Waking up to another beautiful day out here on the reef, really rubbed in how good our life choice of buying Nandji has been. Through the challenging times of learning and then those financially crisis times when things break and need replacing, it is all worth it. To watch another beautiful sunrise and sunset over a calm, smooth sea is a very rewarding feeling.
 
It is good to be away from it all and fending for ourselves off the ocean. This time more than ever, as we are pretty heavily dependent on our spearfishing skills to feed us. With the troubles of only having an esky with ice as a fridge this trip, that ice said goodbye a few days ago. But with all this beautiful weather in a row, why wouldn’t we stay out here. We have plenty of water so we just have to catch a feed. Which mind you, I did superbly today. I managed to get a good Spanlged Emperor and it has fed us both all day. I have been chasing these little buggers the whole time whilst out on the reef. Not only are they very tasty, but they provide a difficult challenge in spearing. Even if you use berley, trying to get close to these guys is not easy. So you could say I am stoked on my efforts.
Bonita did make a lentil soup with the remaining veges we have, all the root ones. She struggles to indulge in the delicacy of fish all day every day. Me on the other hand, no worries.
 
It was a welcome surprise when other yachts arrived out the reef today as we haven’t had a good weather report for a few days. As the forecast changes so often, it was good to have a chat with an older American couple that gave us a more recent report. Surprisingly enough, nothing has changed. So we are in store for another cracker of a day tomorrow, with light variable winds all day. Then on Friday, in the morning we are expecting 10 knots South East and increasing in the arvo to 15 knots. Perfect sailing weather. So we should have a good trip back to land to unload the mountains of rubbish that is building.
 
It has been a big day on the water exploring. There are so many reefs to check out. It is hard to get out of the water. You keep saying to yourself, what is around there, or ill just swim over to that bombie, then that one and so on. The visibility was on the improve from yesterday, which only adds to the enjoyment of diving. It is good to see the sharks coming to.
 
This morning a strange thing happened. There must have been a crazy amount of fish charging around us. We were having our morning coffee when Bonita noticed some splashing in the distance. We sat up and looked around, where there were fish splashing everywhere in roughly a 100m diameter around Nandji. It was something different.
 
So I am pretty well toasted after a day in the sun. Another one tomorrow, then its back to some sort of reality.
 
We still have on board, one bottle of beer, one cider, one bottle of wine and rum…
Dry June is going strong. It has been tough the last couple of days, not gonna lie. Swinging around in the hammock, watching the sunset, drinking water... Come on man…
 
Over and out
 
Captain Yosh 

​10th of June
 
Back on the swing mooring in Airlie Beach. After a full day of travel, we have arrived safely back to our mooring close to reality. Even though dry June is still dominating our lives, we couldn’t wait to get to land and do everything naughty. After having no food left yesterday, today was a day where we wanted to eat everything and anything. We had some left over Red Emperor from last night that I couldn’t wait to indulge in for lunch. However, when lunch time came around, all I could find was some glad wrap on the floor… Marley the cheeky bugger seems to like fish as much as me. He didn’t leave me a piece! Therefore, no lunch for the captain. This only mad me more determined to set a good pace to get back to land.

7th of June
 
Waking up this morning and looking outside as the sun hasn’t risen yet was a good feeling. A good and strange feeling. The wind decided it wanted to pick up through the night at some stage and when we woke we were hanging in the opposite direction. That initial dis orientation feeling sinks in and you realise your in the middle of the ocean. Lucky in the distance we can see still see the Whitsunday islands as a spec on the horizon, so you can get your bearings pretty quick. But together with the fact the sun hadn’t poked his nose over the horizon yet, I felt quite strangely lost. I liked it.
 
Bonita has been reading a book about the Great Barrier Reef by James Woodford. Each day over our morning coffee, we sit looking over the reef and listen to Bonitas new found knowledge about coral or a fish speices on the reef. She is a world of knowledge. For example, todays fun fact I learnt that juvenille clown fish can detect the location of the sea anemone they live in, weather it is on a reef or in the middle of the ocean. How many anemones are around them that they could live in and weather their parents had lived in any to prevent inbreeding…
Clown fish hey, who would have thought.
 
The wind slowly dropped out through the day and Gary glass off begun to shine through around lunch. We went for a morning spearfish, trying to get Bonita back on the scoreboard with a fish. The visibility was down from yesterday as the south west wind had stirred the ocean a bit through the night. After a few missed shots, we conceded that it was 2 minute noodles for lunch.
 
