Breaking Ranks

Well the Go East Rally fleet is a difficult organism for the organiser to wrangle and 1 week on from the notional departure date of 11th May and the landscape has changed. The two catamarans that had their own agendas to run left together on Sunday afternoon (13th). They were among the larger and faster of the fleet and saw an opportunity to make the crossing ahead of predicted strong headwinds and swell. All eyes have been on their progress and with more than a bit of envy because they are almost there!

Meanwhile, back at the Gold Coast other fleet participants are filling in time in a variety of ways. Some have arranged get-togethers in various anchorages, some have seized on the chance to attend a blues festival to be held on the Broadwater. Some of us are using the time to be yet better prepared for extended cruising. We for instance, have just had some canvass work done. Our friends on SV Tauranga are also completing some 'fixes' - better here they say, than in an exotic location.  A trip to Whitworths also enabled us to stock up on more boat cleaning stuff - a highlight for The Bloke. I was happy to top up the 'spare parts' tub with an additional joker valve just in case we had a drama with 'the heads'. Toilet plumbing problems being 'right up there' in the topic-of-conversations ladder for cruisers.

By now, and a week on, the 'waiting' are needing to re-provision. Some are even looking for new crew. Poor Julianna and Hugh on Sans Souci have had their sister and brother-in-law on board for a fortnight already and but they must return to work. What could have been a memorable trip with a sibling now needs reorganising. They aren't the only ones. Let's hope that everyone that needs or wants crew manage to get substitutes. For now, we are in a marina (again) and what seems like the worlds largest Coles supermarket is at the end of the wharf, so re-provisioning will at least be easy.

Current thinking is that something might happen after 25th May. And with the exception of Two Up Together and Aqualibrium, no one else will make the Bonjour les Marins event in Noumea scheduled for 30th!

Tic-toc, tic-toc..... We don't care though. It's a rainy weekend forecast and we are sneaking back to Brisbane on the train to claim some more hugs and cuddles from Lily and Tom and probably their parents too. There is always an UPSIDE!