Blogs from Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Capt’n’s Log A voyage of 728 nautical miles over 16 days. During this leg we travelled from Townsville to Gladstone, though we did nearly twice the standard distance of 440 nautical miles. This was, almost entirely, due to chasing whales, but I am getting ahead of the story. The leg starts in Townsville, with a new spray dodger, a couple of new tarpaulins, a working anchor winch and new crew. As with most of these voyages, one of the crew came via the Internet. That crewmember was Steve d’Yank, who had contacted me about coming sailing just after he had completed a Competent Crew Course in Hobart. It is very unfair to call him a yank as he is from Texas and thereby definitely not a Yankee, so of course I continued to refer to him ... read more

“It is spring which means every time a raven flies overhead, despite having been here for two years I find myself ducking the "magpie swoop". People cite spiders and snakes as Australian's mortal enemies but they really don't understand the prolonged systematic torture of the magpie.” – Facebook quote, Aussie friend living in Seattle. Gladstone, QLD, Australia - September 2013. Spring. A magpie nest was surely close by. The black and white sentry, nestled high in a streetlamp, had recently started surveilling our movements with its red, beady eyes. The magpie family had stealthily set up their residence in our little pocket of Gladstone, Australia and it was quickly becoming clear that what had once been our territory was under question and certainly open for debate. I had never been swooped by a magpie; plovers yes ... read more

First of all, many congratulations to our good friends Alison & Victor who have just welcomed their beautiful baby daughter, Violette Evelyn, into the world!We are thrilled for you and can’t wait to meet her (that’s your cue to bundle Violette up and join us in sunny Queensland, haha)! Our next stop after Agnes Water & Town Of 1770 was Tannum Sands. It’s on the way to Gladstone and practically one of its suburbs. Our Lonely Planet didn’t even give it a mention and we sure hadn’t expected it to be as stunning as it was. Endless pristine beaches made for a beautiful walk before we stopped for lunch at the lovely park on Millennium Esplanade. The origin of the name Tannum Sands is pretty funny. When a group of children returned quite sunburnt from a ... read more

:Packed and ready - 3 days until we are off: Well and truly on the countdown now bags are packed (just!) and we are counting down the days - 2 days left of work and 3 days until we fly out .... We decided to pack early to test how it would all fit into our new Kathmandu backpacks ... lets just say its lucky we packed when we did as it took MUCH longer than expected and was a rather stressful task. We set out all of our clothes and started trying to fit them in - Duane has a 75L backpack and I have a tiny 65L! My bag was full only for me to look over and find half my clothes still sitting on the bed unable to fit in. Lets just say ... read more

Hey und Hallo ihr am anderen Ende des Bildschirms, Jetzt ist schon wieder ein ganz schönes Stückchen Zeit seit dem letzten Eintrag vergangen. Puh Gott sei Dank haben wir ein handgeschriebenes Reisetagebuch was mir jetzt zu Gute kommt. Also macht euch mal auf einen gscheit langen Bericht bereit! 24.02 Okay: Ich hoffe es langweilt euch nicht noch ein bisschen mehr vom Wilsons Prom zu hören, aber es ist einfach eines der schönsten Fleckchen auf dem südlichsten Kontinent der Erde.Wir erreichen den Promontory National Park und schlagen unser Nachtlager auf. Bei einem kühlen Ginger Beer an den Ufern des Tidal Rivers hat uns ein waschechter Wombat einen Besuch abgestattet. Chris hat es sogar geschafft ihn zu streicheln. 25.02 Haben drei Franzosen und ein Mädl aus Bayern als Freunde gewonnen. Ein Special waren die Croissants zum Frühstück, zwar ... read more