Easter at the Festival of Sails, Redcliffe

This post isn’t really suited to my UK readership, it’s just not the kind of thing you’d be interesting right now. There are lots of really interesting posts and pages on this website for you to read, I just don’t think this is one of them.

Do call back on Friday though, I’ll have something to interest you then, but for now, you may enjoy, for example, reading my post about how great the Manchester music scene is.

Okay, have they gone? Great, let’s get on with today’s post and what I did at Easter.

Easter on Suttons Beach in Redcliffe

First, I should explain. I just couldn’t do it to them. In case you didn’t know, the UK has just had their coldest Easter EVER! (Well, since records began.) The coldest place was Braemar in the Scottish Highlands with -12.5C.

Elsewhere, snow covered huge areas of the country as they experienced below freezing temperatures instead of the usual 10°C to 13°C expected for this time of the year.

Anyway, let’s get back to Suttons Beach. One of the things I like about going to Redcliffe is driving across the Houghton Highway…

Houghton Highway 1

Houghton Highway 2To the left is the mouth of the Pine River and to the right Bramble Bay. Very pleasant.

When we got to the beach, it was absolutely scorchio! I reckon it must have been at least 30°C and it was only 11:15 in the morning…

Suttons Beach 1

Suttons Beach 2

Suttons Beach 3If we had got there by 11 AM, we would have been able to see the Easter Bunny parachute in to land on the beach. But when we mentioned this to Elizabeth, she said “It won’t really be the Easter Bunny, it will just be a man dressed up in a rabbit suit.”

Yes, she’s getting older; anyway, that’s why we didn’t care too much about getting there in time for that event.

But we did get there just in time to see all the yachts sailing by; you might just be able to make some out on the horizon in the third of the photographs above. But here’s a closer look…

YachtsWhat you can actually see there is the 65th Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race in progress, a race that covers approximately 308 nautical miles. It is, I believe, the second biggest yacht race in Australia, the biggest being the Sydney to Hobart yacht race which covers around 600 miles.

Who won? I don’t know, but I can tell you that yacht racing isn’t much of a spectator sport. But who cares, the Festival of Sails had markets…

MarketsLive music…

Live musicAnd camels…

CamelsWhat more could a guy want at Easter? Well, other than his own personal yacht so he can join the race.

For any of my UK readers still reading this, you’ll be pleased to know that the weekend ended with an absolute bank holiday Monday downpour of epic proportions, but then we are used to that here in subtropical Brisbane. The good news though is that the Easter egg hunts that took place on Sunday went without a hitch, the biggest problem being to find the Easter eggs before they melted.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

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{ 6 comments… add one }
  • kitty January 13, 2014, 7:03 am |

    Hi Bob,

    I read you post as we are a family from the UK relocating to Brisbane in March and we have been looking at schools in the Redcliffe area and are keen to move there. I just wondered why you said swimming season is October to March? Is this just because that’s the Australian summer period?

    Thank you, ps any feedback you could give on what Redcliffe / Kippa Ring is like for families to live would be greatly appreciated.

    • BobinOz January 13, 2014, 4:29 pm |

      Hi Kitty

      Yes, that’s right, I only said it because it is the warm half of the year, although some of it is not technically summer. You can swim all year round if you want to, nothing to stop you. I like my water temperature to be close to 30° before I dip in though 🙂

  • Valter Russo August 27, 2013, 11:59 am |

    Hi bob

    I can’t not see(is this correct?) that despite the high tempratures you said, there is not much people on the water, is there any explanation?like Sharks may be.ahaha.
    not sure if i should show this post to my GF, Redcliffe seems to be a great place, and as a nurse she had at least 2 hospitals there,BUT, a big but by the way, she’s affraid of sharks (who isn’t) and we love the beache,redcliffe looks like the ”beach next door”. as far as i can tell you’ve been there a couple of times, or at least Mrs.BobinOZ with Elizabeth have.
    hope you can ”enlighten me” 😀

    Cheers
    Valter Russo

    • BobinOz August 27, 2013, 2:31 pm |

      No, it’s not correct, it’s what we call a double negative. I would have said “I can’t see why that despite etc…”

      Anyway, no it is not because of sharks. There will have been plenty of people in the sea, but it was not the right time of the year for swimming, not really. Prime-time swimming would be October to March, But even at this time of the year there would have been plenty of people swimming. I’ve checked my photographs, it’s actually astonishing that no swimmers can be seen, I think that’s highly unusual and maybe because so much else was going on during the day that people would doing that instead.

      Hope that puts your mind at rest, cheers, Bob

  • Geraldine April 8, 2013, 11:49 pm |

    Hey Bob, must have missed you in the crowds, really enjoyed our first time at The Festval,of Sails…was warm, so lucky we arrived here at the beginning of March. Funny that I haven’t missed the UK weather at all…imagine that 😀

    • BobinOz April 9, 2013, 12:17 pm |

      I was wearing a hat, sunglasses, false beard and moustache. I can’t be too careful when I go out these days 🙂

      Yes, the weather was glorious, I don’t think the words “weather” and “glorious” have been used in the same sentence in the UK for about nine months!

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