During Dean’s visit in January we did quite a bit of touring around the Brisbane area, including both the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast.  After he departed, I had Knot Yet hauled out of the water for maintenance, including a new coat of bottom paint.  Once the maintenance was completed, she was returned to the water and Myron and I departed on a five-week driving trip.  We headed south along the coast, taking nearly every “Tourist Drive”.  The pace was leisurely and the scenery spectacular.  We toured the major cities, including Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide, as well as lots of coastline, mountains and verdant agricultural land.  Our only breakdown occurred as we were approaching Adelaide:  two blades of the cooling fan came off.  Fortunately, they didn’t damage anything else, and the automobile club towed us to a campground.

In my opinion, the most stunning scenery in the parts of Australia which we visited was along the Great Ocean Road, on the southwest coast of the state of Victoria.  Part of the area is called “The Shipwreck Coast,” as so many ships were lost there in the late 1800’s.  The most spectacular landforms are “The Twelve Apostles,” which are gigantic eroded limestone pillars sitting just offshore; some are nearly 200 feet high.  In the same area are huge natural bridges, arches and very rugged coastline. 

In all, we drove about 8,500 miles in Australia and saw only about one-third of the country.  The areas we did visit, however, contained over 80% of the country’s population.

After a quick trip home in April (to prepare income tax returns) I returned to Scarborough, fitted the new mainsail and departed for Townsville, about 750 nautical miles north.  The trip took from May 11 to June 12; I motored and sailed single-handed during 21 of the 32 days.  No overnight passages were involved, although a couple began in darkness (3:30 or 4:00 AM) in order to reach the next destination in daylight.  The trip involved staying in eight marinas, two river anchorages and 11 island anchorages.  Some of the more interesting navigation included the Great Sandy Straits near Fraser Island, The Narrows between Curtis Island and the mainland and the Gloucester Passage.  I had hoped to spend a bit more time in the Whitsunday Islands, which are beautiful cruising grounds, but they were living up to their nickname of the WETsunday Islands, so I didn’t spend much time there.  I felt sorry for the people who had chartered boats to sail around these lovely islands but instead were sitting disgruntled in marinas.

I returned home in June for my niece’s wedding and a few other events.  The wedding was beautiful, but I didn’t make it to the other events, as I broke my left hip on July 14.  I had been having trouble with it for several months; the surgeon said it would have broken within the next few months.  I’m happy that it happened when it did, as I would have been far from medical care a few months later.  This event altered my cruising plans, as the cyclone season began about the time I was well enough to resume sailing.  I returned to the boat briefly in January 2001 to put it into dry storage, then continued on to Thailand to see several cruising friends before they departed to cross the Indian Ocean. Thailand was beautiful and I look forward to returning there in late 2001

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