4/17/2012 Our weather window opened and we left Bundaberg Port Marina at 6 am. With a light SE trade wind blowing we followed our friends, Mike and Ann of S/V Calisto, out the river mouth and turned north. Serenity was so happy to feel the seas moving past her hull again. How did we feel being at sea after six months ashore? We were a little anxious, but we soon fell into our groove. Plus, going up the east coast of Austalia involves hopping from anchorage to anchorage without doing an overnighter--all within the Great Barrier Reef--minimum swells. We had to motorsail the fifty miles up to Pancake Creek the next secure anchorage. We decided not to visit Lady Musgrave atoll as we had heard that the atoll is low and waves come over at high tide making a rough night at anchor. We had visited numerous atolls on our Pacific crossing, so we opted for a super calm night at Pancake Creek. After some sphincter clenching due to the shallow sand bar crossing, we anchored in 16 feet of murky water. The holding here is so-so due to the silt bottom, so we spent only one night--but, I'll tell you, it was dead calm. A short note on paranoia; one of the crew on Serenity is deathly afraid of all the poisonous, noxious, deadly, vicious, and nasty creatures that abound in Oz. It does seem that God put all of his nasties on this continent. There are crocodiles (big, man eating ones), snakes, spiders, jelly fish ( including the faltal and near invisible Irukandgji and box jellies), sharks, sea snakes... the list goes on. While at Pancake Creek we elected to avoid going ashore as there were swarms of mosquitos (they are really nasty and very attracted to that certain crewmember). Every water swirl could be a croc (salty they call them), or other nasty coming for a visit. We just can't wait to get further north where there are more crocs than people--"Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep...".