The weather is still lousy. There is a huge high hanging over the east coast of Australia and it is giving us 25-30 knots of wind every day and showers. We are keeping our head down and hunkering down. Yesterday we put up the storm staysail and with that little hankerchief of a sail we went flying off across a sound to a more secure anchorage about 15 nm away. We are now at Shaw Island, one of the Whitsunday group, 20 degrees 30 min S and 142 degrees 03 min E. There is a Club Med about 4 miles across the bay on a different island. Here we don't have to put out the flopper stopper, the piece of gear that dampens the rolling in the boat, it is calmer, the swell does not seem to come into this spot.

We haven't been off the boat since we left MacKay, 4 days ago, and I am getting a big antsy. I was going to launch the dinghy earlier but it is so windy that getting it on and off the front deck would not be much fun and then as soon as I think of doing it the weather socks in, it starts raining or a huge gust comes up and the thought of managing the dinghy myself on the beach is off putting, Barry says he won't come ashore with me.

We have been spending our time doing boat chores, I polished the stainless steel the other day, today Barry did some sewing on the dodger, the thread is rotting from the UV. I made brownies a couple of days ago and then slowly ate them while I was working on my cross word puzzle book. I am getting close to finishing a cross stitch picture I am doing for Leeland, I am on the outlining part and it always seem to take longer. We changed the position of the receiving box for our wireless wind indicator and we finally have it working. There were way more dials than normal to look at when we sailed over the other day. Barry also seems to have solved the problem with no water coming out of the engine when it starts. He removed the end of the raw water strainer and noticed a crack in the metal end cover. He had a spare, he put it on and we have not had a problem since, he has ordered more spares. He must have been tightening them too much because we have 2 other cracked covers, unless of course there is another problem.

I am sure we have internet coverage because of the Club Med resort across the way. I have been trying to get the winlink to work on our new computer (e-mail through our Ham radio) but have not had much luck. The other day I hooked up the old computer and it worked just fine, I guess there is more than one way to skin a cat. Well I guess that is enough blabbing for one day, all I wanted to say is that we are alive and well.