And the journey continues...

My apologies to all that are still following Pete's journey from Noumea to Raymond Island. I got a little busy...and Pete was posting on Facebook quicker than I could update here but for those that aren't on Facebook here is the latest update:

So the 3 original crew members, Peter Buckley, Les Rausz and Garth Watson, arrived safely just off Australian shores on Sunday, May 24th about 8.30pm. They had to anchor just off Bundaberg as they had to wait for customs to open on Monday morning. Once they cleared customs by about 2pm on Monday, they picked up Garth's son, Chris Watson, and continued the journey south, hugging the coastline where they could.

Garth and Les flew home from Mooloolaba and Chris stayed on board with Pete. The adventure continued with just the two of them but they were pretty much heading staright into a southerly and there were some pretty big storms and swell out there by all accounts!

So, with the advice of our lovely friend Peter Moxham, they found a nice sheltered spot at Soldier's Point in Nelson Bay, just north of Newcastle. That's after they surfed a huge wave to get through the bar - all 53 foot and 27 tonnes of boat in about 2m of water at one point!! Fabulous - I'm so missing out??

Anyway, that was Wednesday night and unbeknownst to me, Chris and Pete decided to leave Gradiva there and bus, train and plane it home! Pete surprised me by turning up at my hotel while I was in Melbourne doing my Cert IV in Training & Assessment. Cheeky buggar!! There was this gorgeous big rainbow on Thursday evening that I was trying to photograph with umbrella and laptop in one hand and bottle of Sauv Blanc in the other (taking it back to my room to help me study!!) and there at the end of the rainbow was my Pete?? I thought it was some kind of magic and I hadn't even had a sip yet??

So Pete got to spend a lovely long weekend back at home with us all and then we got on the 5.20am ferry this morning and I dropped him off at the Bairnsdale train starion and he has trained it to Melbourne and flown up to Newcastle and is back on board Gradiva and sailing her home again! I'm texting him as I type!!

The above photo is the latest info from 7.52pm local time - you can track him again now on vesselfinder.com So two and a half hours ago he was just south of Newcastle but he reckons at 10:26pm he is now south of Lake Macquarie. It's getting windier he said. It's amazing to see all the big container ships, LPG tankers and bulk carriers out thereon vesselfinder. I told him that Pacific Pearl Cruise Ship was way out off his port side too and he said he saw her go past a while before - said she lit up the ocean! She's going at 18.2knots apparently - according to vesselfinder.

So weird that I sit here in my dressing gown with the fire going and Pete is out there in the windy ocean surrounded by big ships and a whole lot of water and darkness. He said he can see Barrenjoey Lighthouse! I Googled it's signal - 4 white flashes separated by 2 s every 20 s...what a team!!

Anyway, best get back to work/study. Carry on safely my Pete - he's hoping to be in Palm Beach by morning for any of our Northern Beaches family and friends who'd like to catch up!!