"Do you have hockey balls"?

Looking at fishing lures one day in A-Mart sports on the Queen Street Mall I overheard that question....

I couldn't imagine the opening line to a blog...needless to say this is my first blog. I started this blog site as an attempt to update my family and a few friends of the adventures of Arete on the trip North to the tropics...
Hiroko's grad-school finished a couple weeks ago but we couldn't leave till she had received her "S" rating of suitability from Education Queensland. I picked it up from Dom's office at 9:00am and it was anchors aweigh by 11:00am..."The longer you stay in port the harder it is to leave,"...
We both Love "Bris-Vegas", we made good friends there and "it flat out rocks" !!! Leaving the Garden Point Moorings in a slight rain, light winds, North by Northeast,...catching the end of the outgoing ebbing tide...We motor-sailed down the Brisbane river and across Moreton Bay to Tangalooma, 30 miles arriving about 4:oopm. There were no other boats anchored behind the shipwrecks but a greeting party of 3 or 4 dolphins as we put the anchor down in 23 feet of water.....I had a huge grin on my face! Yes, the voyage was underway!
I gave The Arete a salt water bath washing the decks clean of the grime the CBD of Brizzy had deposited on everything...next was home brewed lager in a frosty mug and the Ukulele came out for some off key cords and "the boys got no rhythm" strumming...The sunset was macker, I toasted King Neptune for the blessed start...A waxing crescent moon set high up with a zillion stars...

Up with the sun and on with the VHF radio listening for the weather forecast, I hadn't slept much and what I did was filled with dreams of sailing and fishing.....
We sailed North along Moreton Island in very light winds at 4 knots, stopping for lunch at the Bulwer Wrecks ( the very Northern tip of Moreton Island) A white sand beach, backed up by thick scrub bush and big gum trees....just a couple hundred meters from where the bay meets up with the South Pacific Ocean. There is a point break catching a wrap around swell and nobody out surfing...After lunch I took the dingy and the grotty mooring lines ashore for a scrub. The afternoon N/E seabreeze came in and the incoming tide the dolphins looking for lunch...
The wind being offshore from this angle cleaned up the face of the waves on the point...only a few Pelicans were surfing the inside sections also looking for food in the white-wash...
Rainbow Clouds as the sun set behind the Glasshouse Mountains...The sunset back lit Moreton Island which had light wispy clouds blown off the ocean witha rainbow in the mist...
Sundowners day two saw the Yamaha classical guitar butcher a few songs by the Eagles,Little feat, and Jack Johnson....at least the lager beer was good!

Thursjay the Mooloolaba Coast Guard read the weather at 6:30am, I was on my 2nd or 3rd cup of mango tea..."light winds, S/E at 10 knots swinging N/E seabreze in the afternoon"..My wind indicator showed west by south west which was just enough for me to weigh anchor and sail for Mooloolaba...wanting to avoid the major shipping lanes I took the Outer Freeman Channel and saw the fury of the Venus Banks up close..."Don't think I'll try that again"...Arete is a great boat and enjoyed surfing a few waves to find the channel..thank god !!
I trolled my beloved Pink Squid hoping for tuna...Later in the day switching to the diving lures with rattles inside them that are supposed to attract fish but no action...
A large school of Dolphins swam by, not nearly as interested in us as we with them, though friendly enough to be neighborly. We arrived on the Sunshine Coast port of Mooloolaba and it's magic....A day for provisioning and a few small repairs/adjustments tomorrow the Wide Bay Bar.