Saturday morning (5 December) we had a leisurely start and then headed over to the hotel complex. We got set up by the lagoon pool and enjoyed a few hours bobbing around in the pool on these massive floating bean bag cushion things. Great fun!
We enjoyed watching the world go by and the wedding party as they walked around the lagoon perimeter towards the docks for their photo shoot with the yachts. The staff, meanwhile, were busy clearing one part of the beach for a private reception and there were some guys setting up fireworks for later. Was all very interesting. Around 5pm we headed back to Morphie stopping off at the brand-new marina residents’ shower blocks. These have just opened and are beautifully done – just a shame about the design as you need to be a bit of a contortionist to move around within the cubicles whilst getting dry LOL. We had dinner on board followed by a Netflix session.
Sunday morning we awoke to a cloudy day. I popped out to the local IGA supermarket for a fresh loaf of bread so returned with coffees from the nearest cafe.
Later on we headed over to the lagoon for the afternoon and found a couple of good beds and it was pretty cool as the wind picked up although the clouds had dispersed leaving us a beautiful blue sky. Was lovely and we had a couple of drinks in the Tavern on the way back to Morphie. We then had a dinner and movie night onboard.
Monday morning it was cloudy and drizzly on and off with thunderstorms predicted. So not a lagoon-type of day.
We decided to pickle the watermaker as we will be in a marina for the whole of December and most of January (as we are going on a road trip to see family in New South Wales) so we are unlikely to need to make water for a while. Job done we then washed Morphie down as the large numbers of swifts that fly around here had left little deposits all over the coachroof. We then installed canvas on the bow so that we could leave our cabin hatch open during the night.
Jobs done we sat in the cockpit reading and the rains got heavier and thunderstorms started to pop up all around us. We had dinner in the cockpit as it was so hot and humid and just watched and listened to the storms all around us. It was quite exciting this time as these storms circled us but didn’t get too close LOL. We saw lots of fruit bats flying home to roost for the evening too.
Tuesday morning it was cloudy and humid again with another increased CAPE forecast so we decided to stay put. The damp environment caused problems with my legs so we just stayed onboard and rested up all day. Thankfully there were no more storms.
Wednesday morning we had another lazy start. We then headed to the lagoon and had a nice time bobbing and enjoying the sun.
On the way back to the shower block we came across a cheeky parrot and a mob of kangaroos (including joeys) just munching on the hotel grass completely at home LOL. So we watched them for a while and then found another mum (with her baby inside the pouch this time) on the roundabout near the car park. Everyone just ignores them as part of the scenery but we can’t help ourselves stopping and watching for a while.
Cleaned up we wandered around the different restaurants to see what was on offer and decided that we quite fancied George’s Paragon Seafood Restaurant for the following night. We had a couple of drinks on the outside wine bar terrace before heading back to Morphie for a quiet night on board.
Thursday morning and we had another lovely pool day although, this time, we were by another swimming pool nearer the main part of the hotel as it was a bit chilly in the wind out by the lagoon. We had a lovely time.
We headed back reasonably early to get showered and then, later on, suitably dressed we headed out to the restaurant. It felt very festive being out and about at night for the first time and we enjoyed the Christmas lights in the Marina Village.
We were surprised when we got inside the restaurant – it was much bigger than it looked from the outside – and the ambience of all the Christmas lights was delightful. It felt very festive and, on top of that, the food was really good too. Was a great evening.
And, of course, on the way back to our dock I had to try out Santa’s sleigh as he had left it here for some reason LOL.
Friday morning and we were on a mission to return to the Boatworks but via dinghy. We had ordered a service kit for the Whale bilge pump from the on-side chandlery and had been informed that it had arrived so we got dink down off the davits and took ourselves the 2.7 miles up the river.
We pulled into the Boatworks and Richard went off to pick up the spares. On the way back down the river we pulled into Hope Island Marina to do a quick shop at Coles supermarket (which has a greater selection than the one on-site here) and enjoyed checking out the houses that line the river canals. On the way back to Sanctuary Cove we were being chased down by a rain cloud so quickly made it back (checking out the superyachts at the other end of the marina on the way), got unpacked, and then raised dink back onto the davits before the heavens opened.
And that was it for the day….it rained….it poured….and it rained some more….
The rain never let up all night and it is still raining now (Saturday morning). We have checked our dock lines and have put out a couple of additional ones. The forecast for the next few days is absolutely horrendous as a low front pushes onshore bringing with it up to 50 knots of wind. So looks like we’ll be staying down below for the next few days and keeping abreast with the Brexit news as it develops to its final conclusion this weekend (hopefully!).
Stay safe everyone and look after each other. Bye for now
Jan