Safely arrived in Bundaberg yesterday late afternoon after a pretty good passage. Have been thinking a lot about the whole experience of passaging and will post some thoughts later for those who are interested. As advised by Australian Customs,we spent the night at anchor just next to the Marina. Coming into Hervey Bay was fantastic, although there was no wind. It was a clear blue-sky day and we saw 7 humpback whales (OK, seven sightings, some of them may be repeats, but I'm not too hot on whale identification). Some of them were slapping their massive fins, others swimming around and a couple breeching over and over again. The wind picked up enough for us to arrive up the river at 5 knts under full sail. We both were still rocking for a while after we stopped, but enjoyed a sundowner and leftovers before a very early night. This morning, we came alongside the quarantine berth. A customs official and a quarantine officer came on board and spent well over an hour with us. There was a lot of paper work to do and the quarantine officer carried out an extremely thorough search of the boat - every locker and nook and cranny...and on an old boat like Tuarangi, there are lots of them. However, taking my popcorn, dried beans and a forgotten lime in the fridge, as well as all our rubbish, we received the necessary clearance to drop our "Q" flag and go ashore. It is 32 degrees here today, so were happy to spend time in the air-conditioned marina office, booking in. It is a great set up, with showers, laundry, café, fish and chip shop and a fish wholesaler with an outlet shop. They do special packages of prawns, crab, Morton Bay bugs and smoked fish for $30...so that's dinner sorted! Did a load of laundry, now drying in the gale force winds that have come up and walked to the local supermarket/post office/bakery for supplies. Stopped at a Sports Fishing Club for a bite of lunch - $10 for a burger and chips. Gotta love the first day ashore! Got sim cards for our phones and are all sorted now. Tomorrow we take the free courtesy bus into Bundaberg town and have been told to do the tour of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery....tough job, I know, but I am guessing we'll make it!
Off for a hot shower now and then the sun wil start dropping and the duty free gin will come out at ten to six.
Will post some thoughts on passaging over the next couple of days.