“One day, you’ll look and I’ll be gone.. but tomorrow may rain, so, I’ll follow the sun”

We had a semi-rough journey to Bundaberg. The forecast for light winds and no swell, was, a bit of a farce. We left about 8:00 am on a grey sky with the potential of more rain - where’s the sunshine that was here yesterday? Hiding !

The increased wind whipped up the chop and although we were heading into the predominantly northerly swell, it was an up and down ride, without too much a rockin’.

Our aim to get to Bundaberg by 1:30 pm was locked and loaded. We cruised on 8.5-9.0 kts as we headed north on a rhum-line course towards the Port of Bundaberg marina and a safe haven.

We arrived bang on 1:30 and tied up with the help of a resident yachty who fought with the wind to tie up the bow and then help set our springers. Bundaberg Port Marina is a well maintained small setup and will be our home for 3 nights.

We woke the next day and headed for Bundaberg town, about a 20 minute taxi ride. It was a bit early for Uber, so Clive, our taxi driver drove from town to pick us up for our Bundaberg Distillery tour. Apparently, as the story goes, one punter, when completing his tour of the distillery, consumed two litres of Bundy Rum and was never seen again. Maybe that explains the rather mighty flavour of the Bundy rum. Vat 109 will never be the same.

We enjoyed our tour and after the obligatory free tasting (and our wonder through the IKEA style merchandise to exit), walked to the visitors centre around the corner 400 metres away. Not sure if that’s a good location next door to the distillery, but there you go. I guess the visitor centre thought next door is close enough for the occasional sniff as the ‘odour de molasses’ floats through the neighbourhood.

As we entered the visitors centre there was a couple walking out as we were looking at brochures and maps etc … “Oh, have you been to the gin tasting?”… did we look like we were in need of another drink ? “No, we haven’t” was our surprised reply. “We were looking for a place to have some lunch” says the first mate. “Oh well”, says Emelda, you should go to Grunskes, they have great seafood”. Once we informed them we had no transport they offered to take us to the gin distillery and then drop us to Grunskes. Hey, who are we to knock back a trip to a gin tasting ? So off we go. Turns out Dennis and Emelda are locals originally from Toowoomba and wanted to impart a bit of local hospitality. We drove for a while wondering where the hell we were going when Emelda calming stated, “Dennis, where are we going?”. Nonchalantly Dennis replied, “yeah, I missed the turn off”. Go Dennis.

We arrived at Kalki Moon distillery and they insisted they join us for the tasting. Well, it was past midday, so why not. Besides, you always need a comparative retort when sampling spirits. After our complimentary tasting of some very nice gins we hopped back into their car and they dropped us off at Grunskes. Now that’s hospitality!

We enjoyed some fresh snapper and then called an Uber, (apparently the only Uber driver in Bundaberg) as affirmed by the Marina manger “.. he does very well..”. Well, he could do better if he started earlier !

Back at the marina, we settled into a quiet night knowing full-well we were expecting rain overnight. However, the following day, Tuesday, was our planned departure and we looked forward to slight seas and a smooth run to 1770.

We shall see.