Hello friends,

Our stays away from Harmonica get longer as our years of cruising go by - 8 years away from Victoria BC this August! But 2008 was the year that our son Mark & Heidi were married so we had due cause to be later getting back. As we write, they should be returning home to Victoria from their wedding & honeymoon in Costa Rica.

Harmonica looked dry & dusty in the yard at Bundaberg, but in good condition. A small green frog with large suckers on its toes had taken up residence in the cockpit living in a bucket of rainwater (the type of frog on the Telus advertisements). Harmonica now has a new coat of anti-fouling paint and is back in the water. We hate living on board a boat out of the water (a 12ft ladder is not a pleasant way to enter your house at any time (particularly in the small hours when you need a toilet and can't use the sea-water heads). Back in the water, the sails rigged, there are new seals on the deck hatches, some new toys have been scattered around, like the AIS transponder & display which we look forward to using for alerting us to shipping. A replacement awning of "shade cloth" covers the cockpit, the engine is running, the batteries are charged, she has been cleaned throughout, and as of last night the electronic piano is back in the main cabin.

We are near the mouth of the Burnett River, about 15km from Bundaberg. There are many sea birds and fish around the dock. Usually, we get woken early by a cacophony from the sea gulls standing on the dock waiting for small herring to jump & land beside them as they are chased out of the water by larger predators. Sea gull poops litter the dock beside Harmonica. We don't get up early enough to see the kangaroos. There is a marina bus into town each morning and a city bus to return. We also have the folding bicycle out and have used it to get in and out a couple of times, though the main latch has gone out of adjustment and it has taken to folding itself in the middle of the road! The Port Marina has a BBQ lunch each Friday which is a great way to meet other boaters - mostly cruisers, but yesterday we talked to the captain of the tug that helps the ships in and out of the sugar-cane port.

We have about 6 weeks before meeting Jan's niece in New Caledonia, which is 6 to 10 days sail to the east. However, we want to wait for the Australian High to move north and a low to move up from the Bass Straight to give us westerly winds and that does not happen often. While waiting, there are still several jobs to do, and then there is Fraser Island and the south end of the Great Barrier Reef to explore. Hump back whales come into Hervey Bay each winter to breed, but we may be just too early to see them.

After New Caledonia, we shall explore some of the more remote Islands of the SW Pacific - our passports are in Brisbane getting visas for Papua New Guinea - and it would be nice to visit the Santa Cruz Islands and the north of Vanuatu, which we missed last year. Our plan is to return to Australia towards the end of this year, and lay up either back on the Queensland Coast or in Darwin. If any of you cruisers have suggestions please get in touch.

Please don't forget, you cannot reply to this e-mail. Our address is .

Fond wishes to you all from

Dave, Jan & Harmonica