More Mooloolaba

We have been here in Mooloolaba for just over a week now. It’s been a fabulous week of sun, laughter (if you knew our friend Marie you’d know what I mean!!), good food and wine. Gary and Loz arrived on Samoya a few days ago too so that added to the social occasion. Our neighbours here at the marina are all very friendly and always ready to have a BBQ and a chat in the evenings. It’s great because we gain so much in the way of local knowledge (and I’m not talking small town gossip here!!) which is invaluable.

We went out for a sail this morning and actually manages to do just that. Marie has her niece Pamela and her friend Christof (sorry if I spelt it wrong!) visiting from down South so we took them out for a quick trip along the coast and back it was lovely.

Our southern
visitors off
Mooloolaba

These stopovers are not just an excuse to let our hair down and get p---ed every night, we do use the time to do the necessary maintenance on board. This current interlude saw us renewing our mattress in the forepeak which had collapsed in the middle (don’t bother with the jokes we’ve heard them all!!) The renewal process entailed Mike and Andrew (who fortunately for us has a car) carting one of the two sections of mattress off to Clarke Rubber and getting the guy to cut two new sections out of high density foam of precisely the right size- and now we sleep like babies. We also repaired the mattress in the aft cabin as it had also succumbed to the collapsed mattress syndrome, which Ben had discovered one time when he stayed on board.

We have been talking about heading further up the coast all week and now today (or I should say tonight) is the night, or so we thought. As I write this, the heavens have opened up and we are experiencing a real tropical downpour with bent over palm trees and all!! We are not due to leave for another 4 hours that is 2200hrs so it could all pass over by then. The reason for the late departure is that we will be crossing the Wide Bay Bar (which is something like 5 miles long) as we enter into The Great Sandy Strait between the mainland and Fraser Island. Now, the Wide Bay Bar apparently needs to be crossed at the right time (which I think is one hour before high tide) as the ocean swells can make getting over the bar quite tricky. Also, it’s better to cross it in the morning as in the afternoon it can be impossible to see the leads that show the way through. The yachties amongst you will know what I mean (or more correctly know that I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about!!) the rest of you will know as much as I do when you have read this (yes,ok, so that’s not a great deal).

Should we stay
or
should we go??

The rain is subsiding it’s now three and a half hours before our ETD. We are leaving in company with two other yachts so we will see what the consensus of opinion is and take it from there.

Jo.