucky enough to spend some time with them before they head off to Indo and then Thailand for 2 years!
Last night, we all got together (with their new crew member to Darwin Dean - who is a teacher on the SUNSHINE coast - in COOLUM ((this is where we live - of all the places in all the world! - How crazy,)) plus Dean knows a mutual friend whom is our neighbor's father, and they would go spear fishing on Palm Island - Pretty much the butterfly effect, or is it the flutterby effect or 6 degrees of seperation?
Or something or another, I just thought *DUDE - how trippy*) and had a beach bbq (again thank you gov for littering the beach with public toilets, showers and bbq's), of pork, rissoles, sauteed onions,potato and pea salad, rice salad, cucumber-vinegar salad, fresh veggies and PINK champagne!
It was a perfect way to end a perfect day!
WE ate, we laughed, Ever played for hours with Sylvia on the beach, in the park, feeding the birds...and mumma got to use both hands to EAT her food! So to Sylvia a big thank you!

A tough little guy.
This is Nemo. The newest addition to our famdamily.
I must admit I was very sceptical that this little guy was going to be around for long.

Michel bought him in Mackay for Ever, and he is her NEMO.
She never ever, EVER forgets to feed him Breakfast, lunch or dinner.
She reads to him, she sits by his tank and gives him kisses, she accidentally almost poisons him with cotton, she accidentally almost squashed him with the tank lid, she accidentally almost shattered his skull poking at him, Ever adores this fish.
When we *Road Tripped* to Airlie Beach, we could not leave Nemo on the boat overnight, we had to take him with us.
In the van.
To Airlie.
Nemo's made the sea voyage unscathed. And seems to be coping just fine with all his undo attention.
But the great part is, have a mentioned he is still alive, and Ever loves him.
She does now ask *Where's Dory?*.
Here we go again!

Miss you Grandma !!! LOVE YOU.
Mumma, Lori Loves you SOOOO MUCH!
Happy Mothers Day MUM!
I love and miss you so much!

This is Ever, missing her Grandma.

xxx

Part 2 -

Well, I think I must be the only sailor (when I say sailor, I mean person who goes sailing, I have no affiliation with actual SAILING individuals, whom do the hard work, ie hoisting, steering, navigation - tho I do do it, just not *often*) who GAINS weight whilst sailing. On the water.

I thought it was a complete impossibility, but nope.
We eat WELL. Very well.
And to think, only once has it been FISH. Fresh. Michel oh Capt. Mick Sparrow, where is thee working rods? A trevali, and it was wee, wee, little trevali - we ate him up as a starter whilst I made lunch.

Another time, we had fresh squid. Oh, yummy.
Not plain, no, not plain old boring bbq squidleys for us, we made a salt and pepper batter. We had no actual flour, so we improvised with pancake mix.
You know, the *Just add water and shake* in a plastic bottle pancake mix? Well, it makes a divine sea food batter.

And again, once, (nope twice) I had fresh oysters. The first time, fresh off the rock, smashed out of it's shell (poor little guy - never knew what hit him) and straight into my BELLY!
I attempted them in Gloucester bay with a fresh chilli-mango salsa, but they bad boys were the size of my HAND, and choking one down, was enough - oddly, I am now off the oysters. BLECH!

But I daresay that those are the only times fish / seafood has crossed our lips, bar the stuff we rescue from a can.

I can say with certainty, that we eat well, our freezer and fridges are full of fresh - ish produce, and I manage to consistently have something within easy peasy reach. Plus everything manages to taste so good out on the water. SO GOOD. Chocolate mint cookies with coconut covered chocolate with my evening tea, EVERY night....Thats called civilized. Midnight snacks with Ever? Pfft - a necessity.

But Im not holding my breath for fresh fish tomorrow, Ive stocked us up on fish fingers!

6 little words that made EVERYTHING better. Short of 2 shots of tequila and a cigar (which is NOT what I would of EVER ever ever drank or did before - Mum, not me, no siree).

Today, ahhh today (I know I said I needed a moment, but well, I just need to shoot this off first) had a few crap moments.
I suppose the swelly water (2-3 meters, I mean seriously the swell was almost coming up the back of our boat, it was SMASHING underneath us so hard, that we would HOP, the table would hop - it was yucka make not a lick of sense swell) that gave Ever and I seasickness AGAIN - man oh man, are we tired of that.
It was 20-25 knots of wind, good sailing wind, good good sailing wind. BAD BAD wind for Lori.
Before I begin. Michel is the Captain, no matter what is going on in our relationship, marriage, etc, there is NO equality on this boat. He is the boss, I do as he says. PERIOD. Im so okay with this...

Michel EXPLICITLY gave me instructions to POINT our BOAT to some degree or another towards the wind (details are not really needed). DEAD straight into the wind Lori, DEAD straight so he could pull the main sail down (now, you just wait until my next post about our wonderful MAIN SAIL, and our fun bonding over it yesterday! ohhh ahhhh fun and BONDING?).
So, being we were USING the wind to sail us towards the harbour (so we are NOT dead straight into the wind), I thought, it may be in our best interest and EASIEST for Michel to pull the sail down if I turned the boat to FACE THE WIND.
Oddly enough Michel agreed full heartedly with that!
Unfortunately for Lori, it took time for said boat to move around into the wind. I suppose it must of been expected of me to stop the earths rotation and slip it around, or make text Mother Nature, God, Buddha, Allah, or whom ever and ask for them to do their *thing*, and move the boat INSTANTANEOUSLY dead into the wind.
I didn't, it didn't, and it took time (plus I WAS not too un SCARED (is this a word, I think not) for me to move it SLOWLY, if I went to fast, I would of knocked Michel off the boat with the boom into the water. Which was full of 2-3 meter swells, big tides, waves, current, etc. But I did move it.
Not to Captain Michels happiness or pleasure, and out flies the YELLATHON.
Tempted as I was to join in, I didn't, I walked back into the saloon, and sat down, looking at the gorgeous view, grunting under my breath.

A little hand reaches out for me and in the sweetest voice, batting the longest eyelashes with big blue eyes underneath comes these words: *Mumma, Ever LOVES you SOOOO much.*

Everything is good with the world.