Summer 2022

4th January to 12th March 2022

Some cruising yachties live a real nomadic life moving where the weather and their will dictates. John and I prefer to stop in once a year and get all our business done at once. Therefore, here we are at Manly Marina in Brisbane doing boat warranty work, boat repair work, health check-ups and any other business required. We arrived in late November and head north mid-March.

Our possessions were still causing grief. We made a solid effort to

empty the storage shed and move all our gear to Bargara as well as purchasing some new IKEA storage items. My Agatha Christie collection needs to go somewhere!! And always a great opportunity for some Swedish meatballs with lingenberry sauce.

In the middle of January there was a huge tsunami in Tonga as a result of an underwater volcano eruption. There was a big impact in Tonga and I was interested to see if there was any impact where we were just over 3,000km away. In the end, there wasn’t even a ripple.

The following day a distraught Georgie called us over. Tallis was having seizures. The renal failure had finally caught up with him. Tough little bugger. We said our goodbyes at the vet (they were so supportive to us) and buried his tiny little body at Georgie’s place. He now has a memorial garden but we don’t need that to remember him. Reilly did a beautiful graphic of him. We were really touched by this.

Meanwhile life continued on and we had to move more gear north to the Bargara apartment. As per usual we spent a lot of time dragging gear up to the 3rd floor and unpacking. Then we spent more time “flat-packing” – I think this might be our new favorite activity.

It wasn’t all work though. We did the Mon Repos walk again, tried out the pub and the bowling club “Sandhills” which co-incidentally is the original name of Bargara. There was a massive bowling comp happening – yes that is now our demographic – with teams from North Qld to mid NSW. The singer was pretty good and one bald old guy (not John) did a pretty good Peter Garrett dance impersonation. I was also intrigued by the lady’s toilet’s décor – cushions artfully displayed on the wall!

We took a Sunday drive north to the Bucca Hotel – a little surprise for John! So much agricultural diversity here. John enjoyed having a beer with all the bikies. We headed towards South Kolan, which appeared to be the home of the true Bundy Bogan, then across the low bridge at Cedars crossing (it used to be a causeway when I lived here) and home.

John and I visited the Hinkler Museum again as we were really impressed with it. This complex is situated in the Botanical Gardens. They are quite beautiful with lakes, a railway track and multiple gardens and picnic areas and birdlife. There is the Aviation Hall, Hinkler’s house which was relocated from Southampton, Fairymead House which is dedicated to the sugar industry and the town museum which frankly needs reorganisation. My fingers were itching. We had lunch in one of the parks and had to be on defensive duty as the geese seemed to like our lunch.

We caught up with my sister Jenny on a number of occasions. Kath B was in town so we all checked out the Nelson Park (our beach) Australia Day celebrations. Tim and Bree from Alice Springs visited us as well. We had a really nice time – it’s good catching up with old friends.

On the way back to Manly we went into Maryborough and checked out the town which had recently been flooded again. The damage was evident along the river. We spent the night at Dave and Adi’s place just out of Nambour and caught up with Halli, Harry and Heloise. The following morning Dave drove us around Maroochydore and Mooloolaba after breakfasting at Guru Life for breakfast. Dave is such a hippy and a really bad photographer.

Back in Brisbane it seemed like life was just one big continuous trip to the chandlery, BCF, Bunnings, Dans and the supermarket however looking back at the diary actually did a whole lot more. Apart from helping mum set up in her little bedsit at the aged care facility we took her out for lunch a few times – the Cleveland RSL was becoming a bit of a favorite. We socialised with our marina mates and caught up with John and Rachel who had our campervan (another possession that we had to keep moving around). We had lunch at the Vic Point Tavern (would not repeat) and watched the water monitors hang out in the beer garden and lunch at the Regatta in Milton which we would go to again. Another day we went to South Bank and checked out the Queensland Museum and art gallery, GOMA.

One weekend we had a really enjoyable lunch with Maria (from Bundaberg, London) and husband Oded on Summer Breeze. They bought over some home-made food including the best tahini I have ever tasted. The vinaigrette was pretty good too.

