THE BOAT FINALLY GETS OUT ON THE WATER TODAY...

WE woke to a glorious sunrise this morning...  The clouds in the sky putting on a splendid display across the sky.  John and Barb were up early packing as they needed to head home today as they had family coming to stay around lunch time for the weekend...

As it was a good two hours journey home for them, they wanted to be gone as early as possible and it was a little after 8.30am when they took off to head home to the Sunny Coast...

We woke to a beautiful sunrise..

Johnand Barb packing up as they enjoy their breakfast..

Plenty of curlews in the park also...

Once we had seen John and Barb off, it was time to plan our day.  Steve was pretty keen to put the boat into the water and do a little exploring and fishing in the inlet..  This is the first we would have the boat in the water to actually have a fish.  The last two times we had it in were more or else to give Steve a chance to test out the boat's capacity and get a feel for driving it...

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best today, and any other time you would probably avoid taking the boat out as it the winds were up today to everywhere around 25-30knots.  Not ideal weather to be  out.  Not only is it colder, but choppy also means rough and more chances of getting wet.  

We got the boat into the water fine, but the chop, the boat was knocking against the side of the pontoon whilst we waited for Steve to take the car and trailer back to the car park.

Driving the boat off the trailer and into the water

She's in...

We headed off but the swell from the wind, had us traveling across the bay at no more than 6knots.  Even trying to get up on the plane had the water splashing all over us, so in the end we just putting along until we got over near Tin Can Bay and sheltered behind some mangroves to get out of the cold wind... 

It's pretty rough... we must have rocks in our heads to be going out on a day like today.

Pumping some water into the live bait tank..

First use of the live bait tank..

It works.... one happy chappy...

We really didn't expect to catch to much today but  we were pleasantly surprised as we started pulling in whiting.  The first couple we caught were under size but at least we were kept busy reeling in our lines and catching something...

Too small - this one has to go back into the ocean..

Ah this is the life...

This is getting better... some keepers at last...

Can't complain about this one - 27cms long

and she reels in another beauty....

We spent a good hour and a half fishing and ended up with a good feed before we decided to try somehwere a little more sheltered as the swell was picking up and we were getting quite cold.  We headed into a little more sheltered area not far from the Tin Can Bay boat ramp and tried a couple of more casts but weren't even getting many nibbles....

We're on the move..

The tide was still coming in and the poor pelicans were fast loosing their sand bank..

 

As we drove past they all took off....

Finally he gets a nibble and wouldn't you know it, he reels in a bit whiting.  A good 33cms long so I loose my spot as catching the biggest fish of the day...

He's pretty happy with himself..

Bringing the Motor Guide back in...

Time for a quick bite to eat....   How good is living....

Lunch time..

S

Some of our catch...

Each time we go out, Steve encourages me to have a drive.  One day I will feel confident.  I was fun whilst we were in the sheltered waters, but was happy to hand it back to Steve once we got back out into the choppy water again. 

We got back to the boat ramp a little after lunch, both of us drenched, so we were keen to get back to the cabin and get changed.  

Again the boat pounded against the pontoon when Steve was getting the car and trailer, and after today there was no way this boat was going to look like a new boat with markings along it from where it was rubbing against the pontoon.

 

 Once we got home, it was straight into the shower for me... I needed to warm up and also wash my hair.  Steve secured the boat and tidied it and grabbed the fish out so that he could fillet them.  Once this was all done, it was a quick shower for him also and then we  picked up the key from the office for Sarah and Colin's cabin as we knew they wouldn't get him until at least 9pm tonight.  We then took off to do a bit of a grocery shop at Cooloola Cove.

The kids were all coming tonight and we needed food to feed them,  we also wanted to put a few treats in their cabin for them, especially some nibbles for the kids.

By the time, we did that and got back to the cabin, it was almost dinner time..

We were a little excited about the kids coming to join us for the weekend.  Chloe and Mia were staying in the cabin with us and the others were a few cabins down from us...

We had a pretty chilled out evening, together, just patiently waiting for our kids to arrive.

Sarah had kept in touch with us and let us know when they left so we had a good idea of their arrival time, so were on the lookout for their arrival.  We were pretty excited to see them and show them their little cabin for the weekend.  The kids were pretty stoked and excited to see us.  We didn't spend too long with them as the kids needed to go to bed.   We did tell them they could come and visit us when the woke up in the morning..

Another day done and dusted on the Cooloola Coast..