OUR HOUSEBOAT HOLIDAY - IN MEMORY OF DARYL

Nine months ago, our good friend Daryl, starting talking about a group of us doing a houseboat holiday in January.  Steve, Daryl and Charlie have been fishing buddies for many years, and usually all go away fishing together to a shack at Corio Bay at least 2-3 times a year.  Earlier this year Daryl expressed his desire to have a fishing trip with all their wivies included....

He had been wanting to do this for a few years, but last year it all fell together and he organised and booked for us to take this holiday for 5 days from the 14th January 2013.  Anyway in July Daryl was diagnosed with Cancer,  it was a total shock to us all.  He fought it bravely, and never gave up, he talked constantly about our holiday, even letting the other guys know that he would be up to driving the boat even up to the fortnight before he lost his battle with cancer in September. 

His wife Brenda was still keen for us all to still do this holiday.... Daryl's parents joined us in their own houseboat... It was a wonderful week,   tinged with some sadness, but lots of lovely memories of Daryl and how much he would have been in his element if he were on the boat with us....
Thank you Daryl for a wonderful week,  for all the organisation you put into making it happen.  You have blessed us all.  You were greatly missed, but you were remembered fondly everyday as we thought about you and how much you would have enjoyed spending the time with us. 

So last Monday on the 12th of January, this was us.....

Tolleying all our gear onto the houseboat.......

 Thankfully they provided trolleys for us to carry all our gear onto the houseboat... I think between us we had 7-8 trolley loads as we took extra fridges and generator etc.....
 This was to be our home for the next four days....

The Gold Coaster - our Houseboat

 A bit o a look inside our houseboat....
Lots of room and very comfortable...

A closer look at our houseboat

 It wasn't long before Bob boarded our houseboat... He was to direct us out of the Marina and out into the channels for us to take over and head off on our adventure..

Steering us out of the Hope Habour Marina....

It was relaxing just heading out into the water... There is definately something very calming and soothing about being on the water... You can see it here on Steve's face....

It was a pretty joyful mood all around when we pull out and headed out towards North Arm.. where we were hoping to meet Daryl's parents and put down anchor for the night...
Karen C was keen to have a steer and I must say she did really well.....

Setting in....

It was after 4pm before we actually got underway so we really only had an hour travelling time before we needed to put down our anchor.  We finally caught up with Daryl's parents but they were anchored in a pretty narrow channel that caused a few problems for us particularly as it was a very windy night and the tide was running out pretty fast.  It is a good thing we had a couple of fishermen on board and Steve and Charlie were able to get us anchored well in the channel.

The boys working in the tinnies at night getting their crab pots ready to drop in at dawn...

 We started the day with a good breakfast

Pancakes, fruit and yoghurt with a dash or maple syrup

Our first day on board was very relaxing.. The boys fished in the morning,

Out for a fish....

 and we relaxed
a bit of reading...
some of us did puzzles.
I edited the photos from the weekend, but we enjoyed the breeze and the smells of the ocean..
Adam went out for a fish with his grand dad, Daryl's dad Lester

Adam heading out for a fish with Lester

Karen C decided to have a fish off the front of the houseboat and she was the first recorded to hook a fish..... a Moses Perch.  Unfortunately she had to let it go as it wasn't quite big enough, but at least we had a photo to show the boys.....

Karen displaying her fish.

The boys arrived back with fishes

Proud of their catch

We had a light lunch pulled up anchor and headed off to explore....

Whilst the boys steered the houseboat, the rest of us relaxed on the upper deck

We enjoyed the views

Lots of jellyfish floating by, and this friendly duck came to visit for scraps....

We set out to explore North Stradbroke Island.....
We boarded the tinnies and headed off to explore Tipplers Resort....

Boarding and on our way to land.....

Not much of a resort let I might add.
We actually went to buy ice creams but the shop was already closed about 3pm in the afternoon.

A nice view of the Houseboat from shore..

We didn't spend too much time on the island...
Mainly because there wasn't a lot to see...
and secondly we needed to sail back to an anchorage to anchor for the night...
We did stop for a photo shoot though...

Our photo shoot

Time to board our tinnies again and head back to the boat...

Heading back to the houseboat,,,,

We had dinner up on the deck.,
Even though we had a TV on board the houseboat.... it really didn't get turned on,
The boys noticed a heap of bait fish around the boat.  Think they were drawn to the lights of the house boat..
They had both bought these new beaut cast nets at the boat show when they went last year so thought they would have some fun casting from the front of the house boat...

They provided endless entertainment for us all.

Think the highlight of the night for us all though was seeing the little sea horse that Steve caught in his cast net.  Whilst we had seen them when we were in Tassie, we had never actually seen one in the wild before....
Of course we had to photograph it...

The highlight of our night was catching this little fellow....

But we were good and once Adam had seen it we let it go....
Heaps more photos to share but will leave that until tomorrow,,,
I think this Houseboat holiday will have to be done over a few posts...

Last day of holidays today.
I am back to work tomorrow
I can't say that I am ready to go back....
I have enjoyed having the past 10 weeks off...
There are so many things I want to do with my time...
Hopefully it will be a good year at school this year and I will enjoy being back.  Guess it will depend on my time table...
Will no doubt find out tomorrow...