Southwards at Last

Date: 23rd October 2024

Location: Tipplers Anchorage, Southport, Queensland

Evening at Moreton Bay

So this is exciting. We've started to plan next year's travels. We aim to sail north up the Australian east coast, across to Darwin in the Northern Territories and then north to Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia the home of thousands of islands with unpronounceable names that you've never heard of. Of course it's not as straightforward as that. First we needed to sort out Gill's heart issues, to extend our Australian visas and to ensure my UK jury service commitment next April is either met or removed.

Since I last posted Gill has been undergoing numerous tests to get to the bottom of her problem. It turns out the top and bottom parts of her heart are sometimes beating at the same time instead of one after another. It's called bigeminy or trigeminy and is probably not a big deal. Scans show the fabric of her heart is 'pristine' and she managed 11 minutes on the stress machine (target for her age is 5 minutes). It's the electrical messages that have gone awry. She sees a cardiac specialist next week and we hope he says 'carry on as you are' and gives her a letter for future doctors who can't find a heart beat or pulse!

Another ECG.

Super Gill on the Stress Test. 11 minutes!

Meanwhile after a nervous few weeks including visa medicals when the doctor couldn't measure Gills heartbeat(!) we finally have our visa extensions. However instead of a full year until September it runs out in June. That's a problem because we can't make our way up north until April because of cyclones and I'm due for jury service in April/May leaving no time to leave Australia by the end of June. What to do? Either try to get my jury service requirement removed or hope for a further three months extension after June. The former may prove problematic and the latter risks the extension being refused and the need to leave Australia within 28 days. Not ideal.

The "not quite perfect" Australian Visa.

And this highlights one of the main challenges in this lifestyle. The rest of the world couldn't care less about our logistical, weather pattern and medical constraints so we have to carefully negotiate our way through them. Living the dream is sometimes thwarted by events outside our control requiring flexibility and ingenuity.

Meanwhile life goes on and we've finally left the marina to start heading south the 500 miles towards Sydney for Christmas and New Year. But first it was a wedding anniversary. Back off to Rose and Ian's near Noosa for their 50th! Nick, their son and his partner picked us up on their way from Brisbane. Nick is now in his forties and a consultant ophthalmologist. We remember him being born in South Africa when we all worked there! It was a great party and by chance one of their friends is a visa application consultant. She could yet prove useful as is Rose a former GP. Thanks guys and here's to another 50 - well maybe just 20 or so.

Anniversary breakfast.

With most of our tasks completed and just delayed by Gill's medical appointments we planned another visit to the Glasshouse Mountains but this time without the luxury of a hire car. Queensland is about to vote for a new government so the ruling Labour party has made all travel 50c (UK 25p) per journey to boost support in the upcoming election. So it was a £1 bus, train, train and bus journey to get us the two hours to the start of our planned walk, the Yul Yan Man, Grade 5 walk with scrambling. We had a great day. It was a hot, around 32°, walk of 24,000 steps. Bus, train, train and bus back to Scarborough and a well earned meal out in the evening. Excellent.

Scrambly bit.

[Interesting fact as the King has been here in Australia this week: Each state here has a public holiday for the King's birthday. Each state holds it on a different day none of which is his official birthday in the UK. By the way how come Camilla is Queen when Prince Philip wasn't King?].

We held a goodbye party when we were due to leave the marina. Invited were the office staff, the yard crew, the chandlery team and the cruising community. Included were Paul and Penny two Quantas pilots and their two boys on Mach Trimmer. Food was ample and drink flowed. The boys loved it. Then we didn't leave because Gill felt poorly. The following week when we finally departed the boys wanted to know if there would be another party!

Chilling Time.

The journey south was to be broken up by a stop at the famous Boatworks yard where we are due to be re-rigged. To reach there we travel again through Moreton Bay and then on southwards through a network of shallow channels to reach Southport at the northern end of the touristy Gold Coast with its plethora of jetskis, highrise blocks and general mayhem on the water.

We're not used to travelling with only two or three metres below the keel at high water and strong currents running but after a couple of days in the now familiar Moreton Bay we managed the first day of shallows before trying to anchor at Jacobs Well. Very tricky. Many boats some on mooring balls, some anchored and everyone changing relative position when the tide turned. Eventually we found a spot only to be advised we were close to a wreck so we re-anchored and awaited the night. We all turned, a smaller yacht dragged onto an old trawler next to us and we were forced to re-anchor in the middle of the channel. We kept watch til 4am and left the anchorage tired and wondering what the following day would bring.

26th October, Bum's Bay anchorage, Southport.

Next day we were due to meet up again with Kevin and Shawna who had spent the season 1,500 miles away back in Fiji with their family. Through another shallow patch with 0.5m below the keel, out into The Broadwater and a sharp turn left up to Tipplers anchorage. What a delightful place. Busy at the weekend but quiet at other times and full of wildlife. And who's this coming towards us? Yes, it's Meraki II. Hugs, stories and champagne as we were reunited after almost a year. The plan is we will stay with them off and on to Malaysia next year. Tipplers was idyllic. A coffee house for Gill, bird life for me, walks along the quiet river and a kilometre away was the mighty Pacific. A great few days before we headed downstream to Southport for a few days to restock provisions and watch the rich at play in their big motor boats.

Calm anchorage at Tipplers.

Silver Gull.

Lace Monitor or Goanna.

Pelican.

Agile Wallaby at dusk.

Peaceful Tipplers anchorage.

The rolling Pacific Ocean.

Our arrival was somewhat marred by a loud mouthed Aussie cussing and swearing that we were too close. Not true but we moved anyway.

Things to do here.. 

- walk to the Seaway, exit to the Pacific.

- watch the Gold Coast 500. Fast cars whizzing around the streets of Surfers' Paradise.

- get documents printed out at Officeworks and post them to the UK.

- fail to get HP64 cartridges for Kevin. Only available in North America.

- watch the boats turn this way and that apparently randomly as the tide and currents swirl us around in 20 knots.

- finally test the new dinghy engine in a long trip across the bay.

Meraki with Southport by day.

Southport by night.

And finally, thanks to Mike for collecting and sending the parcels containing the parts we need for the re-rigging exercise next month. They arrived earlier this week via Leipzig and Hong Kong.

That's it for now.