The Butterfly
We arrived at Great Keppel two nights ago – the sunset was breath-taking and only marred by the fact that the auto pilot had decided to stop working. Result – Gerhard at the helm and calmly instructing me what to do with various sails.
As Hugo seems to write every day in his journal … It was another great day!
So it’s now Friday 17th (I think) – there’s no wind, the boys are doing school work (with some serious ‘encouragement’ from mum and dad) and then we’ll be off to snorkel, swim and explore the island….What a bore!
We set sail again on the Friday for Rooney Point at the northernmost tip of Fraser Island. A wonderful day for sailing – and again and again we are treated to turtles and dolphins, and the elegant humpback whales sharing the ocean with us.
The boys climbed sand dunes and played in the waves – we were all by ourselves but for the pelicans sitting at the water’s edge and whales gracefully passing by into the bay.
The boys have been brilliant. Happy and enthusiastic – and so reveling in time with their father, and in our time as a family. We have to take it in turns to see who sits next to daddy each mealtime. The loser gets the booby-prize..mum!! Gerhard looks relaxed and tanned …. and I look as if I’ve been let out on day-release from the leprosy colony! 🙂 The aftermath of the sand fly attack has 10 days later all but disappeared.
As we travelled to Lady Musgrave Island (a 4.30AM start and arriving just before sunset) there was no wind, so a tedious day of slowly motoring along – rolling with over the swell and Hugo lethargic with seasickness. Today’s sightings again included acrobatics by dolphins, whales, turtles, birds, marlin and some flying fish – much to Oscar’s delight. He sits out there at the front of the boat with his dad and chats about I’m not sure what – for hours.. 🙂
We left Lady Musgrave before sunrise this morning, heading for Gladstone where we will sit out first a string northerly, followed by strong southerlies, all kicked up by the nasty East Coast Low heading for Sydney.
Having thus far been spectacularly unsuccessful on the fishing front, I had replaced the line and lure (blaming my equipment!). Around 10AM we had a bite, and a fight on our hands. Sitting under the dinghy hanging from the davits, I finally landed the beast, much to the boys’ excitement. Redeemed myself! My ego was further boosted hearing Oscar tell his friend on the phone later “and you know what else is awesome about my dad?”!
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