It has been a LONG time since we have written a blog, I guess we have just settled into the cruising lifestyle and are getting lazier and lazier!
After KB and Carol departed in mid August we sailed back to Gloucester Passage for The Shaggers Reunion held over 4 days off Monte's Resort and adjacent to Shagg Islet. An incredible number of boats attended (about 150)and a lot of money was raised for prostrate cancer. Rick is now the Vice Commodore of Morning Bay and I am the Vice Commodore of Towlers Bay, both bays being in Pittwater, in fact everyone who joins becomes a Vice Commodore of a bay of their choice. Activities over the 4 days included lunch on Shagg Islet with valet dinghy parking, a champagne breakfast at Eco Resort, Reef and Beef dinner at Monte's Resort with an auction of goods with all funds to prostrate cancer.
We then headed back to the Whitsundays and floated around for a few weeks meeting other cruisers and enjoying the wonderful weather. In early September we accompanied "New Silver Gull" south to explore the southern islands of the Whitsundays. Thomas Island was our first overnight stop, a beautiful anchorage with sandy beaches and crystal clear waters. On our way to Brampton Island, we saw numerous whales and only just missed hitting one by metres. We enjoyed a lovely swim at Brampton and wandered around the now defunct resort. Overnight was spent on the southern side of the island, Dinghy Bay as the breeze turned northeasterly in the afternoon. The next day we enjoyed a barbecue on the beach with Jo & Hans from New Silver Gull before farewelling them as they continued their journey south and we meandered north again. We overnighted at Roberta Bay on Shaw Island and Plantation Bay on Lindeman Island where we met the crew of "Duet" also travelling on a catamaran. We spent 4 nights here, a very pretty spot. As the winds were northerly most of September we were able to explore these bays for the first time and Turtle Bay became a firm favourite.
Early October we had 2 delightful young women on board, Juliet from France and Kiko from Japan. Juliet worked for one of Rick's daughters as an au pair in Sydney earlier in the year and she had met Kiko during her travels. Both girls enjoyed the water and the boating lifestyle and even slept under the stars most nights on the trampoline! We were treated to delicious crepes suzette by Juliet, definitely a work of art and so delicious.
The girls were no sooner back on land than our next visitors arrived Mel, Aims and baby Jax. We hadn't seen Jax for 4 months, what an adorable little boy he is. He settled into life on the water extremely well, sleeping and eating very well and he certainly can eat. And a real little entertainer. Mel and Aims were happy to veg out which suited us just fine. After 5 days on the boat we booked into Port of Airlie marina for 2 days as the girls had an apartment in the resort there. Das arrived for a few days too, it was wonderful to see him looking relaxed and enjoying the Queensland sunshine.
We departed the marina early on Thursday 17th October to meet Duet and Montage at Goldsmith Island that afternoon, the trek south had begun.