We are anchored in Airlie Bay, enjoying this lovely beach town, HQ for most of the travel in the Whitsunday Islands. We've done some provisioning and souvenir shopping, and are now catching up on e-mails. Tried to make it out the the Great Barrier Reef on the way here, but the wind filled in to about 30 knots and caused us to run for cover behind an uninhabited island called Scawfell Island. We holed up there for three days, exploring the island and using the boat's hookah diving rig to check out the coral. Dennis shot three good-sized sweetlips with the speargun, so we ate well. He just missed a few lobster, as well.

We hope to head back out to the reef this weekend, and will also explore more of the Whitsundays. This is truly a sailing paradise, with line-of-sight navigation, plenty of beautiful anchorages, sandy beaches, wonderful coral and fish, and all the services you might need. Sunsail runs a big charter operation on Hamilton Island, and there are several charter companies on the mainland. We have run into several other Americans, some of whom have sailed here from the States.

Smooth sailing!
Lori and Dennis

We arrived on Friday in Brisbane, to visit our friends Slava and Leka. They have a 31' Seawind catamaran that we are preparing to sail up the coast to the Whitsunday Islands. We're doing some last minute prep to the boat - new dodgers, minor repairs, provisioning, etc. Hope to be off by the end of the week.

We sure hope the weather improves. This is not supposed to be the rainy season, but it has rained every day since we've been here! It should get warmer as we head north (that sounds strange, doesn't it?!)

I'll post a photo of the boat once it stops raining!

We're preparing to head out of town tomorrow, driving up to Ft. Walton Beach, FL for Dennis' daughter Meg's wedding next Saturday. As soon as we get back from the wedding, we have to pack for Australia, so we're getting all the boat prep done today....taking all the sails down, bimini off, extra dock lines, etc.

Today is also laundry day. It's not so bad when this is the view from the laundry room!

Had an incredible lightning storm last night, with almost continual lighting around the entire sky for over an hour, followed by torrential rain.

We had a great day yesterday! We took the boat and some of our friends out to the reef to watch the sinking of the 520-ft USS Vandenberg to become an artificial reef. There were hundreds of spectator boats (or as Dennis said, the entire Conch Navy). National Geographic is supposed to do a special on the event, and even had cameras on board that were going to go down with the ship and record underwater. For more about the Vandenberg, check out www.sinkthevandenberg.com

The Coast Guard enforced a 1-mail perimeter around the ship, and we were downwind, so the smoke pretty much obscures most of our video. Here are some links to really good videos of the sinking:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2009/05/uss-vandenberg-goes-down-off-florida-becomes-artificial-reef.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwDdUpxqTzk

After the sinking, most of the spectator fleet took off (back to work?) but we sailed up to Pelican Shoals for a little snorkeling and some lunch. Had a nice sail in about 5-7 knots of wind. Later in the evening, we went to the big "sinking party" at the Rum Barrel to listen to Howard Livingston and the Mile Marker 24 band. All the people responsible for organizing the purchase, decommissioning, and sinking of the ship were there. It was a 10-year ordeal for them, and they were ready to celebrate!

All in all, a great day. We were so lucky to be able to witness this little bit of history!

We're back in Key West, after spending most of April in Kansas City, working on rental property. We got our own house cleared out so we can rent it, so now our only real home is our 36' catamaran, Sirius.

Dennis' daughter Meg is getting married in Fort Walton Beach on June 13th, so we will be heading up there soon to help with wedding arrangements. Then we are off to Australia for a couple of months to go sailing with some friends from Brisbane. We plan to sail up to the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef

Look for more blog entries as we think of things to post!