After indulging in this scrumptious and nutritious feast of lunch, we delved into the cupboards to see what our remaining food rations involved. Not much. So off we went for another spear, this time putting the pressure on knowing we need some fish eat. Gary had properly settled in now making the surface mirror like and extremely hard to see where ‘la diva’ the tender was going. We found some good bombies in ten metres of water and begun the hunt. There are so many fish around it isn’t the fact that we need to get a fish that is concerning, as I am always looking for the trophy fish. We burleyed the water a few times at a few locations, but really only brought in sharks. So after a few spot changes and no trophies on board it was time to just accept the fact we need to eat and I had to spear a fish. I managed to shoot a couple of coral trout, which are not a shit fish mind you (we just eat a lot of it so wanted something different) and cruised back to Nandji.

​6th of June
 
The south westerly decided to roll in early last night and gave us another night of bobbing around and not much sleep. However, when we woke this morning with hardly a breeze I felt like I had slept like a log. So some where during the evening, the wind disappeared and I snored.
 
In a way it was good to have some sleep, but there was still meant to be wind this morning to get out us out to the reef. Instead the ocean had a bit of a south west wobble to it, but that’s about it. We had the motor on through the narrows and out past the islands hoping the breeze might kick in, but it just never happened. So except for the side wobble causing Nandji to rock abit, it was a long, uneventful, boring 25 nautical miles to where are now in Hook Reef. It was actually very relaxing and easy. A little to easy though. We want to sail!
 
Sailing keeps us on our toes and makes it all more exciting. I guess the idea of that something could go wrong at any second just makes life more interesting. The thoughts of; What if this happens, or how are we going to handle this, makes for a better learning curve and adventure then just turning on autopilot and reading a book. In saying that, we wouldn’t be out here if it was blowing 20 knots. Currently we are both extremely happy that ole mate Gary glass off spent the afternoon hanging with us and the sea remains calm whilst we are anchored in the middle of the ocean. Don’t think I am ready for a night on anchor, 45 nautical miles out to sea, with the winds blowing and a choppy sea bouncing us around. In fact, I am quite content at the moment with a clear glistening stary night, while I lay in bed that feels like a babys cot being gently rocked to sleep. Yep, quite content.
 
But there is always a however when your in the middle of the bloody ocean. It is predicted to be 15 knots south west tonight. But, I cant really see it happening. The major one is the fact that the tide is low and incoming. At high tide the reef is covered which leaves us exposed to the elements and full front of the ocean. But like I said, it is to calm to worry about a thing at the moment.
 
If this is anything that is in store for the next few days then we will be relishing something fierce. We had a quick dive this afternoon after setting anchor, but to no rewards. Plenty of fish, we just couldn’t shoot the pricks. Tomorrow will be a different story as we kind of have to get something to go with the rice and curry paste.
 
Anyways, we made it out the reef and are frothing to get exploring properly tomorrow.
 
Captain Yosh, out

5th of June
 
After a night of strong winds and Nandji rocking and rolling, we treated ourselves to a next level breakfast. By next level, I mean blueberry pancakes smothered in honey. Oh yea! It was a long night last night. Trying to sleep when the boat is swinging on anchor, when you are close to reef all around isn’t the greatest. I knew we had a good hold on the anchor as the bottom was mud, but you can never be too careful. Especially since I am new to all this.
 
After devouring more than we should have, we have just had a cruisy motor sail out of the inlet, turned right and headed north to an anchorage we are starting to favour called Stonehaven. It is beautiful here and I have had a few good spears resulting in some good fish, so I do favour stopping off here. Also it is a close protected anchorage on the way out to the great barrier reef and the last one with moorings. I am favouring moorings a lot as it makes life ten times easier picking up a mooring line than pulling up the anchor chain by hand.
 
Now that’s a story in itself. The *^%$&%#$^#$* (every naughty word under the sun) Windlass anchor winch has been trouble since the start. If you have seen our videos, then you would know that I have had a few issues fixing this prick. I know that it was my fault one of these times when I had a little fire on board as I didn’t use thick enough wire when I fixed it. However, since then, I have soldered a master piece of wiring together to fix this bad boy. But since our batteries are on the way out, we don’t have enough power to run the Windlass and hence, to pull the chain up. The Windlass is the thing that draws the most power out of anything on board. So its around this time that the muscles of the captain come to shine… So mooring balls are the winner.
 
