Northwards again - at last

The lightning strike created a harrowing time. Our plan to sail to Noumea, and possibly Vanuatu, with our friends Brian and Meredith, and in company with George's brother Ken in his Atlantic 48 catamaran, had to be cancelled, and our departure was postponed by a fortnight.

A nearly total electrical refit was needed, including a complete new set of Raymarine instruments, new Fischer-Panda diesel genset, and new electronic throttles. The new Spectra Ventura 200T watermaker was damaged and had to be repaired. All assisted by the insurance company, although we had failed to spot the clause about 'depreciated value', which is pretty significant when valuing electronics that is 4 years old. We had to chip in quite a bit.

Special thanks to the guys at Coomera who worked so hard to put Nimrod back together again; Brad Stack, Craig Humphries and Gavin Hogben.

We have ended up with some shiny new kit which is very nice. Lots of instruction manuals to read, and things that go 'beep' to play with and practice on. The new Raymarine c97 chartplotter is pretty cool, linking with our iPads for remote management. Its also great to have active AIS (automatic identification of shipping), so the ships can see us as well as us seeing them. Anyone with an appropriate app (such as Boat Beacon) can follow our movements. Our MMSI is 503 44 77 00.

We set off gently, with lunch at Jumpinpin where we saw some pelicans.

After an ungainly take-off, these two love-birds are leaving the city and heading north for the warmth.

As I write we are having a fast reach along the Sunshine Coast, en route for Double Island Point. We will anchor there for the night (should be peaceful in a westerly) and cross the Wide Bay Bar after lunch tomorrow.