Tuesday afternoon (10 November) we headed over to the beach at Tipplers and enjoyed a few hours in the sun trying out our new beach gear. Was lovely to relax in this great spot. Whilst we were there we spotted this boat come in with a crowd of people on which seemed quite late in the afternoon for people to be arriving.

Later on, back on board, and we realised that it was actually a wedding party. They decided to have some photos on the jetty so we had a great view from Morphie as we sat enjoying sundowners. Even the wallabies decided to come out to say hi.

After dinner and a movie night we headed to bed to be woken up by some loud bangs and we realised that there was a firework show, so we got up and enjoyed watching that too. Must have been quite some party from the noise that was emanating from the land LOL. We didn’t actually hear the boat come back to pick them all up as we were sound asleep again by then.

Wednesday morning we got up really early and headed out towards Peel Island as the wind was going north. We went a slightly different route this time using the tide to take us through Jacob Wells and then up past Russell Island. It was beautiful and calm along the route.

We weren’t able to ride the tide the whole time as it swirls around through the river systems and so our speed was not consistent but we made the anchorage at Peel in good time having covered a very chilly and cloudy 25 miles. During the passage we observed a two minute silence at 11 am (on 11th November) in remembrance of those that had gone before.

When we arrived it was pretty windy and with choppy seas so we didn’t go ashore and just had a quiet afternoon and evening on board once we were happy that we had a good anchor set.

Thursday morning and the weather forecast had changed yet again….sigh…. The wind was howling and the fetch was significant and it really wasn’t that inviting to go ashore to the beach. So we stayed put for the day. Checking out the forecast for the following week and, on seeing the enhanced CAPE (which equals a thunderstorm risk) we decided to try to get into a marina on Friday. We are really fed up with the weather pushing us around like this with such short bursts of good weather inbetween some pretty horrible stuff! We phoned and were lucky to get the last available berth in the East Coast Marina – phew! So we had a leisurely day and evening on board rocking and rolling in the wind.

Friday morning we weighed anchor early and headed across to Manly where the East Coast Marina is located. We enjoyed checking out the wildlife and fellow sailors along the way. It was pretty grey and choppy out there.

On arrival we secured Morphie then got her washed down and cleaned up.

We then headed to the office to check-in, we got ourselves cleaned up in the shower blocks, and then headed into Cafe le Mer for a delicious brunch. By the time we returned to Morphie it was cloudy and had started raining….and the thunderstorms turned up in the evening…so we sat in the cockpit watching it all happen around us.

Saturday morning and it was really hot and steamy. Richard decided not to waste the time on the dock sitting around so he swapped out the Raritan toilet unit for a new one we had in our stores along with new seals etc.

While he was swearing and cursing the small area he was working in I headed out to the shops for some shopping. Later on we headed out to the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron for a few drinks on their deck. We had a nice time, returned to Morphie for dinner, just in time before the heavens opened.

Sunday morning it was very hot and still but this time with a beautiful blue sky. It did make us wonder what we were doing sitting here in the marina yet again. Richard kept himself busy this time refurbishing the old Raritan head unit with new seals etc so we have another working spare.

Later on the clouds started building during the afternoon and started to threaten but the storms circled us this time. The main focus of the whole day was keeping cool!

Monday morning we decided it was time to get off the boat. So we went for a walk on a blisteringly hot day (30 degrees plus) to Wynnum. We did stop along the way a few times to admire some pretty crabs.

As we walked the promenade we were very surprised by the strength of the wind away from the marina and the white caps out in the bay. Arriving at Wynnum we checked out the sea-fed lagoon and the pier.

Then we headed over to the Pelican’s Nest Cafe for a late lunch of fish and chips (naughty but nice).

Full up we strolled back to Manly village admiring the pretty trees and birds along the way.

Overall we did over 5kms which, for me, is quite a lot! We then had a couple of drinks in the Harbour Bar at the village tavern before we returned to Morphie for a quiet night on board.

Tuesday morning the wind was howling (clocking over 30 knots here in the marina) and the chop was enough to get the marina docks wet. There were storms all around with the occasional rain squall but no really close encounters with thunder and lightning. So a day for resting and relaxing down below, especially to recover from the long walk the day before.

Wednesday the wind continued to howl although there was no rain associated this time. So we were happy to be staying put for another day or so. We made the best use of the facilities so did some laundry and downloaded more Netflix stuff to be watched offline when we go back on the hook. And that was about it for the day.

This morning, Thursday, and we have just checked the weather again. It looks like we are going to have a nice few days to return to Peel (and actually spend some time on the beach perhaps) tomorrow and then the weather gets nasty again on Tuesday with strong thunderstorms and high winds forecast yet again. So a very short window or what!?! We were due to return to the Boatworks on Thursday anyway for my next physio appointment so we’ll probably see if we can return sooner than planned to avoid this nasty stuff heading our way, yet again. Weather is certainly very unpredictable here in Queensland at this time of year.

Anyway, hope you are all coping OK with the latest lockdown. Sending lots of virtual hugs and love to all our family and friends. Bye for now

Jan