Johnny Depp, Russell Crowe, Capt'n Willi

And what do we all have in common? Besides being incredibly handsome swashbuckling heros who save damsels in distress as a hobby, we are all filmstars.
Yes, Dreamagic now has it's own video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ99CTk-vlw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thank you, thank you. I'll sign autographs later.

Are we nearly there yet?

The anchorage at Fitzroy continues to be very rolly. This is an excellent anchorage in a South Easter but a nightmare in anything with North in it. Our mooring leaves Dreamagic actually in the beach break so she has a tendancy to pound a bit. None the less we have met some great people and hosted a lunch on board Dreamagic for Ed and Meg who braved the trip over in an 18 ft Contessa!

A phone call in the morning rather changed our plans though. The Fitzroy ferry, which was supposed to bring Mick and Nik, our guests for the week has been cancelled due to the weather. As they have flown up from Melbourne, arriving at midnight and staying in a hotel to wait for the now defunkt ferry we can hardly leave them there. Dreamagic made the trip across that the ferry could not on a flat sea in about tow and a half hours. Back to Yorkeys for beaustiful dinner of coconut and lime chicken washed dwon with far too much Vin Blanc.

Merry Christmas, Tasha!

Dreamagic has been through her first cyclone.

At 4.00am TC Tasha came directly over us with winds gusting 60 knts. Fortunately, although we are moored not 25 metres from a coral bommie, we are on a brand new mooring with rope so thick we have had to lash it to our cleats. Dreamagic bounced about a good deal but stayed put.

Actually I didn't realise that it was a cyclone until this morning when we picked up the weather forecasts. The good news is that she appears to have passed and although it is very grey over the mainland, there is a beautiful sunrise coming. Perhaps she has done a bit of housekeeping and swept away the predicted two more days of rain. Let's hope so!

We are now about to start the traditional Dreamagic Christmas celebrations. It's hard to realise that this is my third Christmas on the boat. So far this has been the most exciting start!

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope your day is filled with A'penis as Capt'n Willi would say.

Christmas in the Coral Sea

Fitzroy.

Last night Rona and I had dinner on the boat followed by drinks at the Yorkeys Knob Boat Club. I was up at 4.00am so started tidying up the Dreamagic Blog. I want to use the tracker that plotted our progress on the net when we went to the Louisiades but the coding is proving reluctant. Maybe it just doesn’t want to go on this trip! However it was finally working and you can see the result on the “Where are they now” page of this blog.

We went into Cairns at about 7.00am ,  had breakfast and bought some last, last, last minute supplies. It’s funny how the longer you wait to leave, the more things you can think of to buy. Finally we headed back to the boat, took her to the fuel wharf for a top up, and headed out to sea. Good bye Yorkeys!

The forecast is for rain. 500mm in two days to be exact. My reckoning is that if the radio is suggesting that we watch for flash floods, out at sea is the best place to watch. We motored to Fitzroy in a very flat, rain lashed boat. The nearer we got the more the rain came. Wind joined the circus, gusting to 35 knts but without any swell it wasn’t a problem. We were hoping to get one of the three public moorings at Fitzroy but we found exactly three boats here when we arrived, each on a mooring. Not wanting a repeat of the anchor drag waltz we are so good at, we picked up a brand new mooring that had been laid by the resort. I was for “let’s beg forgiveness rather than ask permission” but Rona called Buddy, the resort manager that we had met briefly some three months prior, reminded him of our association and asked if we were Ok here. “Sure” was his reply. “Great, we’ll leave in 5 days time then” before sweetly thanking him and hanging up. She would make a great salesman. Oh, she already is.

Twas the night before Christmas..

Well the day before that really. It's now the 23rd December and Dreamagic should be en route to Fitzroy Island to spend Christmas there. Unfortunately we have torrential rain so that idea has been postponed until tomorrow.
Today then is being spent doing all those jobs that should have been done before we left. still to quote Capt'n Willi Cinque, "If you leave a job until the last minute, it will only take a minute to do".