passing time
books for sale
  • Merlin's voyage
    Merlin's voyage
    by Emmanuelle A Buecher-Hall

    in English

  • Le voyage de Merlin (French Edition)
    Le voyage de Merlin (French Edition)
    by Emmanuelle A Buecher-Hall

    en français

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Sunday
Apr022017

And then Debbie arrived

Tuesday evening, Debbie, a category 4 cyclone, hit north Queensland, wreaking havoc inland and in the Whitsundays, like Hamilton island. Thousands of people evacuated before Debbie landed but the destructive winds and impressively strong rain destroyed infrastructure, houses and boats.

Debbie then went for a little wet ride south.

Even if it lost much of its wind power the conjunction of the ex-cyclone with a low pressure system that was coming from the South created a real deluge that lasted nearly 1 day but swept the South East of Queensland as well as the North, leaving again thousands of people without a home. Some towns got 900mm of rain in just 48 hours! Schools were closed for two days and people were urged to be very careful.  More than 1 million square kilometres are inundated and the Eastern side of Australia is now busy recovering but most of all cleaning.

On Merlin, we were fine, checking carefully the river level and keeping an eye on the wind gusts.

Today, we have some blue sky again, but the river is dark brown, reminding us too well the power of Mother Nature.

Saturday
Apr012017

Old friends

Since we left South Africa, we’ve had visits from old friends from Strasbourg and Cape Town, proving that the world is not as big as we think but also showing us that friendship can last few decades. David Hibberd is an old sailing friend of the Halls and is now cruising the world with his family. It was nice to have them all on board last Saturday, share some Pacific cruising stories and revive many exotic names. The kids connected really quickly, as cruising kids do.

To experience some inland experience, we took them today for a little walk at Mount Coo-Tha. After the drenching rain we had, the waterfalls were enchanting and noisy, quite a change from the landscape we know.

Monday
Mar272017

New battery pack

Two weeks ago we started having a lot of rain, enough for some mushrooms to grow full size overnight.

Lots of rain and still 30°C were perfect conditions to give us the impression to permanently be in a sauna. However, we needed some rain as January and February were not only hotter than normal but also drier. After three really wet days, the weather cleared. The river, very still, was only reflecting sporadic clouds and offering us great breakfast views.

Greg thought it was the perfect weather to do a little maintenance like replacing our 8 year old batteries. They were still working fine but this is the kind of work you prefer to do before you really need it. To be able to fit these 8 new Mastervolt batteries, that, of course, have a different shape and size than our previous ones, Greg had to measure very carefully the battery locker and think of the best fit. After few long hours of fiddling and trying few options, in a very "yogastic position", he solved his puzzle and is now very proud of his new set up. Everything fits just perfectly. Really worth the effort!

Sunday
Mar192017

Two more medals

Clea and Victor participated today in the Queensland lead climbing competition. They've trained really hard these last two months, going climbing at least 4 times a week. It was a long, hot and humid day at the climbing gym but what an amazing day. Clea surprised everybody by finishing first in her category, showing us her most beautiful smile but also all her great progress since she started a year ago.

Victor is competiting in a very competitive and tough group where few peers went to the worlds. However, he tried his best and did us proud too by finishing 3rd.

Well done salty monkeys!

Saturday
Mar112017

A nouveau sur les airs pour partager nos nouvelles

Apres deux mois sans nouvelles, il est grand temps de vous raconter un peu ce que les Merlins deviennent. Il faut dire que pendant ces deux mois il a fait plus de 30°C avec des pointes a 37°C. Ces temperatures ne sont absolument pas compatibles avec ma physiologie et du coup cela fait deux mois que j’economise mon energie et que je marche un peu au ralenti.

L’autre raison de ce silence est que la rentree scolaire, juste apres mon anniversaire, m’incluait aussi cette annee.

J’ai donc moi aussi repris le chemin de l’ecole (une 4eme ecole pour nous, Greg etant le seul a ne pas en avoir une, mais il navigue regulierement entre les 3 des enfants lorsqu’il fait le taxi). Depuis cette fameuse rentree, mes journees defilent les unes apres les autres sans que j’ai le temps de faire tout ce que je prevois au reveil. Les heures me glissent entre les mains et je m’etonne de travailler pres de 70h par semaine en ayant toujours l’impression qu’il m’en faudrait tout autant pour tout finir. La mise a jour du blog n’etait donc pas la priorite de ces dernieres semaines.

Petit apercu de l’une des cour de mon lycee ou j’enseigne les sciences generales (en ce moment plutot la physique/chimie) et la biologie en particulier.

Le reste de l’equipage suit son bonhomme de chemin. Les enfants ont retrouve leur classe et leur copains. Cette annee est la derniere annee de lycee pour Victor et la derniere annee de primaire pour Clea. Ce sont donc pour eux des annees charnieres importantes.

Clea a ete elue representante de sa "maison" (tradition anglophone qui divise toute ecole en plusieurs maisons/equipes: il y a 4 equipes chez Clea qui regroupe tous les eleves). Comme elle est dans sa derniere annee de primaire elle est egalement un "student leader" et portent fierement ses deux badges depuis la ceremonie tres officielle de remise des badges.

La musique (flute et clarinette resonnent toujours a bord), l’escalade et la voile restent les activites qui ponctuent les apres midis et les week-end.

Ainsi Greg a participle il y a quelques semaines aux championnats d’Australie de XV. Il n’etait pas mecontent du resultat meme si son classement etait bien different de ce qu’il conaissait avant. Il est surtout heureux d’etre sur l’eau presque tous les samedis apres-midis et de s’amuser avec des ecoutes, de sentir le vent qui soufflé et d’etre trempe par les embruns.

Clea a fete ses 11 ans. Elle a celebrer cela a l’ecole, avec les scouts et aussi avec quelques copines a son club d’escalade.

Clea et Victor ont debute la saison des competitions d’escalade avec brio arrivant respectivement 1ere et second. Victor souhaitait rajouter des difficulties et il a ainsi participe avec les adultes aux lieu des juniors. Sa seconde place est doublement mieux appreciee. Le week-end prochain ils participant tous les deux aux championnats du Queensland. Revenez par ici pour decouvrir leur resultats!

 

Felix a decide de quitter le conservatoire et a rejoint le “Queensland Youth Orchestra”, dont le niveau est similaire mais les visions sont un peu differentes. Il avait hier soir un atelier de musique qui regroupait son orchetre et des musiciens d’autres ecoles. Une centaine de jeunes musiciens nous ont ensuite offert un tres beau concert.

On essaie autant que possible de s’arreter de temps en temps, de souffler, d’apprecier nos petites victoires quotidiennes, et de savourer la vie sur la riviere de Brisbane, en compagnie d'un regulier petit visiteur.