Brisbane. Floods in Queensland

The sun is finally shining here again after many days of just rain, sometimes heavy rain. Bundaberg the town we spent a month at in November is now half under water. The Hervey river where the marina is we stayed at has flooded its banks and Our marine store on the river in town is now flooded and hundreds off houses are evacuated and many businesses ruined.

We had initially considered going up the river to the town to stay on pile moorings which are cheaper. But glad we didn't as there is much debris on the river now that could break your boat from it's moorings, if not damage your boat. Many of the roads in the area a closed do to parts of them being under water and bridges damaged. Some areas are having the worst rains and flooding ever recorded and some the worst in 20 years. Many roads in Queensland are closed as portions of them are under water and bridges damaged as well. Most of the bridges they take the guard rails off so the water can flow freely over top. Several small towns have been evacuated, and portions of many other areas evacuated.

The Brisbane river has also flooded its banks in Brisbane putting pedestrian paths and ferry stations under water. Where we are in Manly it is an ocean front marina in a boat basin so no worries about floods here, though we would not want a cyclone to hit a crowded marina like this one. Cyclones don't normally come done this far, that is why we are here, but sometimes the remnants of then do though very rarely.

With all the wet weather I got all my inside boat jobs done, now hopefully can started on the outside.
Added Jan 1/2011. Happy New Year everyone. The nice weather has gone and it is raining again, heavy gray overcast, looks just like Vancouver no November, just alot warmer.

Notice to Sailors

I have been going through other cruisers blogs to research where we are going next and find out where the good anchorages are and what we have to watch for etc., for our up coming trip to Darwin and then Indonesia. I noticed some blogs were helpful and many others had no useful info for a sailor. Then I realized, I could do better as well. So from now on when I get a chance and internet is ok I will put an "Info:" section at end of some posts for each area that will give useful info about an anchorage or port, and gps position of where we anchored so you can locate anchorage on chart.

I have gone back a bit and edited some posts already and added a 'Info:' section using my log book to refresh my memory. Done Bora Bora to Australia and some of Mexico.
Also I have noticed my blog postings are a day out. The date is correct on my computer but the blogger time stamp is on Vancouver time?? We are a day ahead here and plus 6 hours. Dec 25 3:30pm now 2010. Will try to have something for everyone, even mistakes, for those looking for them.

Christmas in Brisbane

I had a quite Christmas down at the boat. Dorothy has flown home for her fathers 90th birthday which is at Christmas. She will also visit Vancouver to get a few things down and bring back some goodies for the boat.
I had some Potatoes, yam, some broccoli and a can of chili con carne for Christmas dinner, yumm. Not many people around the marina, most have gone home. Christmas is definitely not as big a deal here as it is in North America. I pulled the head apart to do some repairs and improve the smells, plus got a few other chores to do while Dorothy is gone.
Found a little tiny hill we can hike up to try to get some cardio when going on our walks. It takes 2 minutes, well maybe less, to get to the top, boy Australia is flat. It has rained every day the last 3 days, though not continuously. A small cyclone hit the coast near Cairns and then downgraded to a tropical storm, had huge amouts of rain there this morning, the first one of the season.
The rain has stopped so time for a walk.

A Trip to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

We rented a car yesterday for some chores and to explore further afield. We first got a new outboard motor. We got a good price on the old 3.5 HP mercury which I never liked and was always troublsome and traded it in for a new 5 HP Yamaha. Every place we went in the Pacific, 95% of the outboards where Yamaha's and everyone loved them. So with such a larger dealer and parts network and super reputation, what else would you get? Your dinghy is like your car at home, you use it to go everywhere. We row when we can unless it is to far or strong currents and wind.

After that errand we drove to the Koala Sanctuary and paid the entrance fee which was a bit steep, but there turned out to be a lot more here than we thought. There were animals here from the bears to kangaroos, tasmanian devils, dingo's and lots of birds. A lot of the animals were in their natural enviroment and could come and go as they pleased. We had planned to go to another park afterwards to go for a hike, but we spent all our time here at the sanctuary. As we were driving back to the boat there was another thunderstorm warning put out on the radio. Soon the sky was black and then lightening and then it poured buckets, I pulled the car over until the rain slowed down. Later we heard on the radio, 3 people had been killed, at least one was a motorcycle accident. A few miles away they had hail the size of oranges and cars were damaged and had broken windows. The traffic was stop and go most of the way back to the boat. We got in just before dark, glad we don't have to do much driving any more.