Saturday, 20 June 2015
Garrys Anchorage
I wrote that last post before having a nap yesterday and ended up having two naps and then an early night. Great nights sleep but I did manage to get in a photo just before all of the light disappeared.
I felt a little bit cool when I woke up this morning and when I checked the current temp (at 0700) was only 5.9 degrees. The sun didn't get over the island until about 0730 and when it did I took this shot.
We'll stay again tonight and probably head off further up the strait tomorrow.
Where are we page fixed
Friday, 19 June 2015
Yes we are on our way north
After what seems like a few false starts, we feel like we are really on our way. After the haulout and boat show we went back to Southport where we had arranged to leave the boat (again) on our last trip to Canberra before the end of the year.
Lewis had his first birthday and we wanted to be there and we also went to Glenn's 50th birthday as well so we stayed in Canberra for just over a week. Crazy as it seems we have worked out that it is cheaper to get a hire car from the Canberra airport for 24 hours instead of a one way trip in a taxi. Not by a little bit either, taxi = $68 (+ 10% if you pay with a card), hire car (Yaris = $42 for 24 hrs and it took $3.12 in petrol)
Anyway, we arrived back on the Gold Coast and Roger picked us up from the airport again (definitely cheaper than a taxi :)) and we stayed overnight before going back to the boat on the 9th, after dragging Roger to the supermarket to re-stock.
Finally left the mooring on the 10th and filled with water and fuel up before heading up to the bottom of Short Island. About a 20nm run where we anchored for two nights due to strong wind warnings from the south.
Left Short Island and went up Canaipa Passage hugged the inside of North Stradbroke Island and stayed overnight in Lazaret Gutter at the top of Peel Island. Still sheltering from the dying southerly.
We wanted to catch up with Raelene and BJ and see the new house so next stop was Scarborough for the weekend. Got in mid afternoon on Saturday and stayed Saturday and Sunday nights. Weather was pretty miserable but we did get to see the house and helped a bit with the deck, also use and abuse their washing machine and dryer.
Monday morning (15th) was an 0800 start for Mooloolaba with the dying southerly by still a fair amount of easterly swell. Good thing was Moreton Island kept the worst of the swell away until we about level with Caloundra. Anyway, we stayed at the Mooloolaba Wharf until yesterday catching up with Belinda's aunt Angie and Bob. Lunch turned in to a long lunch followed by coffee on the boat. Good to catch up as we haven't seen them since the last time we sailed through in 2010.
Yesterday afternoon (Thursday 18th) we left the dock and anchored in Mooloolaba waiting until 7pm before leaving so that we would make the tide for crossing Wide Bay Bar. Notoriously bad and our last bar crossing for a long time. In fact it will be this bar that we cross next when we come back in November.
Right now, we're anchored in Garrys Anchorage in the Great Sandy Strait having traveled about 180nm in the last 9 days. Only had a couple of hours sleep in the last 24 so we'll probably have an afternoon nap. Weather is beautiful, cool breeze but the sun is out and we're in shorts and t-shirt again. If that wasn't good enough, we have dolphins swimming around us.
Lewis had his first birthday and we wanted to be there and we also went to Glenn's 50th birthday as well so we stayed in Canberra for just over a week. Crazy as it seems we have worked out that it is cheaper to get a hire car from the Canberra airport for 24 hours instead of a one way trip in a taxi. Not by a little bit either, taxi = $68 (+ 10% if you pay with a card), hire car (Yaris = $42 for 24 hrs and it took $3.12 in petrol)
Anyway, we arrived back on the Gold Coast and Roger picked us up from the airport again (definitely cheaper than a taxi :)) and we stayed overnight before going back to the boat on the 9th, after dragging Roger to the supermarket to re-stock.
Finally left the mooring on the 10th and filled with water and fuel up before heading up to the bottom of Short Island. About a 20nm run where we anchored for two nights due to strong wind warnings from the south.
Left Short Island and went up Canaipa Passage hugged the inside of North Stradbroke Island and stayed overnight in Lazaret Gutter at the top of Peel Island. Still sheltering from the dying southerly.
We wanted to catch up with Raelene and BJ and see the new house so next stop was Scarborough for the weekend. Got in mid afternoon on Saturday and stayed Saturday and Sunday nights. Weather was pretty miserable but we did get to see the house and helped a bit with the deck, also use and abuse their washing machine and dryer.
Monday morning (15th) was an 0800 start for Mooloolaba with the dying southerly by still a fair amount of easterly swell. Good thing was Moreton Island kept the worst of the swell away until we about level with Caloundra. Anyway, we stayed at the Mooloolaba Wharf until yesterday catching up with Belinda's aunt Angie and Bob. Lunch turned in to a long lunch followed by coffee on the boat. Good to catch up as we haven't seen them since the last time we sailed through in 2010.
Yesterday afternoon (Thursday 18th) we left the dock and anchored in Mooloolaba waiting until 7pm before leaving so that we would make the tide for crossing Wide Bay Bar. Notoriously bad and our last bar crossing for a long time. In fact it will be this bar that we cross next when we come back in November.
Right now, we're anchored in Garrys Anchorage in the Great Sandy Strait having traveled about 180nm in the last 9 days. Only had a couple of hours sleep in the last 24 so we'll probably have an afternoon nap. Weather is beautiful, cool breeze but the sun is out and we're in shorts and t-shirt again. If that wasn't good enough, we have dolphins swimming around us.
Sunday, 24 May 2015
Sancutary Cove boat show
Went off to the boat show today just to see what was there. Actually there was a few jobs which were successfully completed but we also saw this fantastic table in a Lagoon 620. Now that would be cool! (Dad?).
