The call of the wild beckons. You might be wondering whether this is coming from the varied animals who visit our home in Sandy Beach, or from the ocean. Well, it’s from both!

The visiting wildlife

Check out this baby Lace Monitor who found Chris’s gardening boots comfortable. He was not at all afraid when we came close. So cute and totally unexpected but we wonder where Mum is!

And the Rainbow Bee-Eaters have dug their burrows just outside our back gate. We watch their acrobatics from our lounge room… so brilliant.

Most evenings a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos flies over our place too. We smile as we hear the gang’s raucous screeching calls and come out to watch them, hoping some will land near us for a quick feed or a drink at the bird’s bath.

Here is what they sound like – unmistakeable :

Sometimes they settle on the nearby banksias or perch on the stump of a pawpaw tree in our garden and we get to observe them at close quarters. They are hard to photograph clearly in the diminishing light but here are a few shots we like.

Today however is the last opportunity to observe the local wildlife for a while, as another call of the wild attracts us: a return to life afloat!

Back on the ocean and Anui

We have got over the hump of the big interstate migration, and are ready to tackle the next step: moving Anui from Wyndham Vale in Victoria where it has spent the past 10 months, to its home port of Yamba. Tomorrow we are flying to Melbourne to spend a couple of months on board. You can expect to receive our weekly cruising posts again! It is exciting and a bit nerve-racking… How will we fare? Will we enjoy it?

We are a wee bit nervous about that! Full disclosure: we haven’t really missed boating with its stresses, demands, compromises and endless need to fix broken gear. Wade has not once worried about our home dragging, if you get our drift… or lack of! The windows don’t leak, the food is plentiful, we are using power and water with impunity, we have an address people can actually send stuff to, and the car is heaps better than the dinghy for reprovisioning!

We are also aware we may be coming up at the wrong time of year, having to punch through more northerlies than we would like. It could be a difficult trip. But as we could not manage it earlier and don’t want to leave it any longer, in our usual fashion we will do what we have to and cope with what is thrown at us.

And at least one of us misses the huge horizons, the escapism, the chance to go to special places few people get to experience. So, yes we are keeping Anui, yes we intend to spend a few months at a time on her, starting with bringing her close to our home.

There is quite a distinction between cruising full time, and doing it part-time. It’s a different mindset, and we hope being on Anui for a couple of months will be satisfying despite the likely maintenance load and weather pressure, for the very reason it is temporary instead of being our entire life. But we will see!

Fingers crossed the weather gods cooperate, Anui does not punish us for leaving her behind for so long, and we get to enjoy our time afloat. Talk to you from somewhere in Bass Strait next week!