time to go home

We have returned to The Boatworks.

It does seem to have been a long season this year. Perhaps that’s because we arrived in May and we’re leaving in late November. It has also been a challenging one too at times. But as always, it’s the good times we’ll remember!

We’ve been on a mission since our visit to Lady Musgrave. Time to go home!

We shot through the Sandy Straits and Fraser Island with Waterfront to catch a ‘stupid o’clock’ high tide for the Wide Bay Bar crossing (it’s light at 4.30 am here now and yes, we left at 4.30 am!!). It was all about catching a snippet of a window to get down to Moreton Bay before stronger winds from the wrong direction hit us, again. It did mean we could spend a day at the Double Island Point lagoon before we headed further south. A positive!

The Bossa at South White Cliffs, Sandy Straits

Waterfront, also a Fusion 40 … about to pass us!

As we motored up to our hop off point for the Wide Bay Bar, we had the most amazing sunset that filled the sky.  Stunning!

The ocean lagoon at Double Island Point formed three or four seasons back with a long sandbar providing a safe anchorage.  Even the surfers and kite surfers get a look in when the wind blows and the waves roll down the outside of the lagoon’s sandbar.  It has become a destination in itself now (for yachties and 4WDs), whereas in the early days it was simply a hop off point for the Wide Bay Bar.

Approaching the lagoon

I launched the drone for a better view ..

The eagles also like the Double Island Point lagoon. Can you believe this??!! An eagle tried to nest on top of Waterfront’s mast. As we approached the lagoon, Marty and Brenda heard a bang, rushed forward (thinking we might have bumped them on the way through … as if), only to find sticks on their foredeck … and an eagle hovering above. A day or so later, as you can see in this pic, the eagle had made further progress. Apparently it has happened before on another poor boat at DIP.

Waterfront at anchor …

… the eagle has landed!!

We are currently packing up The Bossa at Boatworks on the Gold Coast.  It’s hot and humid and pack up is never much fun. The 2023 maintenance list has been tweaked, added to, changed, screamed at, cursed and finally put to the side for next year’s eyes. And we’ve finally watched the very last episode of four seasons of Ozark!! After very long days (remember it’s light at 4.30 am) of cleaning, rinsing, flushing, packing, sorting, washing and fixing, sitting down and zoning out to another episode of the crazy Byrd family’s Ozark TV series has been very much welcomed.

We always like to see the Boatworks guys taking such care with our boats.

Done and dusted for 2022!

We have visited some great places this season, the snorkeling as always, a highlight for me, and the new additions to The Bossa have been fantastic. No power issues with our new lithium system, our cockpit roof extension should have been done years ago and our new sails look great (they are so white).  I suppose they make The Bossa go faster?!

We’ve met some great new people as well as catching up with familiar friends.  It is always a very social time sailing the Queensland coast and we love it. We’ve had some great cruising times with friends on other boats and we thank them for their company and their support. Some familiar faces have left their cruising life in recent times and we do miss them. There’s also a few more who are planning the same. We are always chatting to other boats and meeting new people (even people we’ve met before … but don’t remember, oh dear!), so there’ll always be new friendships.

We also squeezed in two lovely visits back to family and enjoyed a week with friends on board.  Did they get the perfect Whitsundays weather!

My drone has added another layer to my photography and I’ve enjoyed sharing these familiar places now from the air. I haven’t taken any video footage. I definitely would have to improve my piloting skills as I’m a tad jerky on the joysticks, which doesn’t matter with still photos. I’m happy with the stills as it’s all about my blog and book that I print after each sailing season.

We did visit a few outer reef locations we hadn’t been to before, a definite highlight of this season. Keeper and Wheeler Reefs will be remembered for being such beautiful anchorages in such perfect conditions, also for my first flight from The Bossa and for where I drowned my beloved TG4 underwater camera!

Keeper Reef … second visit!

Keeper Reef

Wheeler Reef

Nudis! Over the last few seasons I’ve spotted and photographed only one Nudibranch per season. Better than none I suppose. This season my score card reads, two blue Nudis and one Flatworm!

The weather, along with some unexpected boat maintenance, has meant we’ve had some frustrating moments in negotiating passages, repairs and plans this season. This second year of La Nina weather has meant so much more rain for many.  We haven’t really experienced the rain, but we’ve certainly had more storms and definitely erratic winds. As our friend on Anui put it … “it’s been blowing hard from the wrong direction or not blowing much from the right direction”. We’ve hardly used our spinnaker this season and we seemed to have motor-sailed so much more. We think it’s been a season for the monos. They can point into the wind so much easier than we cats.

Skellum arriving at Long Beach. Looking very lonely out there.

I am writing this post in 30+ degrees with high humidity on the Gold Coast, and our home state of Victoria is expecting snow not too far from where we live on Westernport Bay. Crazeee! And yes, we are heading home to cold weather.

I mentioned some maintenance issues.  We both would say this has been the most challenging season yet, but, The Bossa has recently turned 9 years old and it’s a boat! We’ve had to replace a few too many parts along the way this season, our port engine is not sounding too healthy and to top it off, our car that has been in storage, has needed some unexpected work done too. It has only just been released from a mechanic after waiting on parts for over week.

I’d like to thank all my readers as I really do appreciate the feedback that comes my way either by commenting or by phone. It is fun to share our journey, telling our story particularly through my photography, so bring on Wakatobi in 2023! We will be flying to Indonesia to spend a week at the Wakatobi dive resort in South East Sulawesi in April. I booked this trip just weeks before Covid rattled the world way back in 2020. It’s finally happening. I can’t wait to share what should be amazing underwater images from Wakatobi!

The Bossa is sparkling. It’s finally now time to go home!

Our last sunset on the water.