"It's getting better all the time .... Better ... better ... better".

Yep, it's getting better all the time. Huey has decided to give us a break after a few days of miserable grey skies, London sleet and undulating swells. We motored over to the fuel wharf and put a few litres into Charmers tanks and left Bundaberg Port Marina on a calm morning. Fuelling up we got the inside drill from Ian on the 24 hour payment facility and the problems it creates when it doesn't work. Luckily, we were doing a direct transaction at the office, he would fix the receipt printer on the fuel wharf after we departed. "Roger that", I thought to myself.

We headed out through the marked channel, threw a left turn part-way through to head on a direct course for Round Hill Headland, ETA 3:30 pm. According to our navigation software, based on our current speed we would be there 15 mins earlier than my estimation. It casts the mind back to the early explorers ie.Captain Cook, and how they successfully navigated uncharted waters and found their way back home with the 'technology' of the day!

We were experiencing probably the best conditions of the trip so far. No waves, no swell and virtually no wind. Were we in the Twilight Zone, was this a fabrication within our mind, a dream ? No, it was actually fair dinkum. Smooth waters. What a treat.

I set a trolling line up off the port stern and went back inside to the pilothouse. Conditions were, almost, boring - it was so docile and smooth I felt like we needed some excitement. The first mate was ecstatic.. "this is what I was after".

I popped down every hour or so to check on the trolling rig. The first couple of visits saw no change in status. However on the third walk towards the stern I saw a silvery object breaching out of the water at the end of our propeller turbulence. Looks like we have caught a fish, or at least, the trolling line has. After all, we were piloting the boat, so I guess you could say we caught a fish. I walked back to the pilothouse to alert the first mate. "Get the camera, we need to video this, we have jagged a fish!".

Pulling in the line we had hooked a very nice Spanish mackerel, (apparently a school mackerel), but to us, it was our opening catch ! As soon as we got to the anchorage I filleted her up and cut a few slices off for some sashimi dipped in soy sauce. Kath pan fried a couple of the fillets in butter and lemon juice, the rest we froze. Yum yum.

Prior to dinner the first mate decided to ‘throw a line in’ as this fishing thing is infectious. Once casted the rod was placed in the holder, eagerly awaiting the ‘vvvvvvsssssstttt’ of the dragging line on reel. Well, it wasn’t long before Kath said, “hey; what’s that noise???”. She’s hooked one ! Almost like a scene from ‘Fishing with ET’ the first mate played with her catch, at one stage saying that it’s gone… and then …”no, he’s foxing, I still got him!”. The skipper ran to the duckboard, net at the ready, it was definitely a keeper .. but what was it ? I netted the catch and bought it up to the cockpit. Once in the light all was revealed, the whiskers and bulbous eyes of a catfish ! Ugly little sucker. I grabbed the pliers and tore the hook out, he’ll have a sore throat for a while but will live on to give another thrill to an angler with their first catch! Talk about exciting !!

By the time the sun had set and the catfish was return.ed to the murky depths, the wind had dropped to nothing and the Captain retired to bed a little earlier than his usual time.

Lying in bed about 12:30 am I was woken to the sound of whistling wind .. surely not, it was dead calm with a forecast of less than 5 kts ! But alas, it was real. Considering our depth of water and the somewhat close proximity of other boats I had not planned for any stronger wind and so did not deploy excessive chain. Anyway, up I go to check our anchor situation. After a quick scan of surrounding boats I was satisfied we had not dragged anchor so I went back to bed.

Fast forward to 1:30 am and I was again awoken by a gentle 'thud' and the sound of small wave chop against the side of the boat. That didn't feel good. I went topsides and peeked out the starboard pilothouse door. Well hello, we were smack bang up against a yacht, my stern on his bow and his stern towards the front of Charmer. With torches deployed we furiously tried to work out what was going on. It wasn't long before the skipper of the yacht opened his hatch and calmly surveyed the situation. It was one of those Sherlock Holmes moments as I said... "it looks like I have dragged onto you"... "I would say so", was the acknowledgment, he continued ... "I have 30 metres of chain out and been on this anchor for months". It was clear there would be no retort from me. We both asked the same question however ... "where did this wind come from?".

We placed one of Charmer's fenders between the boats and he started his yacht up and swung away. After disengaging the anchor bridle I pulled the anchor up and we re-set a little further into the channel. Clearly I did not have enough chain down and reset with a considerable length to last the rest of the night/morning, whatever was left before the sun came up. You need a lot of local
knowledge in these confined anchorages to manage the wind and the tides, every day is another experience, good and not so. Luckily there was no damage to either boat as we only kissed rather than rammed .. ramming not good, kissing is better. I stayed up until 4:00 am to make sure we didn't drag again. Will catch up on sleep tomorrow night !

The morning welcomed us with blue skies and an increasing +15 kt southerly. We have to wait until mid-tide to get back out. Until then, we get blown around. Next stop Pancake Creek. Onwards and upwards.