Manatee Chowder

After getting back from our short Bellingham visit we needed to put the boat back together and get ready to head north. We had to do a quick haul at the Boatworks yard to fix a leaky through hull valve. After that and a list of 90 other things to do on the boat we headed down the river to anchor in Bum’s Bay, near Southport. We were greeted by this mom and pup Manatee lazing around. Reminded me of my days in Florida. Southport, AKA the Gold Coast, is a zoo of a region for boats. The waterway speed limit is 40 kts. It’s amazing that any of these slow moving manatees are still alive.

The next step for us was to work out our Indonesian visas. This required a short day flight to Sydney to the Indonesian Consulate. I’ll do a separate blog on the visas to help out any other cruisers who need to jump through the hoops. Tomorrow, with a little luck, we will leave Southport and do a two day sail north to Lady Musgrave Island. We have about 1,200 miles to cover on our way to the top of Australia where we can clear out of the country at Thursday Island. Then we’ll make for eastern Indonesia, probably in early August.

Paul