We have finally departed the marina & have dropped anchor at Bolger Bay NW of Magnetic Island. No chance of any solar power as very overcast today, which makes it a perfect opportunity to polish the stainless.

Pre- departure update, we were going to leave today but have been rain delayed & will finally be at anchor come Saturday! Doing our final jobs, Skippers' serviced the main winches & furler lines washed, they were going green. We'll do a final fresh veg top up & laundry & a few catch up's with friends then we're off.

Let's try this. Woo hoo, it's working. I'm back, had some issues with YIT server. Well, I spoke to soon about the rain stopping, it's been endless & breaking all kinds of records. Floods, shops & roads closed, & a repreave at present from the deluge. Rod has now finished both engines (in closed hatches) & moved onto the generator, this weekends project, changing over to new glowplugs (makes the genny fire up). We're pretty much loaded up with our stores & spares & all sections organised, just delayed on washing covers, nothings drying. We're down to 24 days remaining in the marina & can't wait to be on anchor again. Oh apparently there is an issue on email alerts if anyone is using them, currently not working! Going out to Ardo's for lunch today with Ziggy & Tessa.

Nearly 3 months of non-stop rain has finally come to a end & water has subsided, roads have been re-opened & groceries are getting through. Skipper has serviced the Port side engine doing a cylinder head overhaul, starboard engine to follow. Had a build of barnacles in the inlet & hoses to the A/C pump, (the day it was 40 deg) so extremely hot whilst clearing the hoses etc, but clever skipper got it back up & running. Had a fun afternoon/evening with friends for my birthday yesterday with strawberry & mango daiquiri's, champagne & tiramisu!

Well heavens, it sure has rained on us here....(understatement of the year), crikeys, absolutely pouring & currently no end in sight! One minute hot as, next wet as, oh well, wet season really taking it's toll here this year, massive floods etc, but we're all good & no real ingress into the Bubble, but for stitching in clears not waterproofed! We had a great day in the wet for Australia day bbq (was to be up top) moved onboard. We caught up with some friends from Vic, who get very wet out in crazy weather, great to catch up. Whole trees down, branches strewn & debris floating in the water with crocodiles & we're about to get another weekend full of water. Not much else happening I'm still reading, onto my 19th in a row as skipper has started ordering parts & spares for engine & taking head off & servicing injectors etc. Looks like it will be clear weather for my birthday at least & we'll all be back to moaning about the heat!!!

Our fortnightly update, been super hot here, as to be expected, with about 5 more weeks of the worst left, so not to much outside activities. Skipper has replaced both toilets with new LED blue toilets seats, very cool, & has spent considerable time updating our Open CPN Charts. We have emptied one front locker, preparing for a paint job (too hot) & offloaded our old scuba tank! I've read several JD Robb books, excellent. We have both spent the day making new bridles for Pelagic II, me a 3 strand splice, skipper doing top job on a double braid. We are preparing for Australia day celebrations with a bbq & pavlova up top of the marina. Happy Birthday Mum.

We are now back in Townsville after our nice trip away. I managed to get a lot of gardening done with my new knee coming along & made good use of the Skipper doing several jobs around the house! We have now decided that we are over the heat & desparetely wanting to get back out on the water & in it for a swim, paddle boarding etc away from all things FNQ wanting to eat us! We had a crocodile in the marina 31st Dec, so no going near the edges! Unfortunately we are not covered by insurance until the end of cyclone season so we're stuck here, we will just start getting our stores back up & readying Bubble for her next venture.