Burnett Heads - A Surprise Purchase

24th October to 2nd November, 2021
John and I continued our passage south as the cyclone season was nearing. We planned to stop in at Burnett Heads near Bundaberg for a few days and then on to Brisbane. Five other yachts left Pancake Creek. We led the pack for most of the day being pipped at the post coming into Burnett Heads leads by Phase 2. We even got a great spinnaker run in.

There was a bit of a bizarre encounter with Border Force. It’s pretty essential, when sailing, to have the VHF radio on so you can call for help, hear of marine hazards or help someone in trouble. On this day we heard Border Force questioning all the other boats questions such as where had they started their passage (ridiculous as we were all Australian vessels), rego numbers and so on. Then they started questioning people about where they had obtained their fruit and vegetable, in particular

their apples. We thought we’d be proactive and threw all our apples overboard. Of course, they never contacted us and we still don’t know what was wrong with apples.

As usual we anchored in the river near the sugar offload facility then moved into the marina the next day, cleaned the boat and ourselves and walked the dog. There was a lot of debris – large logs – in the river from recent flooding.

The weather was hot and sticky and our mood deteriorated as we pulled the boat apart looking for our spare macerator. It was nowhere to be found! Our marine toilet had been playing up so we wanted to replace the part – a macerator does what you imagine it does so it is pretty essential. We ordered another one – great – two spares!!

The following day we took the marina bus into Bundaberg and picked up a hire car from Bobby – apparently everyone knows Bobby… he’s a bit of a local legend – $50 a day, no paperwork. We did all our provisioning, scenic drives and other business in a lovely pink Mitsubishi.

John and I had been looking at real estate up the coast and Bargara met all our needs. The guy we saw the previous year did not get back to us so we rang Grant – well he was very keen. Grant and his protegee, who seemed to be a mate, came on board and went through our options. We were shown an apartment not yet on the market and we decided that was the one. We looked at some places we had been watching for a while but within a day or two we were in the process to buy our new home.

We really love it - 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, top floor with little glimpses of the sea. The apartment is bright and airy and we can lock up and leave whenever we want. The previous owner didn't want to move the furniture so we got that as well. There is a council park and a frog reserve across the road so we get front seat views of all the birds and kangaroos in the park.

Considerably poorer, we spent the rest of the week taking Tallis for long walks and were fortunate to catch up with a few friends from Alice Springs. It was a big surprise and a great pleasure to see Anju

and her two boys. So funny that she’s working at the hospital I did my training at. We had a few drinks with Bernie and Brett who were on their trip around Australia and seemed to know someone in every town and my sister Jenny came for usual sleep over. We met up with Fiona and her mother June and son Leo (any my sister) at Baltimores and had a lovely dinner.

Time to continue south.

Next: Passage: Burnett Heads to Brisbane