First Overnighter of the Season

 

We are on day three of our travels. Our leisurely morning is spent fixing things, Glen sweating over a drawer that will not work on the sliders anymore and me trying to get our computer to talk to all of our navigation equipment. We had some work done on the computer - new power supply and video card installed. It was a case of unplug all the wires and then plug them all back in. But I guess when that happens, the software has to be told where to find everything again and since I was not the initial installer, I didn't know that, so now I'm troubleshooting.  As I write this I'm only 1/3 complete, I have some ideas, but can't do anything more until we are done traveling lest I get us so screwed up that we can't find out where we are - not a good thing.

 

Everybody hauls anchor at 10:30 am, we are heading from beside the Kingfisher Resort on Fraser Island to Keppel Island, just south of Yeppoon, 177 nm, 20 to 21 hours at 8 kt. Initially we thought we were going to be having to out run some weather, but now the extended forecast looks really wonderful, so we are looking forward to having some great exploring, maybe diving weather and of course a smooth passage.

 

I'm on the night shift again, with only two of us, we each get some night shift, so I'm not complaining, just letting you know. As we pass by Gladstone, there is a field of freighters on mooring buoys outside of the harbour, about 30 of them. They are lit up like Christmas - which is a very good thing as running into one of these babies would be like hitting a mountain. These great sleeping hulks shinning in the darkness always freak me out a bit because they look sooooo close, even thought the radar tells me they are several miles away. The next thing that catches my eye is a flashing light in front of my line of travel. There is nothing on the radar and it isn't close enough to see more detail by binoculars, hummm? Close scrutiny of the chart reveals a light house further up the coast and the directions correlates with our heading. I'll be watching it though. Guess I'd better get back to work. The stars are really nice and bright tonight.