NYE 2014; a Cracker Night Out – by Gary

While an estimated final crowd of 1.6 million people began assembling around the shores of Sydney Harbour for the city's famous New Years Eve fireworks display, Mojombo was shipping aboard its own private crowd – all ten of us; assorted friends and relatives from as far afield as Adelaide and Seattle.  We were to spend the night out on the harbour so numbers had to be capped – after all Mojombo has berths for only six!!!.

We were excited!  Press reports indicated Sydney City Council was investing a hefty $6.8 million on the event with over three quarters of a million on fireworks alone; a whopping seven tonnes of pyrotechnics including 11,000 shells and 25,000 shooting comets.  All just to make us feel good??? Nah! Council estimates this would be generating extra spending to the tune of $156 million as the city's hotels, bars, restaurants, taxis and tour boats filled up with locals and visitors.  And we were trying our darnedest to assist the economic boost with on-board catering included a selection of still wines, champagne, beer, prawns, sushi rolls, cheesecake and much more.  What a feast!  But nothing compared to the visual feast that was to come as 12 o’clock rolled around.

We were flying the Stars 'n Stripes to honour our fly-in Seattle guest Marilyn,.

Our official on-board photographer Nigel...

… and the rest of the motley crew including dear sister Julie who'd traveled from Adelaide just for the event!

We chose an anchorage in Berrys Bay with fine views of the Bridge, CBD and Opera House.

Meanwhile those crowds ashore were still growing!

And after a long wait 2015 was finally ushered in with an awesome bang!

A real cracker!

The press boasts:
“Sydney New Year’s Eve is renowned globally as one of the most spectacular events in the world.”
They say more than 1 billion people across the globe watching the show on television.  Well we were duly impressed!

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Christmas 2014 – by Gary

Christmas got off to a bit of a slow start.  Couldn't really get with the program – too many other things happening I guess.  Sure there was the Lego tree in the mall, (with its none too subtle message – i.e. buy me, buy me), wonderful David Jones window displays, and we saw lots of parties in the park.  In an effort to stir our festive season hearts we put up the Mojombo decorations, but it still wasn't happening.  

Flying to Adelaide to visit the extended family for the break we were starting to get a little warmer, but disaster struck – we'd left Zeke and Nina's presents back in Sydney.  Chocolate would have to do as an interim.  The big day arrived in our wonderful borrowed house (thanks Kerri) and with some appropriate carols playing in the background we kicked back and made some serious inroads into the chocky – yep now we are beginning to get in to the swing of things.  Then its off to the big family dinner at sister Lisa's – finally Christmas had arrived!

Yep the lego Christmas tree in Pitt Street Mall was a doozy – weighing in at 3.5 tonnes, built from half a million blocks, taller than a 2 storey house and wider than the family car, its baubles were as big as basket balls.  Just in case the message wasn't clear they had a kiddies play tables set up next to it.

DJs put up some seriously wonderful window displays – good stuff.

Some folks were definitely slipping in to the Yuletide groove.

We went out into the Sydney snow with our trusty axe, felled the tree,
dragged it back to the boat (on ice skates of course) and got it up
before the snow even completely melted off.

In Adelaide, Nina seemed pretty pleased with her Santa pressies.

Hail and hearty – the gang's all there!

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Drama in the City – by Gary

 We were in Sydney's city centre doing our tourist thing the day a lone gunman held coffee shop staff and patrons hostage; a serious situation with a tragic outcome.  Just fresh from hanging out with gentle Pacific islanders for the last year it provided my family an arresting splashdown into modern Australian society.

As the drama started unfolding we were just finishing a guided tour of the Sydney Opera House – and were unceremoniously ejected from the site with no explanation.  The security people were quite unpleasant.  We proceeded up to the Mitchell Library to see a special Lindley Dobbs exhibition - unwittingly walking towards the seige site.  Part way through viewing the exhibition we were again (politely) ejected without explanation.  Undeterred we headed for the Hyde Park Barracks Museum - conceivably placing ourselves in some danger as we passed quite close to the seige site.  After some time in this museum we were once again ejected, but this time we finally received some explanation.

Unsurprisingly, thwarted at every turn in our tourism endeavors, the response of working Sydney-siders, most particularly their press, their security and their law enforcement agencies to this situation became a major focal point of our outing.

