Upon arrival in Australia at Scarborough Marina we spent a bit of time to reacclimatize to suburban civilization. Customs, immigration and quarantine were all taken care of quite easily on arrival (see New Cal Passage). Our first few weeks were spent some time getting to know new people as well as spending some time with cruisers we have known for a couple of years now that we hadn't seen in a while. Having tried the bus and train system we quickly realized that these were not going to meet our needs while in Australia and so we bought a used car.
We then had a little time to getting acquainted with the area while doing a little touring up in the Glass House Mountains, and getting together with some of Chris's siblings and their families. Also attending to the immediate shopping, needs such as new pillows and clothing to replace our more disreputable worn items. Then it was time to be off to Perth for Matt's 21st birthday party.
Upon return from the big event it was time to get serious about boat projects. We had many on the list, some of planned and some unexpected, the unexpected work bumped some of the plans to a future time. Boat project mania is probably the only way to appropriately describe this effort. Christmas was a very pleasant break from boat projects as we were able to have Christmas with Chris's family, Nanette had cooked a scrumptious dinner! Our next break from boat projects was at the end of February when we took off for Matt's graduation and a tour of the Blue Mountains. A much needed respite!
We decided that it would be a good idea for Becky to get Permanent Residency in Australia. Collecting the needed data, especially the FBI criminal record check (for such a well know and notorious villain) took longer than expected and to her dismay, this meant that when Bob and Sylvia invited us to crew for them to New Zealand she didn't get to go. So she was left rebuilding the dinghy and stripping off old varnish and oiling wood on Bonne Idée while Chris went on a luxury cruise aboard Ocean Free (a large and well appointed yacht) followed by visiting with Ed and Sam who had just moved to Wellington, New Zealand. Chris did request that she fully enclose the cockpit and upgrade all winches to electric operation by the time he got back, but of course he was ignored.
After finishing most of the so many changes to Bonne Idée, we decided our plan of immediate departure for the islands was a little foolish and we went on a shake down cruise to Bundaberg visiting both Moreton Island and Fraser Island on the way. On our arrival in Bundaberg we had a small list of repairs that needed to be completed before we could head off to New Caledonia and Vanuatu.