Photo: Koala at The Forts, Magnetic Island.
In 5 hours at Airlie Beach we had re-provisioned, completed laundry, refueled and topped the water tanks, we are getting very organised and efficient. We used to allow a minimum of 24 hours and are now down to half a day. Monday 3rd October we left Airlie at 08:45 and had a great gennaker sail 12nm up the coast to Double Bay – eastern, our first stop on the trip north to Townsville. Double Bay is a large bay with a narrower entrance than Woodward Bay next door and doesn’t seem to get as much swell, in fact we had a very calm night. We got up the next day to find two birds nesting in the spreaders and they must have been there most of the night looking at the quantity of bird deposits on the deck, first job of the day was to get rid of the birds and clean up their mess. Then it was off to Cape Gloucester for our next stop off the Eco resort. It was a pleasant, although slow gennaker sail until we turned the corner, then it was wing on wing until we reached the shallows, which we motored through following the channel markers through Gloucester Passage. On the way we were buzzed by a Black Hawk helicopter with the crew leaning out of the open door giving us a wave. We went for a walk ashore to check out the two resorts for dinner, walking between them on the beach and back along the track, avoiding the local kangaroos. As it happened, Eco resort closed at 5pm on Monday and Tuesday so wasn’t an option, Montes it was for dinner. The dinner was excellent, the seafood platter shared by Gordon and Maree, Brian had Surf and Turf (steak, prawns, scallops) and Gail had red emperor fish, all highly recommended.
An early start on Wednesday saw us under gennaker 42nm north to Cape Upstart. At Able Point, a coal loading facility, we had a close encounter with a ship that was arriving and couldn’t make its mind up where it was going, we called them up on the radio but they didn’t answer, we then snubbed the gennaker and changed course until we saw them put the anchor down, then it was back up with the gennaker and off to Cape Upstart, arriving at 15:00. Cape Upstart is a national park, fairly barren, sparse bush with sandy beaches and many holiday batches/homes. It was a pleasant stop for the night.
The anchor was off the bottom at 05:30 Thursday morning for the 65nm trip to Magnetic Island, Townsville. We had to motor most of the way due to lack of wind and only managed to sail for about 2 hours; however we did catch our first fish in Australia, a school mackerel, very nice. We arrived in Picnic Bay, Magnetic Island at 15:15. Magnetic Island is an island of huge boulders; everywhere you look there are boulders perched on top of one another looking precarious. We spent a week in Picnic Bay, exploring the island, taking the bus across to Horseshoe Bay and going for walks including the walk up to the Forts, old World War II buildings. Along the track to the Forts we saw a couple of koalas sleeping in the trees, the first we have seen in the wild. Monday 10th we took the boat around to Florence Bay for the day for a change of scenery and a snorkel. We have been spoilt with the great snorkeling in the Whitsundays and did not spend long in the water. Friday evening we caught up with friends Bob and Rosie we met in Tonga last year and went to a local Asian food market for dinner. Saturday our Skedaddle friends we met coming up the New South Wales coast earlier in the year came into the bay, another social evening and yes we watched the quarter finals of the rugby world cup, go the All Blacks. Monday evening we had drinks on Skedaddle with Janie and Greg, they left the following morning while we went on the Forts walk. Wednesday we caught up with Bob and Rosie for morning tea before they headed home towards Melbourne and then took the boat into Townsville marina.
Dol will stay in the marina while we go off to the States, UK and NZ. Before then there was work to be done, Brian installed the new watermaker, Gail polished all the stainless steel, we caught up with all the laundry and the boat got a good clean. On the Saturday we went to a BBQ at Gordon and Maree’s to watch the first of the rugby world cup semi finals, then for the big game, Aussies vs All Blacks on Sunday, we went to one of their neighbors to watch the game. The Aussies were gracious in defeat!!. The following week it was more work on the boat, time to get the hair cut and a night out at Greg and Janie’s (Skeddaddle). For the Rugby World Cup final it was takeaways around at Gordon and Maree’s, then celebration time at the end of a close game. Good on your boys.
This blog will be quiet for a while now while we fly to the States, UK and NZ.