12/18/2009, Mooloolaba
We had a great sail down to Mooloolaba, a fitting end to a fantastic trip Thanks to the Mooloolaba Marina for giving us a free berth for the duration of our stay. Rightfully it's a popular stop for the overseas yachts. A short walk to town, easy entrance, lovely beach just 5 minutes walk away and it looks like there are plenty of services around town. Only problem is that you cannot clear Customs here.
As usual we were very busy, Ms Outreach (Katherine) visited every yacht for miles and braved shark infested waters in the kayak to do so. We had several visits from new and potential members and were helped a lot as usual by Julia and Roger Watson, parents of 16 year old Jessica Watson (OceansWatch member) who has now completed 7,000 miles of her round the world voyage.
Chris and Irene had a very fruitful visit to the University of Queensland. We discussed assisting them with specimen collection from remote Islands and giving their students some field experience. They may be able advise us on our surveying methods, especially how we can select Marine Protected Areas.
Highlight of the trip was the annual "Dress your boat for Christmas" competition. We had a ringside seat as the boats paraded in front of Magic Roundabout. We were inspired to put up lights and a Christmas Tree.
We said our sad goodbyes, most of which will be temporary we hope. Chris headed home to his family for a long overdue reunion. Anna carried on her holiday in Australia. Irene carried on with OceansWatch work, having meetings in Brisbane, Byron Bay and Sydney and Katherine headed south with an old friend but will be back at the OceansWatch Office by February.
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11/30/2009
Having seen pictures in the Cruising Helmsman of boats not having such great luck crossing the Wide Bay Bar (some completely out of the water), we approached with trepidation and fully prepared. Frank and Natalie followed us in Menja not far behind, and once safely over, we could relax a little and were able to take pictures of each other under full sail. Look at Magic Roundabout go!
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11/30/2009
Nov 23-24
Another impromptu stop brought us to Great Sandy Straights Marina, Urangan. While the marina would not offer us free berthage, Lianne (also owns Paolo's Pizza Bar) joined OceansWatch and thanks to Chris's major charm, covered our fees herself. We picked up a new member, John King, and caught up with Natalie and OceansWatch member Frank (of Norway) to caravan through the straights (above)! After brochuring the three marinas in Urangan, and like true twenty-somethings, Irene and I went very far out of our way to see the new Twilight movie while Chris was working on a cracked forehatch.
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11/30/2009
Nov 19-22
I can officially say that Bundaberg has been my favorite marina thus far. It's not too big, there is only one bar where everyone goes for happy hour, it seems like everyone knows your name and you can feel at home. The Bundaberg Port Marina is also part of the Clean Marinas Australia and in keeping up with their nature of conservation and respect for the environment, Geoff Beyer, marina manager, offered us free berthage for a few days. The marina is super clean and makes a conscious effort to work with yachties instead of against them. We made friends throughout the marina, the cutest one being a jack russel terrior puppy and the nicest were Liz and John from the Gold Coast. Channel 7 dropped by and interviewed Chris & Irene and filmed the whole crew doing [menial] tasks, and put together a nice 4-minute clip that ran on the evening news all about OceansWatch and our projects, plans for the future, etc. All in all, a great few days. Thanks again, Geoff!
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11/23/2009
Nothing special to report about Gladstone except that on our sail out of port we passed through a pod of about 5 or 6 dolphins, paused to try and catch them on camera but to no avail! We spoke to someone who had run into Natalie in Vanuatu...it's really great to see our cause is spreading. Since Chris and Irene won't stop complaining about my ugly shorts, I tried to buy new ones...but made banana bread instead.
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11/18/2009
Nov 15-16
We made an impromptu stop at Keppel Bay Marina at Yeppoon on Sunday instead of heading straight to Gladstone...thanks again for the free berthage! We visited a ton of different yachties from all over the world, and Irene and I chatted with a local male model working at the marina. We had to stay longer than we planned due to an unexpected low tide that kept us from leaving our berth...so I made use of the extra time to market OceansWatch on the local beach.
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11/17/2009
Nov 14
While we were only here for a few hours, this place deserves it's own blog entry. Motoring into the anchorage past small islands of dark rock scattered with pine trees and coming to a crystal clear bay with a stunning white beach was just the start of it. On shore was an A-frame "beach house" built almost 40 years ago, and now yachties who come ashore leave the name of their yacht, crews, date, and anything else that inspires them. We left an OceansWatch sticker in the main room to the right, on a bit of white wall space. If you ever make it there, see if you can find it!
We also noticed a T-shirt of OceansWatch member James Wharram from the Spirit of Gaia trip hanging in the upstairs rafters....very cool.
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