Saturday 10^th December 

So where are we?? Can I remember where we were, where we are??

Moolooloobah!  Town of many OOOOs!

We had a lovely evening with Anne and Alan Bray, yesterday.  We were expecting to invite them to a restaurant near the marina, but when Pete got in touch with Anne, she was adamant that she wanted us to come to dinner.  Nothing too much trouble - she would come and pick us up from the marina, and we could take a taxi back.  Lasagna and apple pie were there for our taking!  (Alan was on his way back from his bowls tournament.) 

Dinner was great fun.  Alan brought out a notebook with all of his Tasmanian students over the years, at Tas uni - my very own darling father has a similar ledger, of his students over the years… There was a very young Pete Headlam, in the 60s, with a blue pencil through his name – destined for Honours!  Pete and Alan happily went through names - Golly gosh!  Did he really?  Whatever happened to HER? etc etc while Anne and I happily created a salad to go with the lasagna and, well, chatted, with much laughter. 

(I had forgotten, by the way, that Bray Boys were at school with Harmsen Boys; Taroona High Happy Days.) 

The Bray news is – Anne and Alan are planning to sell their comfortable little Harvey Bay house, and are moving to Brisbane, to be closer to children and grandchildren, all in their late teens now.  Wynnum is their suburb of choice.  Anne said ,proudly, that her son said, “Mum, you need to be near us, in Wynnum.  Don’t think of buying anywhere further away!  I need to be able to drive to your place quickly, to wipe the drool off your chin!”  Anne and I shrieked with laughter – how nice to be so loved by our offspring!

Alan was very pleased to hear of my fishing exploits, and he very kindly gave me a shining new silver lure, with which to catch – BIG fish.

We slept VERY well, possibly thanks to the home-made Bray limoncello…

So this morning…early rising… I had the alarm set for 5.45 but, oh dear, we woke earlier and we were up and away away with rum by gum at a hideously early hour.

First – through the Sandy Straits, between Fraser Island and the mainland.  Easy-peasy! Pete had timed our move accurately and we went with the tide.  Nowhere near as difficult as last year, with a lot of stress involved in finding each green and red marker along the way.  We emerged at the other end around 10.00 and crossed the bar in fine style.  WEEHEE!  Well dozen Pete, yet again…

My log entries read: headsail up, headsail down, headsail up, headsail down, headsail up, headsail down.  But at last – the sea was with us, the wind was, gloriously, briefly NE instead of southerly.  It was a lovely day, from Urangan to Moolooloobah, but…very very long…

We cruised into the river at Moolooloobah at dusk.  It had been spectacular, the last hour, sailing into the city.  The sun was setting brightly on one side; on the other side were black BLACK clouds.  The high-rise buildings looked like magical fair castles in the fading light.  And then!  Thunderbolts and lightning very very frightening!!  Great forks of lightning were sparking down over the city.  Then HUGE thunderbolts. Wowsers!

We were planning on finding an anchorage in the Moolooloobah river; we really didn’t need a marina, tonight.  Quick in quick out. 

So…we eventually…it did take a long time…cruised into the river, between the retaining walls built up at the entrance.  And…Three?  Four?  No SIX fishing boats were coming out, coming RIGHT AT US.  Some of them had lights, fairy lights, Santa costumes… WTF?  All the way up the esplanade were people sitting expectantly, with folding chairs, picnic tables, gaiety abounding.  What did they want from us? We were tired, shabby, salty, NOT decorated and pretty.  It dawned on us…we were the avant garde of the Moolooloobah River Christmas parade!  Very soon we were in the midst of jaunty, pretty boats, with pretty people wearing Santa and Elf costumes.  I said to Pete, “Surely you have an elf-hat somewhere on board, with bobbles and sparkles?  Put it on RIGHT NOW!”  (He wasn’t listening to me, he was grinding his teeth and trying to wend his way between the festive Christmas boats to find an anchorage.)

In between this and that I had peeled and chopped and prepared dinner: a very delicious, I hoped, pasta dish with prawns, mushrooms, garlic, chili, creamy sauce.  Well…it all got interrupted with NEAR COLLISIONS and UPPINGS of ANCHOR…but in the end we did eat and drink and were merry.  My prawn thingy wasn’t as fabulous as I might have hoped…but we were VERY hungry and we ate our fill. And…guess what is for dinner tomorrow?? Left-overs!

The last of the Christmas boats has just gone past us.  Gangs of girls, in fairy-lit boats, saying, “Well, I’m like...and then he said…and I was like…whatever!”  Very brave, these last Christmas Boat Pageant survivors.  Because not long not after the event began, it started to – well rain is the wrong word. POUR!  TEEM!  DELUGE!!  Not for very long, but surely for long enough to clear the esplanade of happy spectators…

Now all is calm and all is well.  Not sure what time we are leaving in the morning but I suspect…EARLY!  I think we have two more days to get to the Gold Coast, where 2XS will be left for a few weeks while we…do other things!!