The weather is looking to be pretty reasonable for the next few days, so tomorrow we are gonna use the stronger breezes in the morning to head out to the reef. Tuesday still has the weird west, north west winds all day but we can utilise the moorings at bait reef during that period. Lets hope others don’t have the same idea. But following that, Wednesday and Thursday are forecast to struggle to have a ripple on the water. They should be some amazing days out the reef. But Friday is forecast to blow 20s again so on Thursday arvo we may have to utilise the engine and get back to the islands at least.
 
So this is the last update for a few days again as there isn’t any reception out the reef. We are utilising the reception from old mate luxury land of Hayman island at the moment. However, I will remain to blog everyday and up load once we are back in the realm of civilisation.

Cant wait, exciting times ahead. Yew!
 
Captain Yosh out

​4Th of June
 
Can not believe I was saying it was wet yesterday afternoon! Yea, we were out and about in it then. But last night was something else. All was calm as the sun went down. We had dinner and then a little breeze started. Then it howled. Then it stopped…  It started to bucket down after that! I was running around on deck making sure all hatches were closed properly and put the dodger (awning) sides up, trying to stop the on slaught of water from getting down the entrance. It was wet.
 
I woke this morning to a full Gary glass off. The ocean was as flat and as calm as a lake. The sun was shining without a cloud up there and any signs of what happened the previous 6 hours during the dark had gone. The upside to all the rain was that the waterfall we looked at yesterday, which then was just a rock face without the major attraction of ‘water falling’. However, this morning, we were greeted with an awesome sight! The last waterfall we visited was in the hills south of Adelaide, South Australia a few years back. So that means winter time, jumpers, beanies and bloody cold weather. But here, it was quite the opposite. I haven’t changed out of the same pair of boardies all day! So it was the perfect morning shower that one could ask for.
 
We relished this beauty of nature for a couple of hours and kind of forgot about that spring tides were in full force and the water was dropping. We left the waterfall to head back to Nandji to find ‘la diva’ the tender high and dry on the rocks. Whoops.

3rd June
 
Its always sunny in this part of the world they say. Its dry season now they say… Well I say, who ever says this stuff their wrong. Because this afternoon has been a very wet afternoon.
 
After doing the water run this morning and a quick visit to the supermarket to get me some trusty ole Weet-Bix, we set sail across the Whitsunday passage to Hook island.
 
First I wanna talk about the water run. Because I feel that this is just overlooked a little to easy. The water run involves, cruising to the beach in ‘la diva’ the tender. Filling up two 20 litre jerry cans of cloud juice from the tap at the drinking fountain. Lugging those two, now full 20 litre jerry cans across the beach, back to ‘la diva’. Now this isn’t so bad when the tide is high, but when the tide is low, it turns into a knuckle dragging 70m walk across the sand flats. You then fang back to Nandji, whip those two full jerry cans up onto her deck and follow suite. Tie ‘la diva’ off, get the funnel out and make those two full 20 litre jerry cans empty. Then repeat the process from one to now until full. We now have two new water bladders with a capacity of 250 litres on board. So you have to do this a few times.
 
Anyway, we are now anchored inside a beautiful inlet called Nara inlet on the south side of Hook island. There are two inlets next to each other. This is the first time we have entered here as we have just cruised past previous. Easily done since the channel opening is not very wide. We arrived just before the rain really begun so were hoping to see the waterfall in action at the end of the inlet. So we dropped ‘la diva’ the tender in and went exploring. The rain starts dropping pretty heavy now. Drenched head to toe we thought this waterfall was going to impress…  Well I can say that the landscape was nice I guess…

2nd of June

Day two of the blog and day four of shit weather in paradise… I had to wear a jumper yday. Now thats not what we are here for! Life must be tough if you have to wear clothes.

So we are in full swing of preparations to head out the reef for our longest stint yet. The forecast just keeps getting better and better! So we are getting pretty excited. Trying to do as much work as we can on land before we head out to the world of no reception. We love getting away with no phone and not have to worry about anything, only the weather and to catch food. Well, the first mate gets a bit itchy after a few days with no internet. But as much as i enjoy being away, its kind of a catch twenty two as we work on the internet… So by being away means when we get back its all mounted up in front of us. But hey, you can't pass up a few days of sick weather!!

So a rough guide in the above picture, blue arrows mean winds greater than 15 knots and that line is twenty knots. Don't really wanna be anchored out in the ocean with that business going on. But the following days after are forecasted to still be excellent. So lets hope it remains that way!