G'day from the Land Down Under:

One of the many unique pleasures of ocean passaging is the ever changing and often stunning skies that can only be seen offshore. On watch yesterday (Saturday) morning, at about 0600 hours, I had the pleasure of watching both a full moon set and gorgeous sunrise at the same time.

Ahead of me on the western horizon with a glassy calm sea, a full moon slowly eased below the clouds and into the sea, lighting up a brilliant shimmering path before Moonshadow's bow. At the same time, behind us, the sun was beginning its day by lighting up the eastern horizon with a bright orange-red glow like the embers of a fire. The morning star rose above the sun as the stars faded with the new day.

A couple of hours later, a bit of landform from Moreton Island rose up out of the sea ahead. Australia! Neil was very excited to once again see his homeland. I was happy to know that, after motorsailing nearly half the distance from New Caledonia, in a few hours we could silence the engine.

We passed the first channel marker and made our way into the North East Channel between Moreton Island and mainland Queensland. It was a beautiful Saturday in mid winter, with temps in the high 70's, clear skies and flat seas. Lots of local Aussies were out enjoying the day by sailing, fishing, boating and playing on the huge expanse of Moreton Island's white sand beach.

We zigged and zagged our way through the shallow sandy stretches of Moreton Bay, making our way 25 miles to Scarborough, our port of entry. With the tide nearly at full ebb, the last stretch into the marina had a pretty high "pucker factor" as we had just inches of water under the keel. Moving the last few miles at a very slow and safe pace, we managed to make it to the quarantine dock without touching the bottom, but kicking up a lot of silt as I reversed the prop to halt our forward motion next to the marina.

Engine off-YESSS! Within a few minutes, two polite and efficient Australian Customs and Immigration officials were on board. We filled out a myriad of paperwork and answered a plethora of questions about where we had been, what we had seen along the way and our tracks from the last two passages. Quarantine showed up two hours later, giving us a chance to tidy up the 'Shadow and have a post-passage bevvie. We were able to keep most of our food except fresh veggies, eggs and seeds, were granted pratique and moved to a berth just after sunset.

The crew toasted to a safe and pleasant passage and enjoyed a well-deserved meal out.