Tuesday 12^th August 2008  - Only four days since we arrived but they have been jam packed.  The Customs men came onto the boat which is a fantastic service and saves all the rigmarole of trying to locate their offices and the quarantine process which followed promptly afterwards was actually really interesting – nothing like the ‘Gestapo’ attitude we had been lead to expect.  Two highly trained personnel boarded the boat considerately taking off their shoes and began to search through every locker for any banned food products – but it wasn’t a random method – they carefully read each and every label of branded products to see the exact ingredients but more importantly which country of origin they had come from.  For instance we could keep our cheese from Greece but not from Cyprus.  Tinned meat from UK was fine but vacuum packed sealed bacon from New Zealand was confiscated.  Cloves are often carriers of a virulent bug so out they went together with bay and curry leaves – but cardamom pods were fine!  They did find an infestation of weevils in a sealed plastic tub but we were relieved to be pretty bug free.  All fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts (in their shells) dairy produce and eggs (including mayonnaise which contained whole eggs) were all off loaded into huge wheelie bins and at last we were cleared.

My sister and her husband were there on the dock to greet us with a huge Australian sombrero, towel and flag for a bit of fun and it was wonderful to see them:

A great welcome on the Quarantine Dock……..

Since then we have been non stop – and in between all the talking and catching up - taken all the sails down and delivered them to the sail makers (in fact Eric and Marianne have taken theirs and ours to Airlie Beach as they are inundated here and couldn’t guarantee delivery) – put the auto pilot and water pump in for a rebuild – checked out the engine which we hope doesn’t have a blown head gasket – bought a 12 volt buzzer so we can have an alarm on the radar if it picks up a vessel within say 4 mile range – hosed down the boat (bird poo and salt crystals) cleaned all the heads, fridges, cupboards and floors, laundered all our clothes (surprisingly we are allowed to do that on the boat in the marina) attended to the barnet fair, socialised with all the other yachts, shopped in Mackay, stayed a night in Melita and Rob’s hotel, driven through all the sugar cane fields to a beautiful rainforest and gorge, watched a Tiger Moth demonstration and of course thoroughly enjoyed Brian and Margaret’s welcome party last night which then turned out poignantly to be their leaving party as they have decided to stay here – it is after all their home.  But an incredibly good time was had by all and it was very very generous of them to host such an event.  We tasted kangaroo and salty (seawater crocodile) which was novel, enjoyed a five ‘surf and turf’ star buffet and danced most of the night away to a great band (interspersed with Lee from Glendora’s guitar playing and singing)….

Annemarie and Peter rock and rolling (Lousill)

Eric (Marianne)

Hugh (Stargazer)

Wendy (Heidenskip)

Robert (Heidenskip)

Shan (Stargazer) and Barbara (Shaula III)

John (Penelope III) and Alan (Jenny)

Sylvia (Rascal) Pam (Kaimin) Dorothy (Neva) and Jenny (Jenny)

Lorraine (Big Blue)

Lee (Glendora) singing in the ‘break’

Today we are packing up the boat and packing up our things as we are off to Sydney tomorrow for a week……it is freezing cold and howling a gale……so much for the tropics!!