At "Liberty" to cruise

Farewell Salacia! 2024 started with the “new”: new apartment in a new state, new furniture and decorations, new friends and neighbours. We moved in to Salacia Waters at Paradise Point on 3rd January and we have been busy settling in ever since. We are loving our new life, with “Liberty” tied up in the marina and plenty of other boats to watch cruise by, and many stunning sunsets to enjoy from our balcony. A few visitors have enjoyed our hospitality and we look forward to many more in the future! But now, it’s all about cruising to find the sun…. We untied our ropes, stored the fenders and slipped out of our marina berth just after 8am on the 10th of May. We’d spent the previous week stocking up the pantry and fridge and filling the water tanks (we have enough fuel to take us to Mooloolaba, where we’ll take advantage of the cheap prices at the local fuel jetty). We cruised up the Broadwater, past Tipplers and Jumpin Bar, then turned west following the Canaipa Channel up past Russell Isl...

  It’s been an “interesting” time in the last few months, with not everything going to plan but many opportunities coming our way. After leaving Liberty unexpectedly and in a hurry at the start of April  we have spent more time in Melbourne than we intended, done a lot more air miles than we would ever wish to, sold a house, bought an apartment and marina berth, welcomed a new baby granddaughter, farewelled a parent and tried to take everything in our stride… We returned to Hervey Bay and Liberty at the end of August, pleased to see she was ship shape and looking good. The lovely local seafood we had frozen just before our sudden departure was still good, and it was easy to restock the rest of the pantry while we had a car. There was some growth along the waterline and on the prop that was quickly removed with a fast trip through the water and little bit of spit and polish and a broom! We spent a couple of nights out at Moon Point, on the edge of K’gari, enjoying sunny days an...

  Farewell Runaway Bay By early March, Liberty and her crew were ready to go. We’d checked everything was ship shape, we’d farewelled friends, the weather was looking good. We cast off our lines and cruised out of the marina on an overcast Wednesday, bypassing Tipplers and taking the Tiger Mullet channel up to Slipping Sands, anchoring near the sand cliffs for our first night. Next morning we continued up the Canaipa channel, crossing the “hump” (the shallowest spot) at high tide and anchoring next to Canaipa Point for breakfast before continuing into Moreton Bay and over to Coochiemudlo Island. “Coochie” is a new favourite, particularly when the breeze is from the north, as it is quite a protected spot. The locals are always friendly and there’s a lovely walk right around the island that we have enjoyed, with views across to Victoria Point from the south and Peel Island to the north. We’d arranged with Kirsty and Ben that they’d catch the ferry across to join us for a night, and b...

Contemplating moving on! We started February making very "loose" plans for our cruising - subjected to changes with weather and circumstances, of course! At the moment we hope to leave the Gold Coast before mid March, be in the Great Sandy Straits before mid April and arrive at the Keppels before mid May...fingers crossed it all goes to plan! In the meantime we are making a few changes to enhance our cruising experiences and the boat in general. While "Liberty" came with all manner of improvements ( transom that raises and  lowers at the push of a button allowing us to launch and retrieve the dinghy easily, yacht controller to make docking, anchoring and picking up a mooring simple, satellite  for television viewing - and checking the all important weather - from anywhere, cell phone booster  for better offshore phone coverage, water maker  to increase fresh water supplies, etc, etc, etc) there are still extra things we want to do.  The big one was the install...