Cyclone Wati and The Curse

No, we are not on our sailing trip. For those taking a glance at the weather, the eastern coast of Australia is caught in the middle of a category 3/4 cyclone. No, wait a second, 2 cyclones. Right now, Wati is off the coast pounding us. Just before, Cyclone Larry at category 5, blew through and devastated Townsville and the sugar crops in the area. We had spent a few days in Byron Bay then went up to Airlie Beach to catch our sailing boat. After flying up there they told us it was cancelled, so we were kinda stuck (we had called and they assured us everthing was on track, $700 in travel later we get told they were wrong, ahem....). We did some brainstorming: the coast was just hit by cyclone #1, roads were out, towns were blown away (Townsville was impassable by rail or car). We couldn't go north except by plane, and that was iffy cause the profile of the hurricane had it headed straight for us, and Cairns was being pounded. After sleeping on it, we bought some tix back down to the great town of Byron Bay about 10 hours south.

So, during the night the cyclone has turned SOUTH and headed this way. Brent, who flew from sunny and warm Austin to join us for the next 2 weeks, has pointed out that he has been through 5 hurricanes in the past year or so and we're pretty convinced this is all his fault :) Right now its raining like mad outside, we're in Byron Bay, and its very unlikely the storm will actually get this far south, but it has that look, like it really wants to, from the maos, and the rain pounding the pavement behind my head right now convinces me its just outside. Its actually warm, and we got ourselves a 2 story suite with a deck to watch the storm. Last night a GIANT bat landed on a palm tree by our porch, these things are like 36 inches tall with a 4 foot wing span, its an incredible creature.

We booked another boat for next week. Not the Avatar, which was an awesome racing catamaran, but another with equal promise: a little cushier and a little slower but still a fast moving cat. We'll see how things go.

So we're safe from cyclone Wati for now but our northern travels to the Great Barrier Reef area are kinda on hold. We're debating on some time in Tasmania and some other options.

More later...