I know, this blog is suppose to be a sailing blog, but I had such a great time in Melbourne, that I decided to break that rule.

At the end of the last post Lisa and I had docked Logic at the Melbourne City Marina in Docklands

above “city” in the above photo was the marina lounge, with views of the city

Air-conditioned, big TV and a kitchen with everything you could neededafter very rudimentary bathrooms in some marinas, theirs was luxurious. No need to feed in coins for hot water and big fluffy white towels were supplieda latest model washing machine and dryer, with no need to feed it coins and no queue for the machines, was a luxury

all the luxuries of home, right in the middle of Melbourne, for $50AUD a night ($40 if I stayed 30 days, which I did)

200mts from the boat was a tram stop. One of the trams  ran directly to my daughter’s house, plus there was a free CBD tram, running every 8 minutesMelbourne has a well deserved reputation for the quality of it’s food (daughter Phoebe)

Lisa and I had a great week, checking out watering-holes and the Melbourne ambianceLisa found a street party in Brunswick for us to go to, lot of live music, food and “interesting” people

Then all to quickly it was time for Lisa to catch her flight back to the UKThe resident black swan with her 2 cygnets came over to say goodbye and in keeping with the convenience of Melbourne, there was a bus stop for the airport bus, out the front of the marinaMy eldest daughter Kate is getting married in May, so I decided to use the convenience of being in a CBD to get a new father of the bride suiteI caught up with a school friend from 43 years ago. John Greenfield is a sound engineer with Chanel 9.

Ed Sherran was doing a stadium concert at Etihad Stadium (in the foreground in the photos).

Somehow I found a ticket on-line

60,ooo people in a stadium with a closed roof was a great experience

The footy season had started (Australian Rules), so Phoebe and I had to see my first game in a big stadium

 

and the WOW view on the way into the stadium (looking back at the marina)

Phoebe and I had 2 goes at going sailing in Port Phillip Bay for the week-end, but unfortunately after a perfect week, the weekend weather was abominable

But we did meet up for dinner at the Night Market at the Queen Victoria Market

Street food from all over the globe

living just alongside the promenade along Docklands, was like living in a goldfish bowl, with hundreds of people have a gawk every day 

But I also got the reverse, checking out the wedding photoshoots

And then one Sunday, 35, 000 people came jogging past on a fun run.

(also viewable in this photo is the security gate on the marina wharf)I had a worrying pimple that would not go away on the back of my left hand, so I went to a dermatologist to get it looked at. He burn it off with liquid nitrogen, but he did not like the look of a freckle on my calf, so we decided to cut it out   

The biopsy result came back as not being a melanoma

By the end of March, Melbourne was starting to get cold, time to start the trip back up the coast, to then head over to New Caledonia, when the cyclone season is over at the end of April