Year One
Date: 13/8/2008 16:00
Weather: warm but 25 knots
Location: South Molle Island 20'15 51S, 148'50 38E
Author: Peter

It was our wedding anniversary on Monday so Sunday night saw us trolling for a restaurant (seems allot of the restaurants are closed on a Monday) to celebrate with our unexpected payment from last weeks little dive. We had originally planned to have dinner on South Molle Island but Pete and Paula had informed us of some changes to how meals are charged and served which made us change our mind. The Spanish restaurant we had picked at Airlie suffered from a lack of atmosphere so after a big explore we settled on the nice looking local but overpriced Chinese. Chinese being food we no longer get on the boat it was a nice change believe it or not, and the two dishes we ordered were definitely on the different side although very nice. Kylie loved the excuse to get dressed up (wow) and as is usual for most blokes nothing I had on board was good enough. After dinner we took advantage of the wonderfully mild night to walk back to the duck 4.5km along the fore shore boardwalks. Monday morning Kylie got up and made me breakfast, Yummmmm, before we headed off to South Molle for a walk and cheese and biscuits at the lookout. We were so full that the planned dinner got put on hold and we just relaxed watching another picture post card sunset.

Airlie Beach


At the lookout

South Molle has been a bit of a surprise. The walks have been terrific through a variety of landscapes on the small island.







It has also had the best range of butterflies yet including the most beautiful one I have ever seen. Pity it would not cooperate for a photo as I have never seen anything like it and my poor literary skills cannot describe it well enough. It was however the size of my palm with front wings allot like that of a dragon fly, clear and black and elongated oval in shape with the most fluffy red, white and black tail (back wings) which reminded me of the frilly fluffy backs on some turn of the century dresses. See Pirates of the Caribbean and Kira Knightley.

On the 8th of the 8th 08 we were joined by Pete and Jess to watch the Olympic ceremony, although not all of us made it to 2 in the morning. Not bad I spose. The following day we even got to see pre recorded piece on Nathan Outeridge (and Ben) which shocked us greatly given the coverage sailing normally gets. Good luck guys.

Yesterday afternoon a strange yacht picked up a mooring nearby which looked really familiar. After quite a few strange glances over the next few hours on my part as I tried to figure it out I grabbed the binoculars for a closer look. "Oh my god" I exclaimed to Kylie. As many of you know Jura is not the first yacht we have built. Almost twenty years ago now my father, Mike Rettalick and myself built two Roberts 37 shells side by side. This was one of the shells we built, the one Mike fitted out (the other became Juru Daina). It looks very different in the hands of its third owners who have spent a bit of money having it refitted by a company in Port Sephens who have done a magic job. It is great to see it in such loving hands and it was such a joy for me to see one of them again after such a long time. I even got to fill in John and Bruce on a little of its history. I only hope that Juru Daina is in such loving hands today. I would be over the moon to see her again after the ten years of pleasure she gave me.

Bundy On

A little while ago we also met some other Shire (more important Heathcote) sailors up here exploring on their South Coast (Magnum) 28 Tosca. The same type of boat as the teacher who really got me involved in sailing has, bringing back even more old memories. Believe it or not, but they are also retired (IA) teachers. They have trailered the boat all over Australia.

To finish off we have been asked allot lately how the boat is going. It is performing well above my expectations looking after us superbly and in comfort. We have not had a problem in a long time and any we did have appeared to be teething or inexperience. The new main is awesome!

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