Anchored, Tin Can Inlet, Queensland
We have given the occasional sea bird a ride or rest in our many days at sea, but for whatever reason, Dragonfly seems to attract more than the usual quantity. This past passage found us nightly chasing upwards of 10 boobies from sitting on our bow rails, all hoping for a peaceful night’s rest. But alas, Harley would be summoned from his off watch to run out on the bow in his undies, yelling madly, gesticulating and yelling obscenities to get them all to kindly take flight (this is in keeping with all of our boat job roles, Harley gets the really fun ones…).
Why, you ask, can’t we just let them be? Don’t we love nature? Don’t we wish to be one with our fellow sea travelers? Well, boobies who sit there just crap all night, staining our decks horribly with basically acid poop, which is both very difficult to remove and quite damaging to our topsides. Sometimes it can end up looking like a wicked crime scene, taking some serious repeated chemical applications to repair our gel coat. The common denominator may in fact be Harley, since on Kailani’s maiden voyage from San Francisco a booby literally landed on him in the cockpit – check out this video, courtesy of our good friend Bill: Harley loves boobies
Aside from the booby wars, we had a fantastic passage from New Caledonia, 794 nautical miles in 5 days 9 hours. We managed to get the hook down just before a brewing storm opened up on us – we were then treated to 6 hours of rain, thunder and lightning. A great boat rinse from a very salty passage, and what a fabulous show of nature’s might and light.
We cleared quarantine on Monday afternoon, after anchoring out for two days to avoid overtime clearance costs. Australia takes their biosecurity incredibly seriously. There is the usual list of food items that are prohibited, but what they really focus on is invasive species. On one boat here, an ant was found. This ant then had to be flown to Brisbaine for testing to determine if it was an invasive type. It was. Said boat then had to be fumigated. They now have to wait another 10 days to retest for pests and possibly repeat the whole process. All the while they remain quarantined, and yes, they have to pay for all of this extra eradication / inspections. Let’s just hope the ant did not fly first class.
We however, cleared quickly, and began enjoying shoreside amenities of the very lovely Bundaberg Marina (restaurants, chandlery, gift shop, bar). Taking a 30 minute stroll to the grocery store (to re-supply all the fresh fruit & veg & meats depleted by biosecurity) it was clear we were in OZ: wallabies, Australian white ibis, herons, and about a million kinds of flying and crawling insects abounded. Very pretty tropical foliage too.
Catching up with other cruisers, touring the Bundaberg rum distillery, and even being filmed for a marketing campaign for the marina rounded out our very brief three days ashore. Then the weather window to move south opened up, so here we are on day two of making our way down the inside passage behind Frasier Island, riding the currents by day, and anchoring up at night. The important thing will be timing the bar crossing tomorrow, then it’s on to Brisbane, just south of the latitude dictated by our insurance coverage for this austral summer.
25 48.8 S 153 02.5 E
at anchor, Tin Can Inlet
Queensland, Australia
Thanks for including my video! So, does 472 views in 14 years constitute going viral? 😂
So glad you’re enjoying Oz!!
🤣😎🤗