AUSTRALIA DAY ...... JAN, 26TH 2013 .........

Talk about throwing a party ..... A cruiser's party at that ...... No written invitations, just 'word-of-mouth' by going around the anchorage in the dinghy ........ Although by far the greatest effort was made by that lovely Aussie couple from Melbourne down-under on their yacht "MISTRAL" who sailed all the way from the BVIs to attend the celebration ...... Now that's doing it right mate! ........ And this photo above was taken early, when only half the people had arrived and the 'shenannigans' were only just beginning .......



There is little Princess "Sophie" already holding court ..... It takes a little 'gin and tonic' to get the older ones to get the show on the road ........ Although Laurie had a wonderful pink rum punch prepared ..... Yummee stuff ....







Now here's that gorgeous Aussie " Jacqui " from Mistral who led her husband Peter into a trance by getting him to bake a bunch of 'Sausage Rolls' ..... This is a national dish that goes well with beer, billy tea and bangers ...... The ones they bought over had little Aussie flags on them .... You know, the toothpick kind .... They all disappeared faster than a sparrow's fart .... The Aussie flags and the sausage rolls .....





And so the evening wore on with kids playing 'Catch me if you can' on dinghies ..... And cruisers playing the same thing with cruising stories ......





You know how you take hundreds of photos and then wonder what you're going to do with them ......



Now isn't that just an awesome map of AUSTRALIA ...... It is one of the best I've seen in years ..... Despite it being just a temporary tattoo, it took me days to slowly remove it .... The tattoo that is .....



Sophie having her pre-party bath in the sink ............ The last of the cruisers left by 1.30am (I think) and by morning all was peaceful and serene like 'yachts on a painted ocean' .... Quite a few yachts anchored near us for the party to no doubt avoid the "drink, drive and drown" ........ Back in Australia, which is seventeen hours ahead of us, most are back at work .... We, on the other hand will just sleep a little more, methinks ......