Australia - December 2000 Bradley readies the dinghy Shear Madness at Anchor Gladstone to Mooloolabaa After business stops in Tokyo and Singapore, I caught up to Bradley and Shear Madness in Gladstone, Australia, up north of Brisbane. He’d been here since the end of November working on the boat; for various reasons it had been left at the Gladstone marina for five months – too long! He’d done a lot of work to get her ready. We were joined in Gladstone by Bradley’s new friend Ian Kelly and Ian’s sons Brendan (13) and Ewan (11) along with Brendan’s friend Craig (13). Bradley had met Ian through their mutual friends Mike and Sue Powell. Ian was a sailing instructor in the Aussie Navy – a very knowledgeable sailor and a great teacher. The plan was to meander south towards Brisbane, anchoring each night and having some fun along the way. The first night we stopped at a small island called Masthead after a nice day sail. I went ashore with the boys for a run while they explored. The island was small and uninhabited (by people) with many birds nesting. They had a fit when I ran through their territory – just like a scene from The Birds. We also saw some turtles. Had a nice dinner and a quiet night. The next day we sailed to Lady Musgrave Island. Slightly larger than masthead and also full of nesting birds. I ran the perimeter of the island – it only took 20 minutes. Birds were again upset. They used to mine guano on the island. We were anchored in a nice lagoon and had a nice leg of lamb for Christmas dinner. We did some snorkeling and saw lots of fish and some turtles  - including one ENORMOUS one! Then it was on to Lady Elliott, a larger island that has a small resort on it. Caught a nice yellow tail tuna on the way – about 15 pounds. We anchored off Lady Elliott in the ocean. Some great snorkeling right off the boat. The boys caught some small reef fish off the boat. The boat was rockin’ and rollin’ that night. Ian, Bradley, and I were all up at midnight because we couldn’t sleep. The boat was not pointing with the wind OR the current – very strange. We decided to try to leave but the anchor was caught and we couldn’t get it up. So we had to wait for the light. But things settled down and we finally got a few good hours sleep. At first light – 5:30am, we got up to try again. Bradley was going to dive down and try to free the anchor. But he only had snorkel gear -–I had brought his regulator but not the adapter for his tank. The anchor was at about 30 feet and after several tries he was able to free it. From there it was on to Mooloolabaa, an overnight sail. Nice weather. We all took a three hour watch – I was teamed with Brendan. Just after our watch the wind picked up and Bradley and Ian had to reef the main. Made it to Mooloolabaa in time for lunch. Ian, Brendan, Craig, and Ewan set off for home and we awaited the arrival of our friends Ken Ryan and Susan Pieper from Annapolis and Alan Perkins from Colorado who were to sail with us to Sydney.