Arriving in Australia at dawn - Moreton Bay. New Caledonia to Australia was our toughest trip. A new high pressure system coming off Australia gave us strong southerly winds the first couple of days out. This meant big seas on our beam, which made the ride very uncomfortable as the waves slapped the side of the boat and we were falling off their fronts. I was lying down seasick and couldn't keep any food down for the first 2 days and couldn't stand watch. Jim was a good boater and took over, sleeping on and off all day and night and keeping all the watches. Thankfully, after 2 days the high pressure had moved to the east, the wind died down a bit and shifted to the east, and came more over our stern. The ride got a lot more comfortable and I felt better and could do my watches. We pushed pretty hard for the rest of the way, as we couldn't wait to see the first continent since we left Mexico. Two days out of Australia, about 250 miles, we had an Australian customs plane fly over and radio us on the VHF. We were so excited, we must have sounded like we hadn't spoken to another human in months. The official asked for our names and boat info, but he couldn't tell us if the hurricane near the Solomon Islands was coming our way or not. Just doing his job. We kept marveling that the plane was going to the same place we were, but he would be there in hours while we still had 2 days. Our first sight of land was at night, when we could see the glow of the city lights! We started to lose the wind, and we were so eager that we started the engine instead of waiting for the wind like we would normally do. It was a long night of navigating through the shoals and reefs outside Moreton Bay. Once inside the bay, we had to continue following a narrow channel because the bay has shoals all over. By 6 am we were near the entrance to Manly Harbor; the wind picked up and we started sailing again. We called the coast guard at 8 am to check in. The officials were very friendly, told us where to tie up for inspection, and came to meet us there. We were inspected, stamped in and released from quarantine. We had officially arrived.

My cousin Angel and her husband Robin and daughter Gabby, live on the Gold Coast near where we were keeping our boat in Australia. We were lucky to be able to stay with them and spend about a month together. It was a lot of fun having Christmas with them, hanging out, sightseeing, and playing with Gabby.

I will be putting some photos of our stay in Australia on www.flickr.com/photos/svserenity.