Surfers Paridise, Queensland

• Surfers Paradise, Queensland
  Australia
  
• 10-Dec-2006
• 27°56.8000"N/153°25.8000"E
  

Greetings from paradise! Surfers Paradise, that is. After pulling up anchor in Krummel Passage we headed down river through some shallow waters, some small house-boat towns, and ended up in Surfers Paradise. Pulling in here felt like we were entering Miami Beach with all the high rises, mansions, and power boats. There’s a great anchorage here with about 20 other boats right in front of the giant ferris wheel of Seaworld. Some of you at home might be dealing with cold, or perhaps even snow. But ‘Team Sandpiper’ has been geared up to hit Wet n’ Wild water park since reading about it in our Lonely Planet guide 6 months ago.

We arrived on Friday. After anchoring, we deployed the dingy and set of to explore all the fun. Walking down the main drag we checked out a few of the marinas hoping we might we able to get in for the weekend to shower, laundry, fuel up, and maybe even crash a swimming pool. The first marina we approached was the Versace Marina. Yes, the designer has a marina/hotel with a Ferrari parked out front and all. Of course they don’t "do" week-enders. They have long-term berths only.

The next two marinas, and even the yacht club, were full. So we’ve been anchored all weekend. The anchorage is really nice. But it’s been a while since a hot shower and laundry.

We solved the shower problem by hitting Wet n’ Wild on Saturday. It was probably the worst day to go to a water park, but we did it anyways. The park was great, all of our wildest dreams came true! We got to do every ride, some even two or three times, even though there were an extra 4,000 people in the park. They have this one ride called the ‘Tornado’ where two people get in a tube and you go down what looks like a giant drain. Totally awesome, way scary, and well worth the wait.

After 7 hours of water slides it was time to go back into town for a bite to eat and some cold ones. The pedestrian mall in Surfers is quality people watching. Saturday night brings out all the freaks. Today, Sunday, we plan to go back into town do some Internet, re-provision, and maybe actually check out this beach we hear so much about.

Our plan thus far is to leave here tomorrow, Monday, and set sail to Sydney. We would like to sail straight there, but we’ll see how the winds hold up. It’s about another 350 nautical miles, which would put us there just in time to celebrate Tom’s 40th Birthday on the 17-December.