Arrived - Sort Of

Well, we have finally almost finished this epic journey. I say 'almost' because we haven't got as far as arriving at the quarantine docks to check in but can't do that until Monday morning anyway so, as it was getting dark last night zig-zagging across Morton Bay, we pulled over to the side by Morton Island to take a break.

By this time, we had a major rattle in the engine compartment (broken alternator bracket AGAIN), and were still leaking fuel albeit slowly but, as we are so low in that department, we can't afford to waste any. Paul has managed to salvage quite a lot putting it all through a filtering/polishing system but we just can't seem to entirely get to the bottom of the problem.

We arrived at the head of Moreton Bay by mid-morning yesterday and managed to sail for quite a distance before the wiggly channel headed us straight into the wind. We were passed in this narrow region by a few large container ships i.e. 'close encounters of the colossal kind' but it was all relatively simple. By sundown, we knew we couldn't go all the way through. Stopping here is totally illegal but we couldn't motor with the broken bracket and sailing in these tricky waters at night wasn't something we relished. Better safe and try to explain ourselves later rather than trying to be correct but sitting on a reef or sandbar somewhere. This is a very wide bay but is primarily shallow throughout with limited natural and dredged channels.

I'm convinced a herd of snails, tortoises and/or sloths could have done this trip faster and, had we not lost so much fuel at the start, we could have motored for a couple more days but, we're here safely and have to confess that it was slow but rather that than experiencing the tropical storm that hit us coming out of Fiji.

Oh, and we finally saw dolphins just before the sun set last night!

Christmas is now going to be a non event as we've had to cancel our plans to spend it with friends who live several hours outside Brisbane. By the time we get into the anchorage and sort out a safe place to leave Calypso, it just was no longer feasible to get down to them or for them to come to collect us. I guess I'll be trying to conjure up something a little more exciting than beans on toast for the occasion.

In the meantime, all our very best wishes to all of you for a Merry Christmas. Enjoy!