Sunday, October 14, 2012

Dos Gatos is sold!

Dos Gatos has been sold in Australia. We wish all the best to her new owners and hope she serves them as faithfully as she served us. Clear skies and fair winds.

Monday, May 07, 2012

Another ending

Kitty_1003.M9Zdy7pmbjtP.jpg



tig_0210.G5oetsKs02jn.jpg


Tigger passed away Saturday, May 5th. It was sudden and unexpected - he was only twelve. He was born in Florida in September 2000 and joined for our first cruise aboard Dos Gatos. He’s widely travelled. He’s visited all around the Caribbean, crossed the Pacific and travelled around Australia.



He was a strong swimmer and we held training sessions when I’d toss him into the water and he’d swim around the boat (always counter-clockwise) and climb out.



He came back to the USA in January and has recently been RV cruising, surprising people by walking well on the leash. He will be greatly missed by us both.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Dos Gatos is For Sale

DG2.8NEAgnynFgjD.jpg


Dos Gatos is now on the market. The sale is being handled by Nick Cox at Sunshine Coast Yacht Brokers, Mooloolaba. (Look for the Norseman 430 on their site.)

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Mooloolaba

I made it to Mooloolaba on Tuesday. Although the winds were out of the north, there was a 24 hour period of 10-15 knots forecast. I left really early (4:30am) to benefit from early hours calms and motored the whole way. I got in around 1pm.


I’m staying in Mooloolaba Marina for 11 days before moving the boat onto a private jetty behind a house - there are a lot of these in Mooloolaba, and these particular homeowners had just sold their boat.


Once the boat’s moved, I fly out to the USA. Meanwhile, I have several contractors in sprucing her up.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Waiting in the Rain

I’m anchored off Moreton Island, about 10 miles from Brisbane, waiting for a chance to head north to Mooloolaba.


It’s been raining heavily since I got here last Tuesday. And just as in each of the last several years there has been flooding in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. It’s not as bad as last year when there were huge damaging floods all over this area, although the NSW Government is talking about declaring a Natural Disaster.


This rain seems to happen when a Monsoon trough from the north - which normally sits between Australia and Indonesia comes south for a while.


Anyway, apart from the rain, the winds and seas are more than I want to go to Mooloolaba. I’m booked into the Marina there on Monday 30th, but that won’t happen now. A few more days - maybe Wednesday, if I’m lucky.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Back in the water

DG1.WtGFdkRJZC4Z.jpg


Dos Gatos was re-launched on Friday, newly painted and polished. We were in the yard eight days although, with rain days and a weekend lost, there were only three days of work. We’re staying in the Rivergate Marina for a couple of days.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Hauled Out

P1020816.dTLW2pbTbkMz.jpg


We’re on the hard at Rivergate Marina and Shipyard in Brisbane. It should be a short stay - just bottom paint and prop zincs.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Brisbane

The weather finally cleared and we had a window to leave for Brisbane on Wednesday 4th.


First we travelled the 40 miles of the Great Sandy Strait between Fraser Island and the mainland. Much of this is easily navigable but the central portion is filled with sand banks. Fate had us arriving at the shallowest part at low tide. We brushed the bottom a couple of times but didn’t get stuck.


Then came Wide Bay Bar, the final obstacle before we were in open ocean. Coastal bars can be dangerous in bad weather and this one has claimed several boats over the years. We chose good conditions and while it was rough over the bar we had no problems.


The journey down to Moreton Bay by Brisbane was overnight and uneventful. Moreton Bay is also full of sand banks and we had to follow the ship channel to stay out of trouble. We anchored finally Thursday Evening at St Helena Island, a former high-security prison turned National Park just outside the harbor.


After a few days there we headed up the river and are currently anchored near the Rivergate Marina from where Tigger, and Ginger, will be off to the airport.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year

We grabbed a quiet day to head over to Fraser Island. Then the wind picked up again and has blown steadily for 5 days with no sign of stopping. So, no getting to Brisbane for NYE fireworks! ;-(


We’re anchored off the west coast of Fraser Island, on an endless beach. Maybe the wind will drop in a few days because Ginger has a flight to catch in ten days, in Brisbane!


Happy New Year to all our readers.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas

Lights.TFVUmzE9ffy3.jpg


We are all set to leave Bundaberg - we wanted to be at Fraser Island for Christmas - but the weather is not cooperating. There’s a strong wind warning out there.


So we get to spend Christmas in Bundaberg. We’ve bought the traditional Christmas goodies, put up the lights around the cockpit, and we can put our feet up now all our chores are done.


A very Merry Christmas to all who follow our blog.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Bundaberg

We’re in Bundaberg for a few weeks - before we head on to Brisbane. We’re sorting out our junk on the boat, and staging it into a storage unit, from where it will be shipped to the USA. We had a mechanic work on the port engine which has been giving us problems - now fixed.


We may stay in Bundaberg until Christmas or, as we’d like to see the New Years Eve fireworks on the Brisbane River, we may leave before - if we get everything done here.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Lady Musgrave Island (again)

After a few days in the Whitsundays, we started south. However, the wind direction did not cooperate so we took refuge in the Newry Islands.

We waited a week in the Newry Islands until the wind backed into the northeast, and then set off last Tuesday. We were planning to come to Lady Musgrave Island in one jump, but the sea conditions were poor so we bailed out late Tuesday and found an anchorage at Purdhue Island. Our guide did not recommend this island as a good anchorage but, with wind from the northeast, we found an adequate spot to spend the night.

On Wednesday, we set off again and found better sea conditions. Two nights later we came into Lady Musgrave at 7am. We've worked out that this is our eighth visit here since our first in 2009! We like this place! There are a lot of boats here - around 10. I don't know why.

In a few days we'll head into Bundy.

Monday, November 07, 2011

Podcast posted

Episode #40 of PodCastaway has been posted to my podcast feed.

Whitsundays

After a few days in Cairns - for grocery shopping and a meal out - we headed south. We stopped briefly at Townsville for fuel (and another meal out) and then headed on to the Whitsundays. The weather has turned against us a little, so we’ll stay here (and do some diving) until it improves.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Arrived in Cairns

The first half of the passage went well. While the conditions were quiet, we headed due south (upwind) to improve our wind angle when the wind increased later, as forecast. We sailed south for 36 hours and went 200 miles.
The wind increased when forecast, but then kept on increasing as we received forecast after forecast. So, the second half of the passage was pretty awful! We had winds from 25-30 kts and 8-10' seas. Our dog-leg course put much of this aft of the beam, but there was a lot of it, and also at times the seas were huge and confused.
So, overall, one of our worse passages ever.
Funnily enough, most of our passages into Australia have been like this - calm at first, roaring at the end!
We've cleared and anchored and we'll wait here until the conditions are suitable for heading south. As soon as we can, we'll go pig-out at an Australian Supermarket!