Tuesday, 19 May 2015
The (early) haulout at Coomera
When we got back on the boat at the beginning of May we had this naive idea that we would be able to just fill up and head north. Didn't quite happen like that.
Two new engine batteries, saildrive shafts needed to have a sprayweld(?) to build up the metal and then get machined again, new seals, new water pump, new alternator pulley and belt, just to name a few of the jobs. Roger came out one day and helped us with the antifoul painting, now that we've spent the entire weekend polishing we really should have asked him to come back for another day and help with that too. Next time!
Anyway, another bunch of money spent but a full on week of lots of hours and we're back where we belong on the water. We're anchored just on the inside of South Stradbroke Island listening to the surf on the other side, hardly a breath of wind and just watched the sunset. Life is back to normal :)
Two new engine batteries, saildrive shafts needed to have a sprayweld(?) to build up the metal and then get machined again, new seals, new water pump, new alternator pulley and belt, just to name a few of the jobs. Roger came out one day and helped us with the antifoul painting, now that we've spent the entire weekend polishing we really should have asked him to come back for another day and help with that too. Next time!
Anyway, another bunch of money spent but a full on week of lots of hours and we're back where we belong on the water. We're anchored just on the inside of South Stradbroke Island listening to the surf on the other side, hardly a breath of wind and just watched the sunset. Life is back to normal :)
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Autumn on the Gold Coast
Not a cloud in the sky, hardly a breath of wind. Just sitting here listening to the leaf blowers and some road traffic. Because it's mid week there's no water traffic. Very nice spot to sit. :)
Friday, 8 May 2015
Solar working properly again at last
Monday, 4 May 2015
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Synchronising data on a (power) budget
I've been trying for ages to work out how I can keep our documents synchronized on Belindas notebook and mine (and a copy at home just in case) without using something like Dropbox. The main reason I don't like using Dropbox is that if Belinda makes a change to a document it must first send the document out to the internet and then it will notify my computer and if Belindas notebook is on at the same time as mine it will sync locally.
We've been using BTSync (uses bit torrent protocol to keep your own data in sync) and it can work on windows, linux, android, apple, etc. I've looked at all sorts of notebook, NAS, etc and was going to use an old netbook computer but it suddenly hit me today.
The lowest power machine I've got is an Android phone.
Here's the solution. For internet access (and local wifi) we either use my phone tethered (Optus $2 per day prepaid which includes 500MB of data per day) or a Telstra 3G wifi hotspot which gives us 8GB per month. The Android phone running BTSync will automatically switch between whichever wifi is available and is always going to be a local connection without going near the internet.
Because this copy of the data is always available it means that if Belinda is online without me or I'm online without Belinda then it will always keep in sync with the Android meaning the 800MB of data we have wills always sync locally without going out to the internet.
Hmm, just read that back to myself and maybe I'll do a picture later. Anyway, I've proved the concept and when I go back to Canberra at the end of the month I'll bring back the Samsung Galaxy S2 with a cracked screen and have a 32GB micros SD card in it.
We've been using BTSync (uses bit torrent protocol to keep your own data in sync) and it can work on windows, linux, android, apple, etc. I've looked at all sorts of notebook, NAS, etc and was going to use an old netbook computer but it suddenly hit me today.
The lowest power machine I've got is an Android phone.
Here's the solution. For internet access (and local wifi) we either use my phone tethered (Optus $2 per day prepaid which includes 500MB of data per day) or a Telstra 3G wifi hotspot which gives us 8GB per month. The Android phone running BTSync will automatically switch between whichever wifi is available and is always going to be a local connection without going near the internet.
Because this copy of the data is always available it means that if Belinda is online without me or I'm online without Belinda then it will always keep in sync with the Android meaning the 800MB of data we have wills always sync locally without going out to the internet.
Hmm, just read that back to myself and maybe I'll do a picture later. Anyway, I've proved the concept and when I go back to Canberra at the end of the month I'll bring back the Samsung Galaxy S2 with a cracked screen and have a 32GB micros SD card in it.
And we're back in Queensland
So at the end of January we went back to Canberra. Needed to be back there by mid Feb for my 50th birthday which went off fantastically, Laceys birthday at the end of Feb and I also did about 7 weeks work. We ended up staying in Canberra until the 14th of April when we drove to the Riverland in SA for Callie and Steves wedding and then drove back again. Couple of nights in Canberra and then back up here.
We stayed 4 nights with Belindas dad and waited out the wet weather before getting back on the boat yesterday. Probably a bit naive of us but it would've been nice to get back on the boat after 3 months and just get moving. No such luck.
We were hoping to get up to Bundaberg by the end of May and haul out there for a quick clean and antifoul before heading to the Whitsundays for winter.
As it turns out we have a new list of jobs and we'll need to do those before we even leave the Gold Coast. 200mm of rain in 24 hours seems to find every leaky window and we've finally sorted some of the electrical problems. Not one problem but multiple problems. Two dodgy engine batteries AND a dodgy voltage sensitive relay at the same time. When I've fixed those we'll see what else there is.
We stayed 4 nights with Belindas dad and waited out the wet weather before getting back on the boat yesterday. Probably a bit naive of us but it would've been nice to get back on the boat after 3 months and just get moving. No such luck.
We were hoping to get up to Bundaberg by the end of May and haul out there for a quick clean and antifoul before heading to the Whitsundays for winter.
As it turns out we have a new list of jobs and we'll need to do those before we even leave the Gold Coast. 200mm of rain in 24 hours seems to find every leaky window and we've finally sorted some of the electrical problems. Not one problem but multiple problems. Two dodgy engine batteries AND a dodgy voltage sensitive relay at the same time. When I've fixed those we'll see what else there is.
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