"Spirit of Bribie" Blessing

May 3 at Brennan Park on Bribie Island was the setting for the blessing of Dragons Abreast Bribie Island's Dragonboat "Spirit of Bribie"

We intended to paddle down the Pumicestone Passage from the boatramp to the Park, but the weather was too windy with whitecaps on the water so we had to have our blessing on land in the park.

This was performed by The Very Reverend Raymond Smith who blessed the boat and crew, and then Sifu Brett Fenton performed the ceremony of opening the Dragon's eyes with State Member for Pumicestone Carryn Sullivan, President of the Zonta Club of Caboolture Mrs. Sue Droughton, President of the Rotary Club of Bribie Island Mr. Roger Platt and myself dotting eyes and ears on the Dragonhead.

Mrs. Hazel Cowburn was then asked to sign the boat which proudly sports the "Spirit of Bribie" emblem which she designed for us along with the "Dragon" logo on our shirts.

Sifu Brett also asked for a blessing of the ocean and then the "Lion Dancers" performed for DABI and their honoured guests and the audience.

Jo. Parry and Lexie warren of DAA attended the ceremony as did some members of survivor clubs from Redcliffe,Currumbin, & Sunshine Coast.

We send a big "Thank-You" to all our supporters and are looking forward to lots of enjoyable paddling in this beautiful part of Australia.

Photos from First paddle on Pumicestone Passage Bribie Island March 14.

Sat. March 14 at mid-day a mixture of "Pink Snapdragons" from Redcliffe and "Pinkaboutit" of Bribie Island enjoyed the first paddle in the new DABI Dragonboat "Spirit of Bribie" on Pumicestone Passage.

Our new dark pink shirts with DAA logo one side front, Rotary logo other side front and our lovely big Dragon on the back were admired by all.

Lyn Van Buerle can be seen in the front with her camera in the second photo and she was there to cheer us on and heard some interesting remarks from the local fishermen who were fishing from the bank near us. They seemed to think we were not doing too badly!

Thanks to the sweeps from Redcliffe who gave up their time to help us.

Dawn

Bribie Dragonboat is "On The Water"

March 15 DABI welcomed some members from "Pink Snapdragons" Redcliffe including Del Martin, sweep and Marla Harris, sweep in training, to Sandstone Point where our new Dragonboat is housed in the enclosure at the Navel Cadet Centre "T.S.Koopa"

Roger, husband of Lorraine Martin has constructed a trolley to transport our boat to Pumicestone Passage, and resplendant in our new dark pink shirts with Dragon Logo, we placed it in the water.

Some of our members have not paddled before and they all agreed that Dragonboat paddling is for them. We also gained a new member who was brought along to try but joined straight away.

Sat. 21 March the some of the Brisbane girls are visiting us for another training paddle.

Our Big launch and "Blessing the Boat" will be on May 3 at 8A.M. at Brennan Park, Bribie Island and we welcome all who wish to attend and help celebrate with us.

Bribie Island has Dragonboat

Bribie's beautiful new Dragonboat arrived, after a lot of trauma, and thanks to Blair who gave his services to transport it up from Currumbin, on Saturday 24 January.

We are still waiting for our paddle delivery[they have been delayed because of Xmas backlog], and the "Zonta" logo will be affixed next week, as it was "Zonta" Club of Caboolture who donated the money for us to buy the boat.

We also have "Rotary" club of Bribie supporting us and the "Lions" who gave us a site at the Australia Day Markets here, which enabled us to raise awareness of Dragons Abreast Bribie Island, and hopefully attract more breast cancer survivor members.

A couple of the husbands have helped assemble the parts of the boat which needed to be affixed, and Roger is making a trolley for us to transport the boat to the water.

It seems a long time getting on the water, but we cannot launch without these things.

However, our clubs in the vacinity will help us, as we do not have a sweep, coach or many experienced paddlers.

We hope to organize a BIG launch, with other clubs invited, newspapers notified, and a "Dragonmaster" to open the Dragon's eyes and hopefully bring up his "Lion" Dancers for the event.

I enjoyed CNY as usual, and welcomed to opportunity to attend the meetings which were arranged for us. Thank you to all concerned.

Dawn