The next day we sailed to Urangan on the South West coast of Hervey Bay as we had discovered some new technical problems that needed attention. (Riddle me why it is always problem’s’ with a boat instead of problem.) Please note that while some of you may think engineering problems in the ocean are concerning with children on board, remember I do have Macgyver at hand who I am convinced when we were at home would break things just so he could fix them with a piece of cord and a pencil.

One was the Anchor winch (kind of important) kept tripping whenever it had a load on it which had the unfortunate side effect of many expletives being let out whilst one was trying to pull up the anchor. The other small problem is that the engine would not start without the help of the generator….. what the?

Urangan was pretty boaty so we decided it would be the best place to rectify the issues before we went further.  The other reason for the compulsory stop in Urangan was to take the boys to see the new Minions movie! We had hired the Marina car for the trip in which was an old Holden Rodeo and Harry blurted out, ‘Wow, I love this car you even have to wind the windows down”. Where was an original dial telephone or a Commodore 64 computer with cassette drive when we needed one!

Poor Sam the Dog also earner his first frequent flyer points and was flown home. Far out I am going to start a dog transport business when we finish. It cost us more to have him flown in a cage in the hold than if I flew back business class with him. I’m sure he would have liked a champagne and a pillow!  Due to all the national parks he wasn’t allowed off the boat much and this coupled with his sea sickness and personalised brown messages all over the boat we decided that it would be best if he had a holiday with Nanny and Poppy. Thank you for looking after him!!

Miss you Sammy!

The next day we had sailed the expanse of Hervey Bay and didn’t see any whales (bummer) but a couple of Dolphins greeted us at the navigational aids of Bundaberg to escort us in. It was a fairly uneventful 6 hour sail except for the last hour when we took the main sail down due to no wind which resulted in metronome mast in metre seas which the boys thought hilarious but no so much the pans in the galley which went flying all over the saloon.

We tied up at Bundaberg Port Marina opposite David and Gail. Gorgeous Molly/ Colin and Belinda/Martin were there also. Cute marina this one as it was dark blue weatherboard with a quaint Cruisers BBQ and kitchen area in which another Sundowners was held. Our newly acquired cruising posse where there sharing stories with Colin outlining the various areas of a yacht ‘So the bow is Adventure Land’, ‘ The Helm is Fantasy Land’. So what is the galley I ask? ‘ Gail responds…. ‘Oh that is Aye land’….. ‘Aye get me a coffee, Aye can I have a sandwich, Aye can I have a drink’………Our galley has been renamed appropriately.

Also at Sundowners we met a couple of ladies who were endeavouring to deliver aid to cyclone ravaged Vanuatu with a crew of 4 other women. They had already made 4 attempts at the journey only to have a technical issue arise and had to return to port. Poor things. They had a rainbow painted boat which Ric was a little confused by and asked. ‘Why would anyone paint their boat rainbow?’ Bless him. I referred to the current rainbow coloured Facebook profile pictures for an explanation. ‘Oh’ he said. Someone passed comment that they were travelling on a type of boat called a Moody 45 (no kidding) and someone else dropped that perhaps their boat should be called ‘No Masts Here.’ ?  The last I heard was that their latest attempt to cross was thwarted by an out of season Cyclone. Gees give these ladies a break Huey!!!!