New Autopilot for the boat

The dry season is getting closer so Sandy and I are starting to get the boat ready for a new season of sailing. I went out and bought a new Autopilot (Raymarine ST1000+) so we dont have to hand steer all the time. For those that dont know, steering a boat is fun for about 10 minutes :)

Will be fitting it this weekend.

Sandy's new flat bar tourer

Sandy's Vivente has low handlebars, this combined with the not so efficient brakes made us think about converting her bike to flat bars and putting a set of v-brakes on the front.

Wow!!! What a difference. The bars are higher so she's more comfortable and the brakes are fantastic. We trialed it with the gear of my mountain bike but then bought her shiny new LX shifter and brakes levers and a set of v-brakes for the front. Fitted it all and she loves it.

Will post photos later.

Sandy's Beetles are finally finished

I guess it's technically not an adventure but Sandy put heaps of work into these little guys so I wanted to share them.

Sandy started work on these a couple of years ago.  It's 'stumpwork' which is like 3D embroidery.

(click the image to get the supersize version)

Gary's new front racks have arrived.

My new Tubus Duo racks for the Cannondale are here and I fitted them last night.

Sandy ordered the rest of our Ortlieb panniers yesterday so we're nearly ready.....well the equipment is nearly ready.

OK we'll take the train!!!

Apparently the Kuranda range is not the place to ride a bike so we've decided to catch the train to Kuranda for a day trip when we finish.

So the new route looks like this.

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Sandy's new touring bike

After riding to Mandorah on her mountain bike with me on my shiny new touring bike Sandy decided to get a real tourer. 

It's a Vivente World Randonneur bike geeks should click the name.

It's got a dynamo front hub and I love it, no more flat batteries.  

Planning our Carins cycle tour

As a shakedown for the NZ trip later next year we are going to kill two birds with one stone. Visit Mum and siblings in Cairns and test the waters on a camping based cycle tour with a couple of mountain passes thrown in.

Flights are booked:
DWN-CNS 22-May-2009
CNS-DWN 30-May-2009

The following map is loosly where we will go.

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