Sail round the world in two easy legs... NOT

We came back into the marina yesterday morning and I managed to have my first proper shower for 3 days, when just afterwards I was invited to the café for a coffee by Michael the marina manager, myself, Ruud and Karen were invited to go racing with Michael in the afternoon on 'Sky'. Ruud was too busy working on 'Gabber' and Karen couldn't go either, so at 12.30 just the two of us left the marina and set sail, the wind was blowing just nicely for the race, we were in 2nd position for the start. Within 5 minutes the wind disappeared and our speed was down to only 1.2kts less just over 1mph. We along with the others decided to give it up after almost 3 hours and almost 2/3 of the race left to run. The sun was shining and I enjoyed the time on the water. I also managed to top up my tan quite a bit more. When I got back Ruud tells me that our long awaited life raft and GPS has arrived (yippee) it now means that we can go soon. Another vital piece of safety equipment also arrived, our new EPRIB.

I got up early this morning and needed to get a few things off my chest with Ruud in relation to us still being here, it got interesting and after about 15 minutes we had it sorted out. I went up to the marina office to see Michael who very kindly said that I could loan his car just so that I could save over 4.5 hours using the public transport having to go into then out of Brisbane to get to the world famous Australia zoo, home of The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. It was such a brilliant place. I would love to go back very soon (but that might not be possible just yet) The Sumatran tigers were my favourite, the keepers bring them out to play. The displays were very well organised and presented with information about the crocs and other animals, there were animals from all over the world, and plenty of reading about the conservation efforts that they are doing at the zoo. For a small fee $2.00 AUD you can go into the zoo hospital and see what they are doing, the cost goes 100% towards helping sick animals. I also loved the 100 odd photographs that Robert Irwin has taken. Here you can take photos without the extra expense of having the "official photo". They also have a complimentary road train that can take you around (it's over 100 acres) all within the cost. I have had the most fantastic day I didn't want it to end. Today was also a rather sad day for me because for the first time since I left the UK I felt that it would have been so much better if I had someone else with me to share the fun, joy and the fantastic experience that have had and along with taking the photos. Overall the best day to date. Oh yeh I also forgot to say that it is winter here and a brilliantly 23 degrees Centigrade hahaha