Yesterday we left Dockside Marina in Brisbane and sailed to our final destination of this season – Scarborough Marina up in the small town of Redcliffe. It took just a few hours – a two hour motor down the river from Brisbane to Moreton Bay and then another 2 .5 hours north to Redcliffe. The Brisbane River was still filled with debris – logs, thick foliage, tires and bottles – from the 3 storms the previous week and we had to proceed very cautiously down the river. I stood on the bow as Mark steered and tried to alert him to any large submerged objects so he could veer around them. Our friend Jim on “Cardea†– who is sailing alone- followed closely behind us. As much as we enjoyed Brisbane, it was nice to leave the brown river behind us and head up into the cleaner water of the bay. Scarborough Marina is quite large – there are about 240 boats here – many of them belonging to Aussies – but a good number belonging to cruisers like us who are either leaving their boat here for the season – or just stopping off for a few months and touring the country. When we were about a mile from the marina we started seeing some blue blobs in the water and thought at first that there was garbage in the water – but it quickly became clear that it was not garbage – but very large, and abundant blue jelly-fish. There were thousands of them. They are actually very beautiful, but a bit creepy. We certainly won’t be doing any swimming here. There are also many sharks here – and not the kind you want to go for a swim with!
There is a terrific seafood market just ¼ mile from us and all the marine facilities that we need to take care of our end of the season boat maintenance. Mark has a huge list of boat maintenance projects we need to get through before we leave.
Happy Thanksgiving and happy birthday to Mark and his twin sister Frannie!
L.