From Yamba to Mooloolaba

We enjoyed Yamba, small town mostly dedicated to tourism, but set in a beautiful scenery on the bank of the Clarence River.

We left late in the afternoon as we wanted to get to the entrance of the Gold Coast Seaway in the morning. As has been the case almost every day so far, we motored all the way, with the automatic pilot taking a nap from time to time whenever it felt that we were working it too much. We would then take the helm for a while and put it back on auto. With no wind, Firmin was of no use as it would not know where to go.

The Gold Coast wants to loo

k like Florida. As far as ugly skyscrapers is concerned, they have succee

ded. The seaway itself feels like a mix of Florida Waterway and North Carolina between Morehead City and Norfolk.

We entered the Seaway late morning, with no bar to speak of, an

d went to anchor in the marine stadium. It was a quiet anchorage although there were quite a few other boats there. In the afternoon, Des, a scot turned aussie, came and offered us some crabs that he had caught and cooked. Since we had had a late lunch and it was early in the afternoon, I only took a small bite, but enough to see that these crabs were very tasty and good.

Next morning, we left at 7h30, since we had an appointment to pick up Georges at the Sovereign Islands. Georges lives in Coochiemuddlo Island and was going to share his experience of the seaway

with us.

We got there at 8:15, but by 8:45, still not seeing anybody, I called him on the phone, only to find out that Queensland does not have a Daylight Saving Time and we were one hour early.

Anyway, at 8:30 Queensland time, Georges arrived and we sailed up the seaway to Coochiemuddlo Island where Georges lives. We had lunch on Papy Jovial before Georges went home, planning to pick us up for dinner at 5 p.m., and Oli

vier and Debbie went to Victoria Point with the dinghy to do some shopping.

At 5, we all went ashore and Georges and Lynne took us around the island (500 people live there) before taking us to his house for dinner. Nice house with lots of artifacts from their travels in the nearby Asia.

After a late night and a short sleep, up early. Debbie was leaving us to rejoin her friend Jacques who had travelled up from Sydney and go camping for a few days before returning to Sydney.

Olivier and I left late morning headed to Moreton Island at an anchorage called Tangalooma, with wrecks deposited on the bank in front of the place, in the hope of creating an emergency harbour. We had a lovely sail, almost the first one since we left Sydney and anchored close to the wrecks. Olivier took the dinghy to do some photos of the wrecks and the small settlement with a holiday resort..

The anchorage is nice for the day, but incomfortable at night. We woke up very early and were off to Mooloolaba at 6:00 a.m.

This time, we had following winds, but not enough and we motor sailed to Mooloolabe were we arrived early afternoon, just before closing time for the marina. It is Good Friday, and everything closes at 2:00 p.m.

Warren joined us just as we were sitting down for dinner, with the new step down transformer, the new US flag and the mail. We spent a very pleasant evening, taking infos from him on the trip up north, and he sharing with us his dreams of cruising Europe on a 40 foot cat after he retires in 2 years time.

We will stay here until Tuesday. We have to repair the bimini, or rather just replace a failed zipper, do some shopping, visit the place and the local pubs and enjoy the Easter Week-End.