Month: February 2015

February 9, 2015

While winding our way up ten miles of the narrow and shallow Coomera River, Cyndi spotted a ‘roo. I called out in my best falsetto: “a-roooooo, ahhh-rooooooo” and several more sets of ears popped over the ridge. What a strange sight.

Another strange sight is Legacy traveling over land. No matter how many times I see it, It’s just not normal (or very comforting).

I can take no comfort in it, partly because it’s the start of a long period of grueling work (and some beer drinking too!).

We hauled out Monday and hope to be back in the water Friday. Besides the normal bottom paint job, we’re replacing both our rudder shaft and prop shaft seals. Oh joy. -Rich

P.S. Notice the resemblance? We found this guy on the way out of the cafe…

February 5, 2015

A fifteen minute drive from our boat (and 75 stories up)…

A big change from the quiet tropics. A mostly welcome change – but I’m starting to crave the tropical solitude again. -Rich

(Click on any picture to enlarge and scroll through images.)

OK. It can be quiet and peaceful here too. Cyndi took this picture this evening (after the tour helicopters quit flying)…

February 3, 2015

We took a drive to Tamborine Mountain – about 45 minutes from our boat in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia. They call this the hinterlands. It’s beautiful! Every time we go to the hinterlands, it’s beautiful!

Below are pictures taken only with my new Nexus 6 (smartphone). I wrote about smartphone cruising a while back. This camera is another driving reason to take a smart phone along on a voyage – it’s an amazing camera.  (Click to enlarge any photo.)

Just a note on the Nexus 6: I bought it because it had an AMOLED screen and should be bright enough to see Google Earth “charts” in the cockpit. It’s brighter than my Nexus 5 but not as bright as I’d hoped. It’s also all my medium sized hands can handle and I don’t feel like I have a sure grip on it. If your hands are smaller than mine, try it before you buy it. The camera, however, is an amazing improvement over my last phone. The special effects really sell it like the different types of panoramas and the HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode.

Also, I could no longer live without Google Maps and turn-by-turn navigation while exploring a new country…

G.G. takes us everywhere (Google Girl)! -Rich

February 2, 2015 – NFL Super Bowl XLIX as seen from Surfer’s Paradise, Oz

January 29, 2015 – Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia

Rich and I were walking into the thick of the forest, marveling at the beautiful sights, enjoying having it to ourselves. All of a sudden a there was a noise, seemingly from somewhere above us but echoing through the forest. What was that? It happened again. It sounded like an angry cat, or a baby crying, and it sounded creepy. Bad creepy.

It happened again, the sound seemed to come from everywhere above us. Memories of the Blair Witch Project came to mind – I don’t remember the details of that movie, but there was something much like this moment. It wasn’t good.

Luckily Rich had his phone and was able to Google “Australian birds that sound like crying babies.” He found it: the green catbird (or maybe the blue catbird too). Now knowing what it was, we continued on, feeling better. But occasionally the birds would start up again with that creepy crying cat-baby noise and even knowing it was only a bird, it made it hard to fully enjoy the forest during those moments.

We think someone else, maybe from the future was creeped out too: there was a ray-gun sound every once in a while. I’m sure they were shooting at the catbirds 😉 -Rich

Here’s a video so you can hear for yourselves…