Waiting for Summer Breeze

23 December 2019 – 23 January 2020
John and I arrived in Brisbane just prior to Christmas to spend a lot of quality time with my brother Paul and his family (possibly more quality and more time than he reckoned on). Our new boat was not expected to arrive in Australia until late January so we spent the time orientating ourselves to the Redlands, started to look at items we may need to purchase for Summer Breeze, spent some time with my mother and did some short jaunts out of Brisbane. Any news of a virus in China did not resonate with us.

Christmas Day
We had a lovely big family and friend’s Christmas lunch at Paul and Ness’s ( from here on known as P&N) place – a bit like the Hynes/Meldrum lunches that we have had over the years. The food was beautiful particularly that delicious prawn and mango salad.

On arrival everyone was given a secret topic they had to articulate as much as possible during the day…. It was absolutely hilarious with fair skinned Reilly talking constantly about her tan, Ness matching peoples personalities to their star signs, Paul talking about his TV experiences, John losing things like his beer which was in front of him (as if) and me linking bug activity to the full moon. It was as if everyone was just a little bit loopy (sort of like a night out with the girls). The grandmothers were confused.

The week between Christmas and New Year was fully booked with long walks, scenic drives, the Sydney to Hobart and lunches with views. We also had lunch with the Gheas, who were in town visiting relatives.

We had two days on the water. P&N took us to Moreton Island for the day. We walked around tiny Kooringal on a beach on the south of the island. It was a lovely day – a little sign of things to come for us.

The following day we were driven to Noosa for lunch on a pontoon boat. Ness had arranged for their family and her cousin’s family to hire a boat for a few hours. We got in the car so they had to take us along too. We boarded at Noosaville then motored up the Noosa River past Richard Branson’s property, through the canals gawking at waterfront mansions and barbequed near the reserve at the end of Hastings Beach. We had a lovely day eating, swimming and being chauffeured around.

In January John and I did a lot of short trips, continued to research gear for the boat and socialised with many family and friends particularly P&N who, we’ve decided, are really bad influences on us.

Boaty Activities
We felt it was our responsibility to check out as many waterfront bars and restaurants as we could as well as a marina search. We went to Royal Queensland (too posh), Raby Bay (no berths), Scarborough (too far) and Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club (just right) where we eventually booked in and stayed until departure.

Another day we had lunch with the grandmothers at Harrigan’s at Jacobs Well – looked like a great place to hang around in the boat in the summer. The following weekend friends of my sister Clare and her husband Don took us out on their boat for lunch on Moreton Bay. It was a lovely day and very generous of Craig and Lyn.

Apart from piling on the kilograms we visited many chandleries and boating shops. So many questions – the TO DO list was huge!!! My (still) favourite purchase from Whitworth’s chandlery is a set of stainless steel saucepans with removable handles and a lid that fits all pots – so compact – sad I know.

The Breweries
Another great discovery in Brisbane was Brewdogs, a brewery at Murarrie on the Brisbane River in a warehouse/industrial area. The place was pumping and there was indoor and outdoor seating, lots of staff, very trendy clientele like us and best of all they allowed dogs. The beer menu was huge so we shared a paddle of their most popular beers. Although not a huge beer fan I didn’t mind the Clockwork Tangerine and John took a liking to the Dead Pony Club.

P&N took us to some other breweries closer to home. One was at Birkdale shopping centre and the barmen when asked what he would

recommend said there were too many and referred us to the menu. The other, at Capalaba was hosted by a guy dressed as a Johnny Depp styled pirate and served German snacks – interesting, unusual!

Exciting Excursions
Dalby: Our first January road trip was with my mother to Dalby to visit her parent’s graves. We stopped at Gatton and Toowoomba on the leisurely drive there. We stayed at the Dalby Parkview, had dinner at the Criterion which had quite good pub grub.

The next day we visited Pioneer Park Museum which was an interesting experience, the lady caretaker insisted on hugging us all when we arrived and when we left. We went to Irvingdale and had a beer at the Kaimkillenbun hotel. The publican told us that with the drought you used to see cattle or grain trucks going past and now

with the drought they saw only donated feed trucks. We returned to Brisbane via Wivenhoe Dam, Crows Nest and Esk – looks like it would be a great weekend destination.

Bundaberg: The next excursion was to Bundaberg as John had been unable to come over in December for Dad’s 90th birthday party. We headed north through the Sunshine Coast so we could have some Mooloolaba prawns for lunch – yummy. In Bundy we stayed at my sister Jenny’s place.

The following day we drove Dad and Margaret to Woodgate for lunch; we also checked out the anchorages at Burrum Heads from the north side of the river. It was a lovely day. Dad always was a great meanderer - you never knew where you'd end up.

The day after we drove to Tin Can Bay via Burrum Heads and Toogoom as we were checking out more potential anchorages. We stayed two nights at the Tin Can Bay Motel which I would recommend and checked out the area including views of the Wide Bay bar – a crossing that John speaks about in hushed and reverent tones.

Mooloolaba: John and I decided we needed another holiday on our holiday so took off to Mooloolaba for a few night. We got a great apartment just one block from the beach and spent the time relaxing, walking and going out for meals. We had dinner at the Surf Life Saving Club and visited The Beach Bar and Grill (the old Mooloolaba hotel) which was where we (Jane, Colleen, Louise and Kath) used to go for concerts growing up. Felt very old looking at the photos of Icehouse and the crowd with their long haired perms.

One day we lunched on Alexandra Headland and were forced to move by a colony of Eastern Water Dragons – there were hundreds of them (well about 15) and they were as big as komodo dragons although google says they only grow to 80 cm which is still huge. Put me off my bread roll.

And Now…
John and I are currently hiding from the wind in Pancake Creek near the town of 1770 and south of Gladstone and yes, we have had pancakes for breakfast. We are sailing up the Queensland coast on our first passage north. It is very exciting and there is so much new to learn. Apparently your first trip is called a “shakedown trip” and is where you decide what decisions were good ones and what decisions were not. On one of the first days out we saw whales breeching but unfortunately it was too far and happened too quickly to get photos for the doubters (Sandi). We’ll talk about our sailing experiences later.

Today’s Reflections
What’s good: Not working - it is 8 months since Kathy retired. Plenty of time. Living in nature. Able to do what we want when we want. Not needing to rely on anyone else for our outcomes.
What’s bad: People who anchor too close. Wind over tide at anchor – your boat moves to the strongest force which means you constantly swing around the anchor in random directions.
What we have learnt: The ropes associated with the sails are called sheets. Don’t have a full English brekky before sailing in an uncomfortable (euphemism for rough) sea. “Iron sail” is a wanky word for a boat’s engine.

Photos:
P 30 Map of our Road Trips
P 31 Christmas
P 32 Between Christmas and New Year
P 34 Brewery visits
P 35 Brewery at Birkdale with Paul and Ness
P 36 Dalby Trip
P 37 Bundaberg Trip
P 38 Bundaberg Trip
P 39 Tin Can Bay and Inskip Point
P 40 Horrifying Water Dragons
P 41 K&J at Mooloolaba
P 42 Sunset from Pancake Creek.

Next: Summer Breeze BC