Red Mists, Brisbane Life

Fleck
Fri 25 Sep 2009 02:58
Date Friday 25th September
 
Position 27:28.1S 153:01.7E
 
Seventeen miles up the Brisbane river we are in another world. We are tied up on moorings just off Brisbane's Botanical Gardens, with onshore showers etc. and we are just a stones throw from the CBD: the skyscraper city centre. An impressive location, and with much to see and do. Highlight for me has been the visiting New York Met exhibition at the city art gallery, but there are several other big galleries, and lots of other diversions. There is a free artificial beach along the river, with three different swimming pools crafted into the sandy landscape, very impressive. We have our own pub, where we are tolerated by day, but not at night: our shorts and open toe sandals falling considerably short of the smart casual standard required.
 
Two days ago our sojourn was interrupted by the dust storms, news of which may have even reached the UK? The weather here has been very strange, the warmest spring since records began etc. and the wind lurching about in a rather unpredictable way: disconcertinig for us sailors. The dust arrived on what is termed here a 'southerly change': a common enough event, and I still don't quite understand why ,on this occasion, whe wind paused to scoop up thousands of tons of the central dessert. For a day the landscape was blotted out, and now there is a layer of dust everywhere, but hopefully not too much in this computer! We are off downtown to post the mail, stock up on goodies (for me, almond croissants!!) and Charlie wants to do the washing. Free classical concert in the Park on Saturday, hopefully off on Sunday first light, heading south into the throat of Morton Bay, and then out into the Pacific, when the weather and tides are right, through the 'Goldcoast Seaway' an artificial dredged channel through the sandbanks that litter this coast.
 
Regards to all from Richard, Mark and Charlie.