2019 May-Nov Australia
During 2019 we settled into life on the Sunshine Coast. New friendships were formed and old ones reignited. It was great fun setting up house and we looked forward to our trips to the furniture stores – Ikea in particular. Keith also had a steep learning curve in swimming pool maintenance – and, as yet, he hadn’t tackled the garden, which was currently low maintenance – tidy, if unexciting. That would be his project for the next year.
Christine has also rediscovered needlework and has been producing some lovely items from fabric purchased way back in Trinidad and carried on board for all those years.
The greatest pleasure has been meeting up with new and old friends – they have been so supportive and welcoming. We also had some surprising encounters, the most unlikely being running into Peter and Margaret ex Swara at the Nambour Gardening Show. They had also swallowed the anchor and were setting up home on the Fraser Coast (a bit further north than we are). Other cruisers keep popping in – recently we had Mark from Heartbeat to stay who was visiting family in Brisbane from New Zealand. We had last seen Mark and Leanne in NZ in 2008.
Gail (we had sailed with Gail on Kullaroo through Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) and Garry, a new addition in her life, have also become firm buddies. They have introduced Keith to golf and can be seen twice a week hitting an innocent golf ball around – in Keith’s case, not very well judging by the number of booby prizes he is amassing! Through golf, Keith also met Lyn and her new partner Bob and they became great friends. We had fun introducing them to Mexican Train Dominoes – a version we had first encountered in 2005 in Trinidad in the Caribbean.
Mid-year we attended to the wedding of Ruth and Kelvin ex Island Sonata who have settled in Eumundi a short drive north of us. They, like us, had decided to marry after a number of years together and it was a lovely low-key affair, as was the housewarming of Juanita, another ex-Sail Indonesia Rally participant, who also settled in the same area.
Back at Currimundi Keith has joined the local bush care group and can regularly be seen weeding the bush bordering Currimundi Lake. Through this we have met a number of neighbourly and like-minded people. And we’ve enjoyed some lovely days out exploring the Sunshine Coast environs.
Gail and Garry also persuaded us to go the annual get together of the Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club (affectionately called “Shaggers”), near Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Islands. This raucous weekend required two fancy dress costumes each, so Christine’s sewing machine worked overtime producing said items for the four of us. Needless to say, we all had good fun – and drank way too much!
On the way back from Airlie Beach we visited Carnarvon Gorge, an oasis in the centre of the scorched land of Queensland. Lovely hikes and excellent camping saw us spend a lovely four days there. In total, we covered 2552 km.
Pippa and Xavier, Christine’s niece and great nephew, and her sister Carol and brother-in-law Trevor came to stay in October and it was great to see them all. It was also a good test of the guest facilities in our new home. We even managed a BBQ with all of us and Murray and Toby, Pippa’s friends who live on the Sunshine Coast as well. One day Keith took Xavier out sailing on a hired hobie cat in the Pumicestone Passage just off Caloundra. Unfortunately, one jibe sent Keith’s glasses into the drink – at the deepest part of the channel, of course! He then had to drive Xavi home barely able to see!
The family are all growing up and in fine fettle. Emily is expanding her repertoire by doing a post graduate course in Animal Physiotherapy. This course includes practical classes in Queensland including the Sunshine Coast. It was lovely to have her stay even if they were brief visits.