Year 2 – 4 March 2025 -Brisbane – The calm before Cyclone Alfred
If anyone reading this and is free from now and all or some of April to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present.
It was another warm day when we woke and we decided we would go into town as weather wise not a lot was going to happen today. There was no rain forecast and we did not want to hang around another day. After breakfast we got an Uber to Bulimba and intended to get the ferry. The driver told us that all the ferries had all stopped. I looked up the ferry situation and there were no ferries- they had been taken out of service and taken to a safe location because of Alfred. This seemed bizarre and unnecessary as things are not going to get worse before Wednesday evening and they could have left it another 24 hours.
Trevor and I needed a haircut and so when we stopped at Bulimba we had one. I looked up buses and we could get a bus to the city and a bus was coming in about 10 minutes. We got on the bus and tried to tap in as normal but they do not operate with credit/debit cards so you have to buy a ticket or get one of their cards and top it up. The driver let us on kindly anyway and we went across the Brisbane Harbour bridge and got off. We decided to walk around the Fortitude Valley area which has a number of lanes full of cafes and then to go to St James and walk down to New Farm. We did not really find the lanes but noticed that the area began to be full of interior design shops and these multiplied as we came to St James. This was now an affluent area with designer shops and ladies upmarket dress shops. It also had a lot of good-looking restaurants, art shops and the odd delicatessen. We walked through and enjoyed the area and decided to stop and have lunch at a restaurant which had sort of middle eastern food. The lady who ran it was Turkish and we had a great meal.
We then walked south on St James which led us to the New Farm are and the park adjacent to the river. There was in fact an old Power Station on the river which has now been converted into bars and restaurants. This area used to have a sugar refinery for over 100 years and was also used in WW2 for military ships. The park was pleasant with some fantastic large trees and we walked along the river a route which we had seen a number of times from the ferry which also has a stop there. We had to divert inland a couple of times and in one area before we came to the Howard Smith Wharves there was a walkway over the river which passed in front of many houses. It was a nice walk and it threatened to rain and we felt the odd drop.
We stopped at Felons and had a beer and everything was so quiet – the calm before the storm. The picture of the day is looking toward the city which normally has a number of ferries buzzing about but not today. You can see how quiet it was. We got a lift up the cliffs and decided to get an Uber back. We actually saw a group beginning to climb the bridge, the first since we have been on Brisbane.
We returned to Stormbird having had a good day out. It was a lovely evening and the sun went down under the bridges. You would not believe what is coming from today’s weather. I had checked the latest and things are changing rapidly. It looks like Aldred, as a category 2 Cyclone (Hurricane), will hit the coast somewhere between Brisbane where we are and the Gold Coast a little south. It is unclear at present as it is still 600km off the coast but is beginning to turn west and it could move one way or the other. We will know more by tomorrow night. What we do know is that we will get a lot of rain and strong winds, at least gale force for some time and could have up to 900mm of rain. The main part of the storm could have winds of up to 150km (81kts). Apparently the last category 2/3 storm to hit Brisbane was in 1954 some 70 more years ago which caused severe flooding and damage.
Well, we are prepared and we hope for the best. We will start to get the heavy rain by tomorrow night and we will know a bit more accurately where the storm is likely to hit. We will just have to ride it out.
Need/Opportunity Year Two
I am in need of more crew from late April to Mid-July so if of interest do email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com
In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com