What will 2020 bring for us?

29th of December 2019
My parents in-law are headed for New Zealand and then back home and my brother in-law arrived from Japan and surprised us with a yoohoo at the back of our boat! That was funny!
We immediately took off to a more holiday-like environment and headed for Moreton island.

Little George was not so keen on the boat moving, but it was better in the captain’s seat 😍

And between mom and dad off course!

Moreton bay is quite easy to sail (except the wind is never really in the right direction 😏) and seems to be quite popular for racing. It’s very nice with the tall skyscrapers in the background.

While the dad’s caught up, the children took over LouiseAnna!

You can already see the enormous sand dunes. Now all we had to do was find a good spot! We were a bit far out as there were hundreds of boats here, but we had a great sunset!

30th of December 2019
Off for a dive on the Tangalooma shipwrecks. We tried to be early and were quite alone in the water, but there was already a lot of movement here! 

See the lifeguard in the back? Well it seems to be necessary when you see what the clowns do around here 😂 Guys it says “unstable structure”!

It’s a small patch of heaven for the fish. Very beautiful divespot, even if maybe new year’s day wasn’t the best time to go here!

The structures are cool and have nice corals on them, and hundreds of fish curiously check you out and nibble your feet!

 Snale getting out of its hole. Cool!

To pass the afternoon, we chose an anchorage in between the dive spot and the popular sand dunes. Still busy, but it would be just too weird to be alone for New Year’s eve 😊

The beach has amazingly soft sand, turquoise water and … jeeps driving along it every 10 minutes…

Safer to stay in the water and enjoy some paddle time. Everybody had a go, and someone (not the kids) even went quite far out on the panda … and had to be retrieved by Bob 😂

31st of December 2019
After the children made us breakfast and even did the dishes, we headed off for an afternoon on the beach again. George needed his power nap before the party 😉

And then it was time to dress up for the party! The background is prettier like this …

… but better without the sun in our eyes 😉

Besides the games we played and these pigs eating their popcorn, we have not one picture of the evening. Too busy enjoying ourselves, the memories of this very nice evening will remain only for us 😋😍

1st of January 2020
This is it, the year 2020. The year we will turn 40 and be married for 10 years. It’s also the year we’re supposed to go back to Belgium 😲 Considering the circumstances of today (30th of April today) I’m sure many would like to go back in time and change their New year’s intentions and wishes … Anyway we can however fill our minds with plenty of nice memories for now 😎

As we feel the need to honour Australian habits, we headed off for Pirates beach where the kids could play and we could have a barbie 😜

It’s quite a move and I don’t know how Australians do it every weekend, but it’s a lot of fun! 

Delicious sausages and in a whim of madness we added some local fries to it, not quite Belgian, but will do 😝

 We have the hat and the coasters to keep the beer fresh …

... and the wine in fruit boxes (not sure we like it!).

2nd of January 2020
We’re back to our small family of four for a few days, while Daphne, Yusuke and George are visiting a friend at the Gold Coast. A perfect day to go to the Southbank in Brisbane. 

  

What a wonderful place to be! Green park, cultural homage and in addition to the usual great BBQ spots, you get to pick your fresh herbs and vegetables!!! 

It’s also a huge waterpark, with learning activities and just plain fun! (All for free 😍).

Maybe the last few weeks were a bit too intense?!

To close off this wonderful day, we’re meeting our sailing buddies Katy and Byron for a drink and pizza at the Felons Brewery.

Nice to see Brisbane with it’s twinkling lights!

4th January 2020
Time to slowly head South as we ultimately would like to get to Sydney! First stop Peel Island.

Again very popular! We have another meeting with our Australian boat friends and every time we say our goodbyes like we will never see each other anymore, but …

Our tent is slightly smaller than what Australians usually install on the beach, but we are Decathlon die-hards !

Making sandcastles is not one of their habits, maybe that’s something typical Belgian? We should try and introduce the paper flower shops on the beach 😀

Louise invented a new game: Hide and seek where you hide something under the sand! Result: everybody’s digging like dogs for a lost ball (everybody but Louise 😏).

After an exhausting day, time to chill with cookies and a good book 😍

6th of January 2020

Besides floating on the water and playing at the beach, we're also quite busy catching Blueswimmer crabs. They are a lot of work, but very tasty!

7th of January 2020

While walking on Peel Island is impossible due to sandflies and mosquitoes, we can get a bit of a work out snorkeling around a shipwreck. The current is quite hard and it's raining, but that makes for a special spooky snorkel experience 😈

8th January 2020

We're going to visit the Little Ship Club on North Stradbrook island. Famous for it's fish and ships and you can take a bus to Point Lookout.

You can reserve a spot for lunch at noon or dinner in the evening and then you're allowed to stay the night. Pretty good deal, especially since the fish and ships are the best we've ever had!

 Waiting for the bus with a view over LouiseAnna 😎

It's a nice long walk along the cliffs of Point Lookout.

You're not allowed to swim, but the lifeguard is there constantly to check on you. I think they like the thrill of getting in and out of this gorge 😏

 And the thrill to jump down these cliffs!

 The view is exquisite ... 

... dolphins come to say hello ...

... as do the kangaroos!

There should be Koala's too, but we're just not seeing them...

... except on billboards 😉

For the night we're off to find a popular fresh water spring and swimspot along Capembah Creek. 

 It's a great calm anchorage.

But it was very hard to find the entrance in between the Mangroves and well ... the swimspot is, special 😋

 We should be able to see Dugongs here, but no such luck 😪

 The water is cold, but "we" feel obligated to try it 😏

9th January 2020

Time to head closer to Brisbane: St-Helena island. It seems to be less popular as many boatfriends living around here do not know it, but it's actually a very nice place to be!

Interesting to see and show the girls how prison was managed. 

And it's wonderful to enjoy the vegetation and the wild life of plentiful bird species and kangaroos! They are everywhere and as abundant as the mini-kangaroos: the grasshoppers 😁

 

We were wondering what this was as we arrived. It's the prison's swimming pool: (no kiddin'!)

Great walk and discovery of St-Helena island and then we have to head off to Manly marina to deposit Daphné and George as their visit comes to an end... And sadly they will be the last visitors of LouiseAnna 😓