Southport Gold Coast

 Arriving into Southport it was lovely to see Jean and Keith who were there to cheer me in wearing team T shirts (I hear that many of you are getting them for Christmas, lucky you!  You'll be able to wear them when you're watching the race viewer!), they really looked after me and taxied me around and made sure I was well fed, Jean even managed to make parkin for us to keep us happy whilst we were doing the boat jobs, the guys just loved it.  Then James arrived on 19th, it was fantastic to see him as I hadn't seen him since June and so much has happened since then to both of us.  I just hope he has forgiven me for turning up to meet him at the airport in my kilt and sailing boots although he too was wearing his supporters T shirt!

During the stopover in Southport we sailed the beastie up river to a working boat yard where she was taken out of the water and the hull cleaned and antifouled (by us).  Contrary to popular opinion it's not true that we go so slowly that barnacles had started to cling to the keel, but it was pretty filthy and took a couple of days of scrubbing and painting to get her ship shape again.  The boat yard was amazing and it was so effortless to get the boats out, it was all done by remote control.

After she had been painted we all signed the keel and drew pictures including James,Jean and Keith, you'll be glad to know that we even added a go faster stripe so hope that does the trick.  I was hoping that they would be able to ride back down to Southport marina when we took Edinburgh back but unfortunately she wasn't quite finished so Juan kindly allowed us to ride back on Geraldton which they all really enjoyed. There were such amazing houses on the river side, it was just like Beverley Hills. 

Dr's Orders!

As I mentioned before my friend Paul had a hernia operation in Southport and we thought it would be Singapore or Qingdao before we saw him again but the surgeon was amazing and said he would be ok to join us again on Christmas eve. A couple of days after the op he came strolling along the jetty like nothing had happened and was on fine form for the rest of the stopover, he even managed a small ice cream when we went out (see picture).

Congratulations Anna and  Jon

Penny and Mandy arrived two days after James having been to Anna and Jon's wedding which I was so very sad to miss, they had lots of photos though and filled me in with all the details of the day.  Anna looked so beautiful...... even in the T shirt.

I tried to get all my boat jobs done so I would be allowed a couple of days off to do some normal touristy things when we were all here.  We visited an animal park to see the koalas, kangaroos, lizards, snakes etc and then the day after went to Tamborine Moutain which is basically rain forest, there we did a wonderful tree top walk through the upper canopy of the forest.  

We had a fantastic meal out with Paul and Catriona and were introduced to the local delicacy called mud bugs which were much nicer than they sound and a bit like small lobsters....wonder how you catch those, could be a challenge for Baz.

Mud Bugs

The night before I left I had a couple of Christmas presents including a blow up full sized turkey!  Fake snow and a bag of lollies, all very useful sailing equipment, also a bread making book from Jean and Keith and a box of match makers (thanks Alycia you know me too well).  So having had had a lovely break we set sail for Singapore on Christmas Eve, by the time you read this you will probably all be back at work but I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wish you a very happy new year, I will miss you all on New Years Eve....wonder if I can teach the crew Roman Soldiers?

Keep cheering us along,

David

xxxxx