Year 2 – 8 April 2025 -Gladstone
If anyone reading this and is free from late June to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present. In addition, there is a space from Cairns to Indonesia mid-July so if you are interested in either or both then please email me.
We woke to a lovely sunny day and had breakfast and did various jobs. I also talked through with David things on the boat as he will take over as Skipper when I leave tomorrow at about 9.00am to go home for a week. We then caught the courtesy bus to the shops in Gladstone. We wondered around first and had a smoothie and got a sense of the place before we did any shopping. The smoothie was called a Mohamed Ali and I said to the waitress does it dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee – she laughed and thought I was mad!!.
We then headed to Woolworths and did a big shop and then to the bottle shop (as you cannot buy booze in the supermarket) and stocked up for David and Paul. We then called the marina and they agreed to come and pick us up. We then brought all the loot into Stormbird and packed it away. We then rested and then I went through the lazarettes with David and we put the fuel from the jerry cans into the main tanks.
The marina electricians came by and were testing the electric plugs etc. Unfortunately, when they came to our wire they pulled on the wire to get out the plug and not on the plug itself so this cut off the electricity. They sort of fixed it but did not do it properly. We therefore had to get a new plug and another electrician gave us two. David managed to rewire it (he used to be an electrician years ago) and we got it working. We then had a cup of tea and joined the Sail2Indonesia Seminar on fuel and faults to give us some information in advance of the trip and what we can do to alleviate problems.
As the seminar was finishing Paul Hardcastle arrived from Sydney and it was good to see him. We introduced him to Stormbird and then went out to the Gladstone Yacht Club for supper. We had a good chat and then came back and we then went through a number of procedures and we will do more in the morning before I leave for London.
The Picture of the day is the 3 of us on Stormbird.
Need/Opportunity Year Two
I am in need of more crew from late June to Mid-July. In addition, there is one space from Cairns to Indonesia from 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