We picked up anchor at 7am on Tuesday 27th after being farewelled by the anchorage dugong. He swam right past the back of the boat & lingered on the surface for a few breaths. Amazing! Our passage to Australia didn't start off terribly well! We were 8 hours out on our first day when we heard a thump and then a twang! It sounded as though something fell from the mast & bounced off the life lines. After a good search around we discovered the port side D2 shroud had snapped. After 20 minutes of deliberation & tossing around our options we decided to turn around & head back to Luganville. It was a slow old sail unable to tack....it was a very late night. Up early the next morning to winch Steve up the mast to remove the snapped shroud & replace with the OK starboard side one. Then into the local hardware to get some stainless steel wire to jury rig the broken one. Back up the mast to attach & then tighten the rig. Dinghy & motor back on deck and we headed off again at 8am.
Our passage across was varied... Wednesday was very rough with 25-30 knots of wind & lumpy seas. Thursday through to Friday afternoon was lovely with 12-15 knot of wind & calm seas. Beautiful sailing under a near full moon. Friday night, Saturday & to Sunday lunch time was high winds again & uncomfortable swell. We managed to break our 24 hour record... we did 175 nautical miles from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. The wind dropped again on Sunday afternoon & by 2am Monday we had a spinnaker flying. It did a good job of keeping us moving until Tuesday afternoon the wind dropped completely & we had to motor for a couple of hours. Early Wednesday morning treated us to more wind as we approached Bundaberg. We dropped anchor outside the Bundaberg Port Marina at 5.30am & had a well earned sleep while we waited for Quarantine & Australian Border Force to begin work at 9am.
After being directed onto the Quarantine dock we were inspected by Customs & also Quarantine. Aimee from Quarantine was very thorough, but we had no problems with anything which was a relief. We now had to start our paperwork to import PANNIKIN into Australia. Customs will not let us leave the marina until we have the paperwork started & we pay our import fee/GST. We needed a valuation of the boat & then our broker will organise the paperwork. We hope to have all this organised and completed by mid next week.
The last couple of days have been spent ducking into Bundaberg to get bits & pieces, Aussie sim cards for our phones and a general look around. It has been wonderful to get phone calls & emails from all our friends & family. It's nice just being able to pick up the phone & talk to someone whenever we want. Internet is so fast too!!!
Exercise is high on the list too!! Lots of walking and bike riding while we are at the marina. It is close to the small village of Burnett Heads – which is really lovely. A walk along the river early each morning has been great.
We are enjoying being back in Australia!