Five Go Landlubbing in Bundy

Time has passed in the absence of internet coverage so we must flash back to over a week ago...

Manicured, well watered lawns...perfect for grazing cane toads

With our water beginning to run down and more importantly, our coffee, it was time to return to port. We set a course for the Port of Bundaberg - an uninterrupted westerly track across Hervey Bay from our hidey hole on Fraser Island. For a change there was nary a shoal or hazard to be negotiated. The bottom gently dropped away from Fraser and much later on met the dredged channel into the Burnett River. Trolling lines were deployed immediately. The Captain scented possible mutiny when the First and Third Mates insisted on raising sail cloth despite the complete lack of wind. The request was denied and mutineers were put to work sunbaking and playing computer games.

It was a fine day on Hervey Bay with schools of big fish feeding every few miles; an anglers paradise and we made the most of it towing our lures through the big fish and failing to catch any of them. Hilarious. A mighty pelagic beast was hooked not far out of Burnett

Preparing for port entry. The first of 50 fenders are tied to the life lines

Heads and the crew rallied to the stern already carrying plates and lemon wedges in expectation. However, the fish escaped to see another day. Being a vessel of high positive spirits we consoled ourselves on a lucky escape from Hervey Bay ciguatera poisoning.

We refilled our diesel tank and then docked at Bundaberg Port Marina. Apparently, word had

Burnett Heads fishing trawler gloating after a big catch

got out about our erratic marina entry techniques because for the first time in many marinas there was a salty dog on hand to assist us in. The First Mate didn't notice this as she executed our standard port tie up dock maneuvre by vaulting over the life rails as Arjuna careered in to the dock at a rakish angle. The First Mate already had the vessel lashed to the mooring cleats before the well meaning salty dog could do anything. He stood back nodding his approval and suggested that we looked like "full timers". Actually, he told the First Mate this. The First Mate came away beaming at this presumed complement. The Captain was quietly disappointed that there were no positive comments about his increasingly raggard and authentic looking sea captain beard and made a note to be more wary of salty dogs paying out complements to the staff.

The Port Marina is a long way out of town; at least 20 kilometres out of Bundaberg. This gives easy access to heavy ships taking on sugar but difficulties in seeing the sites and

Arjuna, resting peacefully near the ablution block

shopping. Bundaberg is one of the ports of entry into Australia - it keeps the scourge of Slocum's Misnomer, pink eye and spiders hitching rides in hands of bananas from spreading off quarantined foreign superyachts into the general populace.

The Bundaberg Port Marina provided an 'intermediate' reading on the scale we had developed to rate these facilities: walking distance to toilets. It rated lower than the easy saunter at Mooloolaba but way higher than the one kilometre return endurance marathon of the Manly East Coast one. Another evaluation criteria we used was the level of bearding on boats. Most of the boats in the marina looked in good shape below the waterline. However, in Manly, one could determine the time a vessel had spent in its berth by breaking off some seaweed and counting the seasonal growth rings in the trunk.

We ended up hiring a car for the day to see the sights and to make it easier to get around on land. So with the first morning of school behind us, we made a Camry Attack on Burnett Heads and Bundaberg. It had been some time since the Captain and First Mate had piloted a land vessel and initially the journey proved problematic with the car tacking in a zig zag fashion up the highway trying to make headway into the wind with a few near misses as we tried to pass approaching vessels portside to portside.

We saw the original Moreton lighthouse at Burnett Heads where we were inexplicably

Historic lighthouse: "If you can read this you
are 4 km too far aground"

attacked by mosquitoes. We visited the "Big Barrel" in Bundaberg where the Third Mate had heard that ten year olds were able to taste test fifteen types of soft drink. We drove past the rum distillary and the younger crew were excited to see a picture of a polar bear and the older crew were alarmed to see rum drinking land lubbers. We secured the hatches on the vehicle and continued on to the cooperage where we learnt how to make oak barrels. We hit the botanical gardens and saw some ducks and mosquitoes. For unknown reasons, we had dinner at a backpacker wifi hotspot cum asian supermarket cum Korean Barbeque restaurant. At dinner, the Third Mate employed one of his skills of fortitude by consuming the hottest dish on the menu to impress the wait staff - a stunt normally reserved for standoffs with pirates. The most exciting part of four months of travel so far was of course catching the Lego Movie after dinner.

The next morning, with a portion of hire car time still available, the kids all cut school, aided and abetted by their parents and we hit the Hinkler Aviation Museum. For a crew of salty sea loving water lubbers this was actually quite interesting and we learnt of Bert Hinklers' original home made glider flight on his mum's ironing board on Mon Repos beach near Bundy through to his rock star return to Australia. A special mention to the ticket sales staff at the Hinkler Museum - possibly the most helpful staff ever. They even chilled our water bottle while we saw the exhibition. Don't walk, run and see it now.

The crew: high on sugar and cross promotions

With time running out on the hire car, we paid a visit to the tackle shop to pick up more fishing gear on the off chance that poor equipment was to blame for our low fish catch rate. With such a packed time frame - the inevitable happened and coffee was missed from the shopping delivery. A fateful miscalculation - the impact of which will undoubtedly follow.