From left to right:  Opera House, ejected, no explanation; Michell Library, asked to leave, no explanation; Hyde Park Barracks, asked to leave, explanation given.

We knew something big was happening – people everywhere were glued to their mobiles (yes, even more than usual).

As we passed by the top of Martin Place we saw press people arriving in force, frantically setting up and doing live reports back to base.

At Hyde Park a small army of friendly constabulary were also assembling ...

… with bikes!...

… highway patrol vehicles???!!...

… incident control vehicles and assorted emergency response vehicles.

Tasmania might'n have any jobs, but it's definitely looking better and better!

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Sail Boat Racing – by Gary

While in Sydney we were treated to some pretty impressive yacht racing - which of course particularly captured Zeke's imagination.

Maxis Round the Buoys
This was a precursor to the Sydney Hobart race, and featured the super maxis and pocket maxis that would compete in that race.  

This turned in to a strictly two horse race – a taste of things to come.  Here is Wild Oates thundering down to the finish line...

… closely followed in second place by the USA boat Commanche.

Extreme 40s
Now this was an absolute blast, Formula 1 style racing, but on the water.  These are hi-tech carbon fibre cats capable of speeds up to 35 knots.  Five man elite crews race them in a global series that brings the action up close and personal with spectators, running short in-shore races designed to maximise strategy and excitement.  This year's series traveled to Singapore, Oman, China, Russsia, UK, Turkey, France and held the final four day series in Sydney.

This is yacht racing like no other – bringing the boats right in close to spectators

Five men elite crews (wearing crash helmets) race around the deck furiously grinding, steering, ballast shifting and just plain hanging on.

These boats fly.  Courses are set to provide choices: turn right out of a gate for a longer leg that allows you to re-converge the fleet on starboard tack, turn left for a shorter leg that has you re-converging on port tack – the skipper decides.

The day we attended was blustery with 20 knot bullets.  That leeward hull is looking very close to burying itself...

Rooster tails a-flyin'.

Just look at that spray coming up, these boats are on a knife edge of control.

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Back in Sydney!!! - by Gary

Five years ago this is where the family sailing adventure really began.  Been a lot of water pass under the keel since then; the kids have kept close count – 41 countries.  And still so much to see!

A map of our travels.

Zeke and Nina, arriving in Sydney Harbour aboard Kallisto five years ago.

Zeke and Nina arriving in Sydney Harbour aboard Mojombo yesterday!

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Visiting Friends – by Gary

What's this???

Do you know what the above is? Can you guess?  Set in a low sandstone wall, it's a horse hitching wall out front of an Ipswich church.  Cool huh?  Recently we spent several very pleasant days in Ipswich visiting friends and, amongst other things, discovering that this small city of 160 odd thousand people boasts some really interesting historic architecture.

The real highlight of the town's built heritage are the 'Queenslanders', that unique form of vernacular architecture, responding so beautifully to climate.  Raised high on stumps these houses escape the radiant heat of the ground, capture breezes and, with their low thermal mass, cool off quickly at night.  Wide shady verandahs and high pitched, vented roofs help keep the interior cool.  The verandahs of course also provide wonderful outdoor living opportunities – even during an afternoon tropical downpour.  Utilising the State's formerly abundant timbers, and cheap galvanised iron rooves, they could be built inexpensively.

Mein host Brian took us on a guided tour, explaining some of the 'nuts and bolts' of the style. He showed us how at the simplest end of the 'Queenslander 'spectrum there is your basic workers cottage.  It's a small square house, built on stumps,  with a high pitched roof and modest sun control over the windows.  In its very simplest form front steps lead directly to the front door.  Brian then went on to show us how this simple form can be amplified to find a solution appropriate to all tastes and circumstances.

Here is a workers cottage, but a flash one, it's fitted with a front verandah.  As you can see the verandah has been closed in at some stage to provide extra internal volume.

Painted and restored the workers cottage can be a charming place to live.

If you'd got more money you could ask the builder to add some further complexity, a wrap around verandah, a gable end over the entry, some more decorative elements.

With even more money you could 'bigger' the whole thing, integrating the verandah under a single pitched roof and add more decorative elements.  The bit on the back is most likely a later addition.

