Hello from Australia

My first order of business is to apologize for the lack of posts.  With the limited internet access we had Dave was able to upload the (very) short video clips, just to keep you somewhat updated, but I know a blog post is way overdue!!

We arrived in Australia on December 1st, and it has taken us this long to get a decent internet connection!!  I won't bore you with the details, but it has been a long and painful process, and we finally ended up having to buy a hotspot and should now have some decent access for the next couple of months.

Raising the Q Flag and our big Australia courtesy flag!

To try and keep things in somewhat of a chronological order, I will keep this one short and go back and share some of our experiences and pictures of our travels from Tonga onwards.  I know I briefly wrote about Tonga, but was not able to post any pictures, and they are definitely worth sharing!  Our experiences in New Caledonia will probably require a couple of posts as our time there was so wonderful.

For now we are anchored on the Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane, on the east coast of Australia.  Our arrival into the Land Down Under was in Bunderberg, about 200 miles north of here.  We arrived after a brisk 4 day sail from New Caledonia with our friends Bruce and Lyn Savage on "JoliFou" (more about that later!).

Our dolphin escort into Australia!

Bruce on JoliFou shoots past us on approach to Bunderberg and shouts "Welcome to Australia!". It was very cool, and I just wish I had been able to capture it on video!

We've slowly hopped down the coast, doing day sails through the Great Sandy Straits and the waterways from Brisbane to here.

Cool Runnings anchored off Fraser Island - Great Sandy Straits, Australia

Enjoying an ice cream!  Fraser Island, Australia

Yay!  We caught a Yellow Fin Tuna!  En route from Woody Island to Mooloolaba

Our first view of the Gold Coast skyline....a shock to our system to see all these high rise buildings after relative isolation for the last 8 months!

Dave's family (aunt, uncle and cousins) live here and we will be spending Christmas with them.  Benjamin and Gaby have already escaped the boat and gone to stay with Brian and Gaylor (Dave's aunt and uncle), because they were so excited to stay in "a real house"!  Dave and I are securing the boat and taking care of administrative stuff that needs to be done before leaving Cool Runnings for a week or so to enjoy our time with family as well.

Yesterday I pulled out the Christmas decorations...

Santa has to share his stage with a carton of eggs!  

Our elf on the shelf, Alex, must have a good GPS, because he found us all the way here in Australia!!  So far he's been pretty good and not played any silly jokes on the kids.  Gaby is concerned though, that we don't have any marshmallows, as she knows that Alex really loves them!

Thank you as always for all the comments and well wishes we've received along the way, and the support we've received on our endevours!  It is always so good to hear from you, and we read every single comment, even if we can't always respond.  They mean a great deal to us, so thank you all!!

So for now, this is our view from our anchorage in "Bum's Bay".  I promise that more posts are coming soon!

All the best from the Cool Runnings crew!

Dusk in Marine Stadium anchorage, also known as "Bum's Bay"