Allusive Adventures with John and Di

We have now moved on with a night sail on Monday night up to Brisbane around the outside of Morton Island and across Morton Bay, a distance of about 100nm. We won't fit under the 20.3 metre power lines north of Jacobs Well.
It was a magic night for a sail with a full moon and 10 to 15 knot westerlies making for an easy night passage.
As we crossed Morton Bay the wind picked up to 25 to 30 knots on the nose which gave us a wet bumpy ride for the last 2 hours into the Brisbane river.
The first part of the river is packed with container and coal ships and the river edge is very industrial and uninviting. The outlook improved as we motored upriver to our berth at the Rivergate Marina.
The Brisbane river in full ebb runs at about 3 knots so we didn't attempt to move into the pen until slack water.
A voice called out, is that you John? It was Rolly Walker (ex water taxi operator at Beauty Point) who is now skippering Rivercats and living onboard his Adams 40 at Rivergate. Rolly and Gail are leaving shortly to return to the Tamar.
When we moved into our allocated pen we found we were moored next to Rob and Jenny Elwell!!!!They are living on their current boat and still working at Manly. Needless to say we had a great evening with our ex Tassie friends.
This morning we continued upriver with the tide and picked up a set of Brisbane CC pile moorings which are next to the Botanical Gardens right in the heart of the city. These piles are only $70.00 per week and have full facilities onshore. They are very popular with liveaboards and we were lucky to be able to pick between 2 empty sets as the other 60 or so were full and many of the boats look very permanent. The boat behind us is NINKEA from Launceston, (anyone know who owns it?).
The botanical Gardens are dog friendly so, apart from the ferry wake every 15 minutes or so it is an idealic spot for a couple of days sightseeing.