It was a seven day passage to Bundaberg. Phil and I tried a new watch schedule, six hours at a time on watch instead of three. We found that we could do the longer watches without getting excessively tired, and six hours of sleep at a time when off watch allowed us to get better REM sleep so we felt more awake and alert the following day.

All went well until we approached Bundaberg. We thought we were going to arrive on Monday, November 5. However, the wind angle was such that we elected to tack south toward Fraser Island and then tack back north into Hervey Bay to zip across into Bundaberg. But we discovered that on tacking back north we ran into a three knot adverse current for the 20 miles we needed to clear the north end of Fraser Island. This meant we could not make it into Bundaberg until after dark, so after entering Hervey Bay we elected to heave to, backing the sails so the boat was stopped in the water, and we had a quiet night of sleep before arriving at Bundaberg the next morning. So we had to postpone our eagerly anticipated celebratory arrival Mai Tai’s for 24 hours.

The Bundaberg Port Marina was quite nice. The officials doing the arrival formalities were very friendly, and all the Australians were happy to have us Down Under. We had heard that the Australian authorities could be difficult at times, but this was not the case for us. The most trying inspection was the timber inspection, where the official goes through every locker on the boat looking for termite droppings or other indications of unwanted infestation. Fortunately, the day before out timber inspection the Customs inspector had seen some mites in a bag of our rice. This prompted us to clean out all of our old food stores as well as to clean, reorganize, and vacuum out all of our lazarettos and cabinets. So we were happy when the timber inspector applauded us on our tidy boat and did not find any signs of infestations on the boat. We later learned that they purposely do not explain what they will be looking for as they prefer the boats not be cleaned before their inspection as it can eliminate the “evidence” of bugs, but we did not think we had any infestations except for the one bag of rice.

Once we had cleared all the formalities we were free to start exploring Australia. Near the marina there was a large grassy area, and the first day I was out riding my bike I saw one large kangaroo and several smaller ones. Strangely, I did not see any other kangaroos over the next ten days we were in Bundaberg. And fortunately, Bundaberg is below the area for crocodiles, so we did not see any crocs during our stay either. But to be safe, we stayed out of the water, where the bull sharks can also be a problem.

There were about thirty Down Under Rally boats in Bundaberg, and we learned a lot about sailing and exploring Australia in the sessions given by John Hembrow. There were also several musical jam sessions that Phil and I played at that were a lot of fun. But the most unusual music was performed at the closing party where an Australian fellow played drums, guitar, and amplified didgereidoo for an amazing amplified mix of sounds. The Phil, Karl from Sky Blue Eyes, and I joined in with him to play some old time rock and roll and pop tunes. But the best songs turned out to be What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor and Pretty Woman, which both sounded remarkably good with the droning didgeridoo in the background and then with the didgeridoo leads that were played while we played rhythm in the background. We felt like we were beginning to appreciate the native influence that can enhance even our style of music. And of course I bought a real native built and artistically painted didgeridoo which I ingeniously hung in front of the cabin heater to hide the vent tube going up through the deck beside the mast.

The town of Bundaberg was about 15 km away from the marina. It was fun exploring what is basically a country town in Australia. They are best known for the rum distillery, and the tour there was fascinating. And the rum was excellent too. Phil bought an $80 bottle of rum that was so smooth we could drink it straight. But we are saving it for future celebrations.

One adverse event occurred in Bundaberg. My trusty, well used, and moderately corroded Prodecotech electric bicycle got stolen off the back of the boat, even in the secure locked marina…. I think I must have put 10,000 miles on that bike over the previous three years, but now it was gone. However, I was not too upset as I had been considering buying a new electric bike. Brisbane will probably be the place to do it.