The major reason for us being in Brisbane was for boat maintenance and warranty work. That can be very challenging and frustrating. The wind instrument had been intermittently failing since new, two years ago. There were three places where the system may fail and they had replaced two. The third location was at the top of the mast. The company said they do not do mask work and there were no riggers to do it for us. Indeed, we were unable to find a rigger free for at least 6 months. In the end a friend had an eager teenager who was happy to go up the 23-metre mast in the bosuns chair. Part

replaced. All fixed.

We had also been waiting for the gas system on our boat to be certified to Australian standards. We finally got it done however the conversation between the regulatory body, the certifier, the boat manufacturer and the factory was blame shifting at its worst. Other yachties have told us multi-communication between people all trying to avoid responsibility is the way it happens on boats.

One day, preparing for our departure we tested out the engines and the starboard engine would not start. John spent the following 24 hours patiently trying to find the fault. I would have been swearing. Even Yamaha, who are reliable when you can get an appointment, cancelled a number of times before finding and replacing a faulty starter motor.

Paul and Ness stayed on Summer Breeze one weekend. They’re an energetic pair! One morning we walked from Manly to Lota along the foreshore, the following morning we walked to Wynnum. We went to dinner and listened to a pretty good 90s cover band, lunched at

Colmslie Reserve and checked out a Brewery. On the Sunday we went to Manly Markets – nice to go to the markets with someone who doesn’t run through the stalls like John, and finished off at the movies to see The Dry.

I was really excited to have a visit from Jac and Nat formally from Alice Springs and of course, Heather. Georgie popped over and we all went out for dinner. The next day the young(er) ones departed for a camping trip on North Stradbroke Island.

My very young (practically a teenager) sister Clare has her birthday at the end of January. This year John and I, Paul and Ness, Georgie and Dave had a BBQ at Clare, Don and Max’s house. It was a lovely evening. We followed up with a lunch out with mum. No wonder we are all a little round – so many meals!!! Mum was very surprised to

see Davo in Brisbane.

One thing that was really obvious to us was that the Sunshine state rained for most of summer. There were frequent heavy downpours and for the second year in a row there was flooding in the Brisbane River and all of the rivers in south-east Qld. There were reports of boats and pontoons breaking off and floating down the river as well as the usual debris from trees and rubbish. This meant we would have to wait a few weeks to ensure all the debris had either been secured or swept out to sea away from where we intended to sail.

With our departure imminent we needed to drop our car off in Bargara to store for the year. Driving through Gympie it was amazing to see the dead trees which indicated the height of the flooding. As usual we unpacked more gear and sat on the balcony watching the ducks enjoying the rain in the reserve across from our apartment. Our neighbour kindly gave us a lift into town for a stay at a motel. We found another trivia venue at the Old Bundy Hotel (one of my old stamping grounds) and managed to come last again.

The next morning, we hopped on the train back to Brisbane. John and I love train travel. The scenery was enjoyable, the lunch was reasonably tasty and the wine pretty good. Back in Brisbane we took the local line to Manly, walked through the rain and stopped for a quick drink at the Celtic bar before hunkering down on the boat.

Just prior to leaving Manly Trish and Mike originally from Alice Springs, now retired and travelling dropped in to see us. We picked them up to the secure gate at the front of the marina to let them in. As we returned to the boat, we noticed an old junky looking steel monohull heading straight for our boat. As we got closer, they yelled that their motor had failed and they had no control…. now they were heading for the rock wall. Narrowly missing our boat, they threw us a couple of ropes, we all took hold and slowed their momentum and pulled the vessel around into a fortunately empty berth across from

us. Job done, we had a nice glass of Blanquette and lunch at the marina. We love our friends.

John and I spent the last few days saying goodbye to all our friends and family. Then it was time to go.

Back in the real world we heard the news that Russia invaded Ukraine and declare two states independent on 21/2/22. By the time we sailed north Russia was attacking a nuclear plant. If we only knew then what we know now.

Next: Summer Breeze Captain and Crew Guest Awards