Still more money?  Put the house on a bigger block, get the builder to add more detailing to the verandah and roof line over the entry statement.  Perhaps splurge on some bay windows.

Filthy rich?  Get the big block, depart entirely from the basic square, add wings, bays, french doors and lots of detailing.

Verandahs – ultra cool and stylish or down to earth slobby, wonderful either way.

Throw in a bit of landscaping and what more could you possibly want?

Brian's explanation of the Queenslander, for me really captures the essence of its beauty.  The form allows for such a wide range of personal expression depending upon your taste and financial circumstances, yet creates towns and neighbourhoods with extraordinary cohesiveness, so conspicuously absent in contemporary Australian suburbs.  But I guess you have to like painting.

Our architectural guided tour took in some other notable works.  I'm a sucker for a bit of built humour.

But how about this?  Walter Burley Griffin, the American architect, landscape architect cum town planner is well known for giving us Canberra, less well known for his Sydney suburb of Castlecraig and a whole slew of private houses, but perhaps even less well known for his industrial architecture – the hand of the master is so evident in this Ipswich incinerator plant.

On the right, in order after Zeke are our wonderful Ipswich hosts, Majella, Brian, Jean, Tasman and Yogi the dog.  Thanks for a great time guys.

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Hey we're famous! - by Gary

While in Apia, Samoa we were approached by the editor of an online travel magazine aimed at families.
"Could I do a story on you guys?" she asked.

"Us!!!??"   Being perhaps our one and only chance at fame, however tiny and fleeting, of course we lunged at it.  Our interview is now a feature in their November issue.

If you are interested, a link to the November issue is RIGHT HERE.  The home page for Awesome Family Adventures is here.  Above is the promo that I think the magazine put up on its facebook page.

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Bundaberg Floods – by Gary

Some of you may recall my entry on the severe Bundaberg floods of 2010.  These floods inconveniently curtailed my Christmas visit to Adelaide, forcing me to hurriedly return to Kallisto to look after her.  Remarkably, just 2 years later Bundaberg experienced even worse floods when Cyclone Oswald brought torrential rain to southern Queensland, causing the Burnett River to again burst its banks.  

Returning once again to Bundaberg, this time in Mojombo, and cruising the Burnett from mouth to town centre, a distance of some 10km, we were shocked to see the amount of damage so indelibly visited upon the banks by these two events.  Great swathes of vegetation have been laid waste, severe erosion can be seen in places and a considerable amount of property damage is still evident.  What really captured our attention was a set of markers attached to a building, indicating just how much worse the 2013 flood was.

The 2013 flood level was about 1.5 metres higher than in 2010 – when you spread that out across the entire flood plain that's an astonishing amount of additional water!!!!

The 2013 flood was the worst in recorded history, it was 7.34 metres above the high tide level, and as I said, came just three years after the bad floods of 2010.  Global warming strikes again???  I was intrigued, so did a little rummage through the internet on the topic.  And came up with a fascinating find - a graph of peak flood levels since the beginning of records (not that long ago) prepared by our very own Met Bureau (they wouldn't lie would they!?).

Marvelous what you can find on the web!!

As the graph shows, the Burnett floods reasonably regularly, and ok, the 2013 flood was a record – but not by all that much.  Considering how much development now crowds the banks I wouldn't have thought a modest increase was hardly a cause for surprise  But here is the real surprise, a major flood occurred in 1890, followed by another major flood just three years later in 1893!  Hows that for a coincidence.  And get this, the 1893 floods were actually two floods, spaced just two weeks apart!

One thing I still wonder about though is whether the environmental damage to the river was similar in those earlier floods, or whether perhaps the bank ecology is now more fragile.  I suspect it is.

Damage to mangroves is astonishing in places.  Regrowth is occurring, but basically from scratch.

Bank erosion is severe in places.

Some of the cane fields look a might smaller.

So much of the bank vegetation has simply died or been swept away!

Asset damage in the the 2013 floods must have been severe.  For instance the Midtown Marina complex, which prior to the 2010 flood was quite extensive, has not recovered – it has simply ceased to exist.

Going up the river to Bundaberg in Kallisto prior to the 2010 flood we were charmed by the natural beauty of the scenery.  It seems recapturing that experience may take some time!

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