The look of happiness and serenity as we apporach Hervey Bay marina - who'd of thought that 24 hrs earlier Lyn was a nervous wreck as we rode the Wide Bay Bar.

After 7 days we finally left Mooloolaba yesterday morning along with our friends Peter and Paula sailing 'Valhalla'. After endless discussions with the Mooloolaba boat people, we decided the best way to cross the bar was to head out early and aim to cross at 4:00 in the afternoon, 3 hours after low tide, and not cross at high tide which we originally thought was mandatory. This way we avoided sailing at night or crossing the bar at night, both difficult on a new moon (i.e. no moon at all - sailing in pitch black).

The Wide Bay Bar itself stood up to exectations, a bumpy ride with mainly following waves about the height of Andamon's roof. At the bar these become more vertical and break, but somehow we only had one breaking wave hit us. This time we decided to go slowly to avoid actually catching the waves, we let them pass underneath, and this worked well. Andamon seems to handle following waves without fuss. Catamarans have no lead in the keel and therefore rise easily when waves approach. However, Lyn was still terrified because the route that is followed is a channel between shallower waters where breaking waves are everywhere, an awesome sight. I was a bit dissappointed given all the hype we'd been hearing for the past week, I thought that we could have been pooped at least once (pooped = wave breaks and fills cockpit).

Last night we stayed behind Fraser Island, anchoring along the shore, and the weather which had been cyclonic the week before was so calm the stars were reflecting off the mirror-like water, a wonderful scene.

Today we motored up the Sandy Straits , the water seperating Fraser and Qld coast. This is the third day we've had to use the engines with no wind, we are really pining for some normal wind for a change. We've had to come in to re-fuel. The photo was taken at the end of the day just after I phoned a friend in Sydney who described the miserable weather down there, sounded awful. Tomorrow we head to Bundaberg, and then to Lady Musgrave Island which we are really looking forward to.