Sunshine Coast Daily Photo

Monday, 31 October 2011

On the rocks

After the show, the "crowd" lingers, waiting for an encore.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Waiting for the jets

A small but curious crowd waits on the beach for the Hornets to fly over. Three minutes to go!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Feigning Disinterest

While the eyes of the small crowd were skyward, some of us just plodded along pretending to have no interest.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

They've gone!

In a flash, the hornets were just a dotted shadow in the distance. In less than ten minutes they'll be a hundred kilometres away.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Hornet's nest

Last Friday, we gathered on the beach at 11:08 to wait for this:-

There will be a mass formation flypast of up to 20 F/A-18F Super Hornets over the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Ipswich today as part of the welcoming ceremony for four new Super Hornets.

The arrival of the four new aircraft completes the Australian Super Hornet fleet to 24 aircraft.

Sixteen aircraft will depart RAAF Base Amberley between 10 am and 10.30 am and will fly in a loose formation to a point off North Stradbroke Island, where they will form up and fly south, crossing the coast at Southport before flying down the Gold Coast to Tweed Heads.

The armada will then fly out to sea and reform at a point off the Sunshine Coast where it will join with the four new Super Hornets.

The formation will fly south from Noosa Heads down the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane where it will then fly over the CBD en route to Ipswich and RAAF Amberley. It is expected to pass over the base at 11.30am.

The mass formation flypast of up to 20 aircraft will be not only an historic event which may not be repeated, but an important training exercise for operational planners and aircrew.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Attention Span

Some of us can sit for hours just watching the waves crashing on the beach.

And some of us can't.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Shipping Times

Freedom is being on your sailboard in a stiff breeze with nothing between you and the horizon.

Except perhaps a couple of container ships.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Invisible

In the present conditions the sailboarder is almost invisible, in an hour or so when the breeze starts to kick up white caps off the top of the chop, he will disappear entirely.

This is not the time to break any gear on board. Rescue just might not happen.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Almost away

Another board launches, leaving the beach deserted.

I wonder at how fussy we have become, or spoiled perhaps. I have sat on a beach in another part of the world, in temperatures twenty degrees less than this, and similar breezes, pretending to enjoy my ice cream.

Here, we just go home, and leave the place to the mad men.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Poise

It takes more than a little coordination to keep a board and sail balanced into the wind, while receding waves do their best to sweep one's legs from under one.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

One man's meat....

One man's meat, as the saying goes, is another man's poison, and the reverse is also true.

Just as I was marvelling at how alone I was, with the beach devoid of the usual sun seekers, the breeze howling and the surf completely blown out, the sail boarders arrived.

Moffat Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Less than perfect

Some days, the weather is unfriendly. Oh it's fine enough even though it's overcast, and the temperatures are pleasant enough, but the breeze is well over forty kilometres per hour and even in the lee of the headland no one could be bothered coming out.

It's as if everyone is waiting for weather perfection.

Moffat Beach

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

First Thing

If one rises early enough, the first glimpse of that patch of electric blue as one ascends the dune is enough to set one's heart a flutter.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Two Way Creek

The new pedestrian bridge passes under the road bridge and just sort of meanders it's way down the creek, eliminating the need for pedestrians to cross the busy street to access the beach.

Thank-you Mr Council!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Early Morning Again

Looking north beyond Currimundi, the day looks "promising" to say the least!

Another nasty day in Paradise.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Mosaic

Just there in the heart of Dicky Beach, there's a small mosaic panel for the enjoyment of all. One of the nice things about it, is that the designs were prepared by primary school children, and reproduced for all to see in ceramics.

It makes me smile when I see it.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Thongs
Dicky Beach

There is a widely held belief that thongs (or flip flops as they are known in some circles) separate at birth, the left footed variety circling the oceans in the southern hemisphere and the right footed ones doing the same in the northern hemisphere.

Here there are sufficient numbers of each to make me think they may have been mating pairs, captured and hung on the fence as an example to others of their ilk.

Just what they have done to deserve such punishment, I am as yet unsure.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Lorikeet

It's one of the great privileges of living where we do, to be able to sit on our verandah and watch the lorikeets carrying on not two metres from where we are sipping our coffee.

This one happily sat while I fiddled with the camera.

Dicky Beach

Kookaburra

The words of a well known Australian folk song begin "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree..." and I must say that this gum tree is very old indeed.

It's strange I think, how the blue patch on his wings matches the colour of the insulators almost perfectly. That's one nifty piece of camouflage!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Home!
Moffat Beach

Each morning we wander down to the beach, the faithful grand-dog and I, to check that the ocean is still there.

This morning all was fine, there's no need to worry for another day.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Unsettled
Moffat Beach

It's not really pre-dawn light, just early with quite heavy cloud and northerly breezes blowing out the surf.

Moffat Beach looking north.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

It's good to be back
Pacific Ocean

After six months in our northern hemisphere home, it's great to be back and posting "live" again.

Jetlag has it's benefits too, as here the sun is starting to rise quite early, well before six, and early walks on the beach are at least part compensation for the sleeplessness that comes with intercontinental travel.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

More roadside planting

Daisy Chain

Decision Time

Furniture

Am I correct in my observation that the undersides of the tables have been painted to match the ceilings?

Mooloolaba

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Old Woman Island

Steve Irwin in marble sits with his kids, contemplating Old Woman Island.

Mooloolaba

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Balconies

The Gap

For a short while, a few months ago, a gap appeared between the buildings on the Esplanade, allowing those behind in First Avenue a bonus view of the ocean.

The last infill project has begun. Soon "Sea Pearl" will fill the gap.

Mooloolaba

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Shopping

For some reason when I walk past this esplanade shop I always want to stop and run my fingers through the stock, which is quite disturbing really as I'm not actually a dress-wearing kind of boy!

Mooloolaba

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia