Photos

Here are a few of the things that we saw when the fog cleared on our newest anchorage. More to come

Alicia, from the boat On Verra, has been organizing hikes for the cruisers nearly every day that we’ve been here. It’s one of the best cruiser services I’ve ever experienced because it helps us to see the natural beauty of the island, and gives us a much needed endorphin hit and kick in the pants to get moving in the morning. Today she took us by bus to the trail-head at St Gabriel crossing. From there we walked past the largest church in the Indian Ocean (also conveniently, the pit stop). The trail started just below the church and wound through lush forest, rock strewn pasture, and down a long slope with a stunning view of the lagoon and sea beyond. ...

We have an odd tradition on Convivia. I would like to believe that it was modeled after a trait I picked up in my wilderness canoeing days, but really , it is probably more just good fortune. We tend to set a day for departure, work our butts off to make that schedule, and then we realize that we have no real imperative to leave. So we postpone a day. This day, is a special kind of day because unlike other chilled out days, we really didn’t expect it (even after many many iterations). So we end up swimming around the boat (because Fatty is often either on deck or hipped and ready) eating popcorn, and generally being a family of extreme leisure. This photo pretty well captures that spirit.

We take birthday wishes seriously in Convivia. We keep presents small and homemade, as the real celebration is in the cake. Cakes are dreamed up layer by layer, often years in advance. Olive wishes for her eighth birthday were a stuffed mouse, a watch, pizza for dinner, and a caramel, chocolate, marshmallow and chocolate ganache layer cake. All of her wishes seemed totally reasonable thanks to my mom sending a birthday watch to us before we even left Brisbane. I had a stuffed mouse pattern on board, along with fabric and stuffing. I stowed a stash of Belgian chocolate under my bed in June and in Darwin I packed into my teeny tiny fridge the cream, butter, and mozzarella necessary for the big day. Somewhere along the way Olive decided on a bigger wish, “I want to see dragons on my birthday.” ...

I don’t know how many times I uttered that terse phrase yesterday. Saying goodbye, it’s… Hard. Rather than sputter on sentimentally I’m just going to post a ton of random pictures of some of the people we’ve come to love in our too short stay here. Thank you all for making our going away party such a touching success. We will miss the heck out of you!

We celebrated a late Christmas with Vick’s side of the family at her mom’s home. Despite our host getting sick at the last moment, it was a wild success, complete with two rounds of Cards Against Humanity for the bravest of the lot.

We spent a few lovely days at Middle Percy Island. We visited the legendary A-Frame, took a long hike up to the Homestead to visit Cate and John, and the Roundhouse to visit Steve. It was a lovely island with a storied and rich history and the current leaseholders were warm and hospitable. I’ll look forward to going back on our way south. Sadly, weather and internet forced us onward. We stopped in Scawfell Island for two days, but the internet there was too sporadic to support my work, so we were northbound again. When we arrived in Thomas Island, with it’s workable internet and gorgeous coral beaches, we knew we had made it to “North Enough.” Our weeks of searching were over. From here on up to Townsville the weather will be warm enough for Vick, the connectivity conducive to my work, and the flora and fauna rich, diverse, and unusual enough to hold the kid’s interest for days on end. Here are a few photos of our journey from Keppel.

We had been stuck on the boat for 6 days. First for sailing and second for weather in the anchorage (35 knots, come on). We finally rowed against said wind (maybe only 20 knots), to spend the morning on shore. We were greeted by a slightly kitsch “cruiser’s camp” that sported a very helpful trail map. When you discover a map, there is only one thing to do… ...

Photos after the break

Riverfire is a-mazing. The city of Brisbane (with generous support from the business sector) light fireworks off all along the waterfront from the Story Bridge to Southbank, and from the tops of the largest buildings in town. They have flyovers from impressive killing machines, and just an astounding amount of fanfare. We had a very small party on Convivia, where we enjoyed a front row seat to the best fireworks display I’ve ever seen.

September has been a month of goodbyes and getting-to-know-yas. It’s been a month of changing weather (for the better) and changing government (for the worse). It’s been full of laughter, outdoor play and exciting summery events. We are all feeling like Brisbane is home, and except for the outrageous cost; and missing our family and friends back home; we are just delighted to be able to say that. In the spirit of photo-blogging when I don’t have enough new things to say, here’s another montage of our month. Hopefully the captions will tell our story well.

I have been pretty relaxed about my blog posting since we arrived. I think I thought I had little to say but the photos I have taken tell another story, so I will let them…

We’ve got a wordy type post in the making. In the meantime you can feast your eyes on some photos from Port Vila and the most spectacular Chesterfield Reef. Chesterfield was a safety option for us on our passage to Australia. I was pretty sure that we wouldn’t stop there but as we got close fate forced our hand. Am I ever glad it did. Chesterfield deserved a week but we had only a few days to enjoy it. We made good use of the time, fixing boat problems, snorkeling, beach combing, and hanging out with our friends on Britannia. Our time was up too soon and we headed out into some nasty weather to make it to Australia before the rally ended. Next time around we will definitely make more time for this sweet spot!

We arrived in Apia, Samoa early in the morning yesterday. Thankfully the internet was fast enough here to upload a few photos.