Doing the River Tango

Anchored by the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens

 walking distance to the centre of the city

We're back in Brisbane after having our holiday with Lioness rudely interrupted.  No sooner had we sailed back to Dora Creek to plan a few more activities, when we received a phone call to tell us that Calypso had dragged and hit another boat.  This is about the most frightening news a boat owner can hear so it meant a really rushed trip back to Brisbane.

Well, the good news is, we hadn’t dragged and the ‘hit’ was just a light touch so a mountain was made out of a molehill.  The French cat involved had moved (as he was there first, it really should have been us) but then they left the next day anyway so we’re still shaking our heads as to the panic created.  Regardless, this is the first time we’d left Calypso for any length of time just on anchor so we were rather anxious about her anyway.

Terry and Marjatta, thanks for a truly wonderful time.  You gave us a fabulous holiday, one we won’t ever forget.  Perhaps, one day, we can reciprocate, maybe back in Panama.

And some might give a slight smirk when we talk about a holiday as, to non-cruisers, you probably think we’re on a permanent holiday anyway.  Believe me, cruising is not for the faint-hearted.  You either have to be a very wealthy gentleman sailor to have ‘them that do’ do it for you or be a jack-of-all trades which means constant maintenance and hard work.  We fall into the latter category so this holiday meant an entire fortnight away without Paul worrying about having to fix this, that or the other thing and we saw so much into the bargain.

Anchoring up the river in Brisbane creates its own source of entertainment.  The river is highly affected by the changing tides, contrary winds and rapid currents.  All this creates havoc in an almost laughable way.  If one were to sit and watch those on anchor over the change of tides on a fairly windy day, it would be similar to watching  Mexican jumping beans in action.  There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the dance they all perform.

 We were told that there’s a sunken boat somewhere in the region and we think Calypso found it. We, along with Peter from Troutbridge, decided to go to see “The Hobbit” one afternoon so Pete and I went on ahead to do some wandering and Paul was to join us at the cinema.  About an hour before the time, Paul called to say we were beached.  Not again!  We rushed back to find that we were stuck high and dry on something but the surrounding waters were all fairly deep.  ?????  We seem to be making a habit of this so again we waited for the tide to come in to float free, pulled up some chain and problem solved.  The water is far too muddy to see below but it must have been some object down there and, true to form, we managed to get stuck on it.

This should help keep Paul out of mischief for the next month as I’m going to be away.  I’m flying back to Canada to see my Mum, sister and family and he’ll remain behind doing the usual (boat maintenance that is).  This will definitely be a bit of a shock to the system for me.  While we were in Sydney, it reached 42°C, here in Brisbane a tad cooler but still hot and sunny and, me, I’ll be heading to the dead of winter with casual summer clothes for a wardrobe, flip flops for footwear and a borrowed winter coat.  Hope I don’t look too much like the drifter and vagabond that I am – it wouldn’t exactly inspire the airlines to upgrade me to business class I’m afraid.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Beating the heat Ozzie style

My first Kookaburra sighting

Farewell Sydney

After a tough day grocery shopping