Well as you know we have been cruising Australia’s east coast for the last 5 days and so far we are having a great time!

WHALE!
If you’ve been following my Facebook Page you’ll know that we have had a whale escort from Sydney to the Queensland border. We’ve witnessed many pairs breaching, fin slapping and cruising along. The girls downloaded the NSW Whales app so we could log the ones that we saw and report their behavior.
Two days ago we also had the pleasure of the company of a pod of playful dolphins. They stayed with us for about 3 minutes and I managed to get this video footage below, I hope you like it! If you listen in really carefully at about the 2 minute mark you will even be able to hear them!
It’s not all good
The girls suffered for the first two days cruising with seasickness and our eldest refused to take any tablets for it. I managed to get our youngest to take them and sadly I think it made her feel much worse. No one lost their lunch at least. We gave her nothing yesterday just some antihistamines and she was nauseous but not too bad. Today she seems fine. I think the best thing to do when you leave the dock is just let them get used to it, make a ‘nest’ and let them sleep. Seems like that would’ve been the best option for us anyway.
What I’d do differently next time
I wish I’d had warmer clothes for one thing. I’ve been dressing like a yeti for night watches in multiple jumpers and jackets, hat, socks, scarves (yes plural) and my Whitworth’s boat shoes. I downloaded some podcasts to keep me sane on long watches and made a change to the schedule, 3 hours on, 3 hours off rather than 4. Four hours was just too long to sit up there. We found we were just too tired.
Things that worked well
I had all our water bottles filled and handy each day, that way no one is getting a glass out for a drink only to leave it lying around needing a wash after a sip. It’s easy to drink out of and spills are kept to a minimum. We bought silicon bottles at Officeworks and they have been great.
The first night for dinner I had purchased a preroasted chicken. The girls were feeling a little queazy so I boiled some rice and sliced up chicken on top. Nice and easy with a little soy sauce on top and chilli for the skipper and I. With the leftovers I made sandwiches for late night snacks on watch.
We put the table down onto shorter legs in the saloon too so the skipper and I can take turns sleeping between watches and still be close enough to hear if there’s a problem. The girls are loving the extra space during the day but the Lego is driving me up the wall (and all over the floor!) At least their happy and busy.
We have been making sure the girls write in their diary when they feel up to it so they are keeping a nice record of their trip! Lily has also been writing down latitude and longitude of where she has seen whales, along with a little info about them.
The girls have finally shown an interest in navigation so we’ve had them sit with us on a watch during the day to learn what all the instruments mean. They’re also much better at technology than we are and Sayuri (9) managed to work out finally how to change the time from day lights savings. She’s also confident changing course and following way points now, must keep a closer eye on her now.
We’ve been at sea now for two nights but just about to pull in to the Gold Coast so I better go!

The Gold Coast!!!
So glad to be cruising back in Queensland!