Photo: Full moon, Dunk Island
We arrived back in Townsville late afternoon Sunday 23rd April and spent the following week doing final jobs on the boat and provisioning of frozen and fresh goods in readiness for our trip north. There was also time for social catch ups, ANZAC Day lunch at Gordon and Maree’s, dinner with Greg and Janie, local pub for the rugby followed by a pot luck dinner and farewell drinks with all the friends we have made during our stay here. Not forgetting of course the daily walk up Castle Hill, wonder when we will do that again?
Finally on the afternoon tide of Wednesday 2nd May we dropped the mooring lines and headed out of the marina, Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island our destination for the night. It’s been a great stay in Townsville, made some wonderful friends, but it is time to move on to new experiences.
We left Horseshoe Bay early next morning and motored the first hour or so and then sailed wing on wing to Little Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Is, Palm Group and started the watermaker ready for the trip north, we don’t use the watermaker in marinas and had shut it down for our time in Townsville. At dawn on Friday we motored 7nm across to Lucinda, past the sugar loading wharf, all 3 miles of it, following the leading lights into the Hinchinbrook Channel anchoring at Haycock Island for the night. Hinchinbrook Channel is formed between Hinchinbrook Island and the mainland and is 26 miles long. The channel has many creeks and rivers that can be explored, is known for mozzies, dugongs and we were now officially in crocodile country so no swimming for us. It felt isolated, very peaceful and we enjoyed a quiet night before setting off the following morning, motoring out of the channel and then two sailing to Dunk Island.
Dunk Island, part of the Family Island group, used to be home to a resort, however this was badly damaged in cyclone Yassi in 2011 and is now closed. Sunday was a social day, caught up with Steve and Anne, Recluse, who we left NZ with in 2010 on the ICA Pacific Circuit rally, went for a walk and had sundowners on the beach with other cruisers in the bay, some of whom will also be doing the Indonesian rally this year.
We left Dunk Island on Monday and sailed 20nm to Mourilyan Harbour, a bulk sugar loading wharf harbour, for the night, very sheltered and calm. The harbour has a rock bottom entrance that was blasted to make it deep enough for sugar loaders, not much to see or do, so we had 9 people for drinks on Dol and slept peacefully. Next day was a 40nm wing on wing sail to Fitzroy Island. Unfortunately a couple of miles out of Mourilyan harbour we hit a submerged log and broke the new paddle wheel we had installed the day we left Townsville. When we got to Fitzroy, Brian had a look and the new paddle wheel was completely missing, luckily we had kept the old one. The old paddle wheel had lasted 17 years, the new one 6 days!!. The paddle wheel gives us our speed and is connected to the auto pilot. Brian managed to organise a new paddle wheel, plus a spare, to be sent to Half Moon Bay Marina, Yorkeys Knob Cairns for us to collect when we call in there.
Fitzroy Island has a resort and day visitor facilities. We went ashore and walked to the lighthouse and summit, a walk of approx. 2hrs and we were thankful for all those walks up Castle Hill in Townsville as the tracks were quite steep with boulder steps in parts. After lunch we moved a couple of hours up the coast to Cairns for the night before heading into Half Moon Bay Marina, Yorkeys Knob the following morning, hoping our new paddle wheel would arrive. We took the opportunity to top up the fuel tank, install a new bilge alarm, restock with fresh fruit and veges and do a couple of loads of washing.
The paddle wheels arrived, one was anti fouled and fitted and we left the marina the following morning heading for Low Isles, 26nm away. Our plan is to reach Lizard Island in 3 – 4 days and then stop for a couple of days. Not sure what the internet coverage will be like as we go further north, the next update maybe on route or when we reach Darwin.