Last 2 days in Bundaberg

Two days before we headed South we rented a car. Did a bunch of grocery shopping and then in the evening went to the Mon Repos turtle beach/research station where you can watch the logger head turtles come up the beach in the dark and lay eggs.

There was about 30 people there that night and we were divided into two groups. We had to wait about an hour until the ranger spotted a turtle was coming up beach and then we were led down the beach in the dark and stood behind the turtle as she dug a deep hole with her flippers to lay the eggs in. Apparently as long as we stay behing the turtle it is ok they don't leave.
The ranger put a flashlight on ground by hole so we could see better. Then the turtle proceded to drop eggs one by one until she layed 165 eggs and then covered them up with sand and smoothed it flat to hide where eggs were. The ranger stuck a stick in the ground to mark the spot, then the turtle proceeded back down the beach to the water. The ranger then decided that the eggs were laid at the high tide line and needed to be moved up a bit. So she dug up the eggs and dug a new hole higher up and handed eggs to all of us to carry up to the new hole. The eggs are about the size of a chicken egg but have a leathery feel. The hole process took about 3 hours and we got back to the boat about 11:30pm.

The last day before leaving we went for our last bike ride down a nice seaside trail. Often when cycling on the nearby roads, Magpies will fly at your head screeching loudly then circle around and come at you again and again following you for a half mile. We noticed a lot of cyclists have 6 inch twists of wire sticking out of the tops of their bike helments, which apparently discourages the birds. Other people paint a face on the back of their helments.

Kangaroos to boat work

We are settling in a bit here at Bundaberg to a more normal life, which means it is time to go soon. We take the free shuttle bus to town about 16km away 2 or 3 times a week for grocerys and boat items that we can't get locally. There is a medium sized IGA food store about a 20 minute walk away and a good marine store at the top of the dock here. We have a few friends here we have been socializing a bit with here . Delicado has been helpful with info as they have just finished a circumnavigation and are great to socialize with and share a car with. Shamantha with the single hander Rob has also been helpful and I helped him a bit hauling him up his mast a couple of times. Saleena also just pulled in here a Canadian couple from BC. and we had dinner with them last night.

We saw our first kangaroos last night just before dark while walking to the restaruant. There was a long stretch of forested road and there was two kangaroos near the road in the grass, they watched us a bit then bounded away with huge hops.

The weather here has been cool and rainy with lots of wind, locals are saying the weather is worse than normal for this time of year. We get a nice day then two days of on off rain.
The only boat work that urgently needed doing was fixing a sheave at the mast head that disintgraded making it difficult to pull the main sail up. I put a pulley at top of mast which works fine until I can find a sheave that will fit which may be a problem. Change the engine oil, an easy job and fix a couple of small tears in the main sail. But yesterday we found another problem that was not on the 'to do list'. The galley sink drain corroded out and started leaking so got the local marine store here to bring in a new one for us.

Other jobs that we are doing but not necassary are adding a couple for LED lights and replacing a couple of the older ones that are not bright enough. Getting AIS (for identifying ships)on the boat, right now looking at getting the new Stanard Horizon vhf radio that comes with a AIS dislplay. A wind generator and redoing how my reefing lines are run on boom and a dozen other small jobs. And while Dorothy away back home I will do a overhaul of watermaker and a bit of work on the head. Also do some painting on the topsides. At some point we will also have to do a haulout for another coat of antifouling paint. Just like owning a house there is always something to repair except on a cruising boat you do it in exotic locations, and spent a lot of time trying to source things.
We have booked a marina slip in Manly near Brisbane a 180 miles South of us and plan to head down there leaving here around Dec first.