Airlie beach Australie: our new home
As it was close to 5 o'clock (shark feeding time) and already too cold when we arrived, we didn't swim anymore. Just a game of UNO under another wonderful sunset far from any land!
25/05/2020 A morning check of our surroundings. It was just the perfect day to be on the outer reefs!
It's been weeks since Lady Musgrave and since we had a nice swim. Corals here are pretty dead, and fishes a bit rare compared to what we've seen before, but it's still very nice. And we haven't seen them this big before!
And then suddenly hiding in the deep with a perfect camouflage: a turtle!
And Nemo is here as well!!!
Back to the boat, the girls quickly went out of the water as some bigger fish got really close and kind off creeped us out 😳! Geoffrey witnessed two big fishies making out! 😁😍
We thought they were doing some maintenance at the reef, but it's actually a whole fixed complex to sleep, dive, play, ... on the reef ...
The protection here is not optimal, so we decide to stay the night behind Line reef a little further East.
We're out of the protected area and fishing is allowed here: we're trying to fish for squid but can't see any fish, nor squid, ... I do get a shot at ... beautiful evening pictures 😍
Ah wait, Louise spotted ONE squid, slowly swimming by the special squid hook Geoffrey bought!
The water is even so still that for once we can actually take a picture of the stars! It's honestly nothing like you can actually see (not such a fancy camera) but I guess you can imagine the rest!
26/05/2020 Where we are anchored everything is dead ... On the dark side of the picture below we could find some wildlife as it's the deep outside edge between three reefs. The current brings new nutrients and life but was too strong to snorkel with the girls ...
27/05/2020 Still a bit of nice weather left, so we're off too Bait reef again for one last swim. We're sooo much in need to regain the water...
Where's the big fish?!
We found Nemo again:
A freedive in a canyon:
View from above:
Back to our "pets" close to LouiseAnna !
And then it's time to leave and go hide around one of the islands. A new storm system is passing through ...
First a delicate sail through the reef, yesterday we almost hit a "bommie" that wasn't on the charts ! Until now Garmin has been very very accurate, but you need to remain vigilent!
We're off to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island.
Hey they followed us!
28/05/2020 The water is again not clear enough, so no swimming anymore. But the beach is waiting to be explored. Besides dead coral, we find beautiful shells and tiny Rock Wallabies!
29/05/2020 We're sailing back towards Airlie beach. Feels like our homebase. We're getting into a ritual of play, teach, work. Work for now being: trying to regulate our visa extension. Due to Covid-19 we cannot go anywhere else and we try to explain that to the Australian government. It'll take us 2 weeks to finally have to buy a visa extension for 1450AUD (which only got approved 6,5 months later!!!).
So if we still want to believe we are actually on a big "holiday", we have to go out on minibreaks 😏
1. Skaterbabes in Airlie
2. Beach play with new friends
While enjoying the beach we heard a language so familiar to our ears: Dutch! We met a wonderful couple with 3 children approximately the same age as Louise and Anna. They travel the world by plane and car/RV. They got a bit stuck due to Corona, but relaxing rules made travellers get back out of hiding. Lots of French backpackers and at least one couple our age 😌
Airlie is quite international. We already met a french broker who brought a Dutch broker along to visit LouiseAnna. We met Hélène and Abel , a french girl with her Australian boyfriend that sailed in the Caribbean the year before. We met Griet and Lieven, a Belgian couple, sailing around Australia while working abroad. It feels good to be surrounded by people you can talk too, dream with and ask for advice or help 😌😎
3. Apéro under the sunset, view over LouiseAnna 😍
4. A hike behind Airlie beach: Conway circuit
A beautiful "jungly" walk with many animal-like surprises!
You have to watch out where you walk!!! 😱
5. Relaxing swim in Airlie lagoon (all free!)
With a view over LouiseAnna!
6. Enjoying more beach play and fish and chips!
7. A walk in the rain
13/06/2020 I should stress again that the above "breaks" are actual breaks of "work" hé! So obviously it's time to get more serious. We're going into the Port of Airlie to make a video of LouiseAnna.
Off course you need a good light for a nice video, so we're off on a "break" while waiting for the sun to come out 😂
Geoffrey and Louise are superglue-ing a shell catamaran in-between rainshowers.
And so he receives the greatest gift for fathers day!
18/06/2020 This is it! Time for the video. A bit awkward, but I think we gave an honest insight of the most beautifully maintained Nautitech Open 40 😌
Now it's time to edit (Geoffrey's job 😋) and off course we need some "breaks" from work again 😳
19/06/2020 We took off to explore the wider Airlie region. With Griet, we went to the other end of the Conway circuit.
24/06/2020 Indonesia seems to "fall in the water"... Australia is quite happy to let you you go, but restrictions to enter another country are still too severe so it's impossible to leave. Sailing around South Africa towards the Caribbean is not an option either as we will not make it in time for the good weather to pass the Cape of Good Hope. You're obliged to go in quarantine for two weeks on every stop, even though it takes approximately two weeks to sail between each stop...
So we have to let the information sink in and discuss about it over ...
.. dinner with Christophe and Lynne
... a swim in the lagoon ...
... a dinner with Abel and Hélène, true Australian way with huge steaks and a bubblebath outside 😁
26/06/2020 And then Geoffrey makes a good point:
So we're off on a "minibreak" toward Double Bay, a bit further North. Griet and Lieven are coming back from Bowen and we'll meet in the middle for apéro and dinner. The girls are anxious to start as Lieven caught a big tuna and we need to get going on the sushi's!
Geoffrey's less anxious and just happy to chill in the sunset.
Yep we see a sail!
Just on time!!!
It's final, we have made up our minds. Covid-19 changed our plans, complicated our lives, made us anxious, nervous and sad, so it seems a better idea to feel all these things ... at home 😌
We're going back to Belgium. And will start our jobs again on the 1st of september 2020.
We have exactly 65 days to make this happen...
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