We dropped Chip and Barb off at Bundaberg, famous for its rum factory. We stayed a few days to get the boat ready and re-provision for a ten day trip to the outer reefs.

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After Chip and Barb departed, we rented our own car for a couple days (Mar 12-17) . Highlights of the week:

We toured the Bundaberg Rum Factory where we learned how rum is made and had some samples.

Baltimore Restaurant at the Bundaberg Port Marina is  a great restaurant run by a guy named Brad. We had a nice dinner there with Judy and Leon. The restaurant is named after a song and Brad has never been to Baltimore. There are wood chairs there with the names of boats that have visited there carved into them. We got Shear Madness engraved on a chair before we left.  Brad and Bradley also played some backgammon (Brad won 4-2) and I also played Bradley at chess - my first time in many years. Despite a valiant effort, I lost.

Leon invited me to play golf with him. We played with some of his friends at the Bargara golf club. Leon has had numerous heart attacks and now has a defibrillator in his chest. He's a good golfer though, and lots of fun. 

We met Carola, Hans, and Andreas who sailed from Germany in a 21-foot boat. We had them over for drinks to hear about their trip. They are both phys ed teachers. They left Germany a year and a half ago and crossed the Atlantic and then the Pacific averaging 4-5 knots! They have no electricity, no refrigeration, no watermaker, and very few electronics. Their son Andreas is five years old. He’s very cute and fluent in English now. 

We bought a compressor so we could fill our dive tanks. It arrived on Friday and it works! Now we won't be limited when we go out diving.

I made my first ANZAC biscuits. They are sort of the Australia equivalent of chocolate chip cookies. Bradley likes them with chocolate chips but Ron prefers raisins (known as Sultanas in Australia) so I make some of each. They came out good!

Bradley needed a chiropractor after having hit his head on the bimini (sun awning) due to a bad wave on the last sail. We found a chiropractor who turned out to be a sailor. He had sailed single handed from South Africa to Australia more than ten years ago.  He came by for drinks on the boat and showed Ron a move he could do on Bradley's back.

We went to the Shalom Market on Sunday. Despite the name, Shalom College is really Catholic and the local farmers market is held there. Stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies in preparation for our next sail.