#72 NOW August 27, 2005, 1850 Zone Time UTC +10 hours (East Coast Australia Time) Slip #D6 East Coast Marina, Manly Harbor, Brisbane, Australia Temperature 62.1 Greetings from Australia, We pulled into the customs dock at precisely 1500 August 25, 2005. I fully expected to see the mayor of the city out to greet us with a band playing the national anthem when we arrived. After all, we had just crossed the Pacific. But alas, we were presented with a stack of forms to fill out and the quarantine officer confiscated my whole stash of microwave popcorn. I looked over at the ever-frugal Carol and I could see she was thinking—how long would it take to pop 36 bags of popcorn. Our passage from New Caledonia was a strange mixture of weather. The first two days were rough with 6-8 foot seas. On Monday, there was not a breath of wind to wrinkle the glassy surface. It was more than I could endure and I stopped the boat in mid-ocean with 6000 feet of water below me and dived in for a quick swim. This is something that I have always wanted to do, and finally the opportunity arrived. The next day the wind and seas picked up and by the last day we had sustained 25 knot winds and seas running around 12-15 feet on the beam. This was the roughest weather I had encountered on the entire crossing. By morning, we approached the Northwest channel of Morton Bay where the seas finally subsided to a rough chop. It was good to set foot on Terra Firma. Unbelievably, after about 15 million miles of world travel, this is my first visit to Australia. The small seacoast town of Manly is a colorful little harbour town with all the necessities necessary and some wonderful restaurants. The marina is very large, clean, and will appointed. Dockage is at a very reasonable cost of US $265 per month. I plan to have some minor work done on the boat and will leave it here for a couple of months while touring Australia by car for a couple of weeks and then take a “vacation” back to the US. Of course, Australians speak English. However, there can be misunderstandings, such as when we checked in to the marina for our dock assignment. The lady at the office asked if I would like to check out the “bath.” Where upon I told her, “I had already had a bath and was ready for whatever the day had to offer. She laughed and said, No, “Do you want to check out the berth.” There were some other misunderstanding, but you will have to ask Carol about them—can’t print it here. Obviously, we are having a great time and look forward to enjoying this great country where both of our fathers were born. This will be my last NOW for a couple of weeks. I hope to get out a summary of the trip for you number crunchers, and perhaps a list of things that I have found most useful on the boat. I consider the trip to have been a fantastic success and certainly a testament to the design and comfort of my little ship. Also, special thanks to Jim and Carol for their help, and making my dream possible. Life is a Cruise, Larry and Carol -- Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/ Email: donedream@pacbell.net http://www.noonsite.com/Countries/Australia/Manly http://www.eastcoastmarina.com.au/contact.html