Our First Bluewater crossing
Blimey! It’s been a very busy and sociable 10 days at Paradise Point on Australias Gold Coast. Amongst the usual tasks of making sure DT is fully prepared for her crossing to NZ, we have managed to squeeze in a whole lot of catch ups with friends.
Jill and Terry braved a ride in our dinghy and called in for a coffee and a tour of DT last Sunday. Hopefully we didn’t put them off going sailing….😉
‘Swag’ sailed back in from their trip up north last Monday, so several sundowners and cups of tea have been had whilst we caught up on the gossip. We even managed to make use of the very handy boat ramp and grabbed ourselves a takeaway pizza on Thursday. Not often that happens when we are at anchor.
Tuesday we actually went out for dinner! Being close to civilisation is jolly nice. We had a great evening at Sayang Malaysian Restaurant with Janice , David, Suzy, Dave, Steve and Laura. I’m not sure the other diners appreciated our banter, but we had fun.
We took Sub ( our dinghy) to the local shopping centre, to do a final stock up for our trip . Super civilised. Tied off to a nice safe pontoon and ambled the twenty paces into the supermarket. Loaded up and then wheeled the trolley back to the pontoon. Luxury!
Daisy brought her mum and dad ,Michelle and Lindsay , to have breakfast with us yesterday. We met this gorgeous pair whilst we were in Cairns Marina ( did someone say ‘anchor’ ?) and hit it off instantly, so it was lovely to catch up again. Thanks for braving the traffic guys but you are banned from taking the photos in future Linz.
In-between this social flurry, Rob has fitted a new winch on the stern, swapped out a shattered impeller, and tied on some new jacklines. ( I have passed him the tools ). He has even given me a haircut. Move over Vidal Sassoon..
The big news is that Monday the 27th November is (drum roll please) the day we finally depart. Border Control are booked for 8am and then we are off. 10 days at sea, en-route to Opua, NZ.
