Southport

This afternoon we are anchored in Bum's Bay, Southport, Queensland. A very pleasant location for boat bums like us. We had a good passage from Coffs Harbour with mainly light winds. We've cleaned up the boat and are now relaxing. Best of all - it is warm!!!

Zen Again in the Queensland sun!

We sailed from Coffs Harbour in company with Splash and Smart Move, Bavaria 39 and 37 respectively. We met them at Coffs Harbour and had the usual sundowners aboard Splash and then Zen Again for the two nights we were there. The passage started with reasonable westerly winds on Thursday morning, but we ended up motoring for most of the afternoon when the wind died. That gave us an opportunity to run the fridge for the first time since leaving Batemans Bay. In the evening a new breeze came up and we were able to sail. It was a beautiful night with a half moon for the evening and then no moon (and so lots of stars) in the morning. The wind held in until we were within a few miles of Southport, when we had to "put the fridge on" again.

Splash in the sunrise enroute to Southport

Our two days at Coffs Harbour were great. The first was spent recovering from the passage up and doing the laundry. The second was spent walking the ~3km into town to shop, walking to the top of Muttonbird Island (great views) and helping Splash with an electrical upgrade.

Zen Again in Bum's Bay

We have decided to have some additional work done on the boat at our next stop. Previously we were going to have the rig checked, but now we'll also have some work done on the hull around the keel. The boat has always taken about a bucket of water each day when at sea. On the way up we established the leak is around or near the keel bolts, not through a deck fitting as we had thought. We don't want to be at sea in a leaky boat! ;) We will probably continue to Mooloolaba and have the work done there. The alternatives are the Gold Coast and Brisbane, but the people at Mooloolaba seem as able to do the work as the others.