Les ceci-cela de la semaine ecoulee

Le plus grand bateau a proplusion solaire, le Turanor PlanetSolar, etait de passage a Brisbane. Engin impressionnant de 31m de long et 23m de large lorsque les ailerons de panneaux solaires sont deployes. Cet etrange catamaran a quitte Monaco en septembre dernier pour un tour du monde et etait ici en escale quelques jours.

Malheureusement il ne nous a pas ete possible de le visiter, mais nous avons pris note de quelques details: surface des panneaux: pres de 540m2, vitesse moyenne aux allentours de 5-6 nds (et seulement 15-20 miles/jour avant d’arriver a Brisbane), 85 tonnes, dont 12 pour la plus grande batterie au lithium du monde. Soit disant bateau vert car pas de pollution lors de ce voyage, mais quelle est la facture en carbone pour construire tous ces panneaux? Nous sommes bien convaincus que le soleil est excellent comme source d’energie, (cf nos 790W a bord qui nous ont servi a faire marcher frigo, congelos et toute l’electronique a bord) mais la proplusion velique a fait ses preuves depuis plusieurs siecles et semble offrir de bien meilleures vitesses aux navires.

Un petit tour en ville au cout plutot affolant mardi (MERCI a tous!). Nous avons nos billets pour venir en France. Depart dans 10 dodos.



Et pour bien finir la semaine, Felix a appris qu’il avait gagne un concours a la bibliotheque de Brisbane qui recompense les lecteurs assidus. Il est alle depense son bon de 25$ dans la foulee et est fier comme Artaban!

Science is fun

Science day at the University of Queensland. The kids discovered Tesla coils, flame tornados, gyroscopes, walking on water and plenty of liquid nitrogen experiments. They had such a fun and wanted to try everything again back home...

An afternoon at the museum

It was time for some change. So, we went to the Gallery of Modern Art, the Art Gallery and the State Library to see some temporary and permanent exhibitions. The kids came back with new painting ideas. Guess what will be doing today?

News

The cyclonic season is officially finished (however, weather patterns don’t really mind official dates!) and the sailing migration started about a month ago. Our sailing friends who spent that time in New Zealand have left or are in the process of leaving, most often to Fiji. The ones who stayed in Australia are cruising North along the East coast, on their way to the Great Barrier Reef. Nevertheless, Merlin is still tightly attached on the pontoon, and it is not without some sadness that we see some boats and even friends stopping at Dockside Marina on their way to some more cruising adventures.

News on the blog has been rather bland recently, for different reasons. It may be time to tell you some more, but not yet all. This blog shows mainly the bright side of our days as everyday still brings a smile. However, it is easy to filter our emotions, our deceptions or our frustrations. We’ve been in Australia for 6 months and these last 6 months could be described as quite hectic, with lots of lows, lots of decisions to take, problems to solve.

Knowing that we had to fill up the kitty again, we decided last year to head off to Australia, mostly because Australian and New Zealander cruisers convinced us that the Australian economy was still booming or wasn’t as badly affected by the world financial crisis. The economic results and unemployment rates were supporting that. We were also advised to put the boat on the market in Queensland because it represents a significant cruising area, close to the Great Barrier Reef and the famous Whitsundays.

So, we signed up with different boat brokers in Australia. Apparently the boat market is unusually bad. So, Merlin’s sale hasn’t been a positive issue, yet. We are still convinced Merlin is a great boat and a potential buyer will think the same soon. So the voyage will hopefully continue for Merlin.

Once in Brisbane, the job hunt started. Many CVs were sent and the hunt wasn’t as promising as we thought. The work permit represents an important issue with its numerous difficulties and hurdles (to say it very briefly).

We have been very patient during these last 6 months, trying to keep the optimism alive and to cheer up whenever our mood was swinging the wrong way, sometimes with the help of some financial pressure or demanding kids. We are confident that each day we take a step closer to completing the transition back to land life. Regrets about our experience are never raised because we don’t have any.

Hard comments and criticisms were heard but incredible support was also shown by relatives and friends. Issues are not solved yet, but we feel strong and positive. We would like to thank those who believe in us, without judging. Being far away, this support is immensely appreciated.

Our personal cyclonic season might finish soon. We keep steering, holding the course which will bring us to calm waters again.

We’ll keep you posted, so keep reading the blog!

Sanctuary Cove Boat Show

On Saturday, Greg took the kids to the local boat show to see what the builders were currently offering and what the new technologies were.

He had fun going from stands to stands and visiting few boats. His comments: the finishes are really not great (eg ugly door hinges), the boats are sold with less and less options, very little storage space is offered. His conclusion: Merlin stays the best!

While Greg was browsing around the kids had fun trying radio controlled boats:

Victor: “It was a great sailing time. I finished second twice. The only problem was that the wind came just at the end”.

Felix: “I loved this boat show. What I preferred was to show my special knot trick to everybody. I also liked the remote controlled sailing boats but I had to stop because they told me I was too young to play with these boats.”

Clea: “ I loved the ball and the rescue buoy they gave me at the boat show and also a pointy cabin in a monohull”