Rainy New Year

We enjoyed New Year’s Eve with some of our cruiser friends at a picnic table beside the river. There were cruisers from Japan, England, Scotland, Czech Republic and Australia. It was lots of fun. About 10 pm we could no longer ignore the drizzle that had been falling for hours and our numbers dwindled to 8 people so we were able to all fit inside one of the boats and continue the festivities there. We took a dinghy ride over to Pepe and Blanca’s boat Olza where we had a traditional Czech New Year’s drink (which tasted mostly like cloves) and shared stories of past new year’s in our respective countries. It was a wonderful night.
On New Year’s Day, we were invited to Liberty where Aki prepared a traditional Japanese New Year’s Day soup.
It is now January 3rd and we are still in Bundaberg. We are waiting out the weather. A low pressure area has settled off the coast directly east of us creating Gale Force Winds (34 to 47 mile/hour winds) and 3 meter wind driven waves on top of 4 meter swells (21 foot seas). Even the fishing fleets that operate out of Bundaberg have decided to stay in port until it is safer to venture out.
On top of the high winds, it has rained on and off all day for a week. The good news is, we have tackled a bunch of those little indoor projects that we have been ignoring. I have cleaned out many of the cupboards and Steve is editing some of the video he has filmed over the last 16 months. The weather is forecasted to get worse before it gets better which may be another week. Oh well, at least it isn’t a cyclone.