The Cure for Work

Vessel Name: Antidote
Vessel Make/Model: Seawind 1160 Catamaran
Hailing Port: Mooloolaba
Crew: Greg and Annette Irvine
About:
Greg and Annette are both semi retired pharmacists and are looking forward to cruising the Queensland coast. Greg sailed an off the beach A class cat many years ago and now enjoys the dry comfort of flat sailing. [...]
12 December 2008 | Mooloolaba
25 November 2008 | Bundaberg
11 November 2008
04 November 2008
01 November 2008
22 October 2008 | Magnetic Is
11 October 2008
30 September 2008 | Palm Island Group
30 September 2008 | Breakwater Marina Townsville
23 September 2008 | FNQ
15 September 2008 | The 'Upstart Hilton' on Cape Upstart
11 September 2008 | Bowen
06 September 2008 | Woodwark Bay
04 September 2008 | Hook Is. Whitsundays
03 September 2008 | Shaw Island
29 August 2008 | Scawfell Island
21 August 2008 | mackay
15 August 2008 | Mackay Marina
05 August 2008 | Kepple Bay Marina
Recent Blog Posts
12 December 2008 | Mooloolaba

Home at Last

Wednesday morning saw us up early with the smell of home in the air and the excitement was present in both of us to finally be nearing home. At 0600 we left the Bundaberg marina and shortly after we were doing 8 knots under full sail in a 10-15 knot breeze.

25 November 2008 | Bundaberg

The final leg home

Six days sailing to go and we'll be home, and today we've just completed the third day of those six. Yep, Yeppoon to The Narrows, The Narrows to Pancake Creek, and today Pancake Creek to Bundaberg. Tomorrow we go to Big Woody Is (Near Kingfisher Bay Resort), then Wednesday on to Inskip Point, then [...]

23 November 2008

Sun, wind, spinnakers, and storms

Our friends, Garry and Liz Stewart from Perth, arrived Saturday afternoon and the weather looked perfect for our southbound trip to Yeppoon, so we departed Mackay early on Sunday morning for our first stop-over at Digby Is. Tony Patch and the crew on "Last Resort" joined us in this beautiful anchorage [...]

11 November 2008

Spinaker runs to the south

After Mario and Carmel (friends from back home) boarded at Hamilton Island, we set off for Shaw Is. and anchored in Billbob Bay for the night. After sundowners on the beach with the other cruisers in the bay, we headed back for a great BBQ tea and long catch-up chat.

04 November 2008

Cruisin' the Whitsundays

The next morning I cleaned the other hull and then set sail for Macona Inlet. WOW! A 15knot breeze over the beam and we sat on 9.5-10.5 knots (Max 12 knots) for most of the trip. It's amazing what a clean bottom can do!

01 November 2008

A trip to remember

With the SE winds dropping we topped up the water tanks at Nelly Bay at and made the bold move to head for Airlie. The forecast on Monday was "E/NE winds 10/15 knots with afternoon seabreezes 15/20 knots inshore. Seas to1.4 m" Our heading for most of the day was SE so we went for it. It was a reasonable [...]

Hinchinbrook Island.

11 October 2008
greg
After leaving Orpheus Island, we sailed to The Lucinda sugar loading Jetty ( or the Lucinda FAD -fish attracting device- as the locals call it.) 5.6 kilometers long !! and when we passed it, there would have been at least 50-60 boats from tinnies to small runabouts lined up along it length all fishing for Grunter (spotted Jevelin fish) up to 600mm long and very nice eating. We decided to anchor in the channel that night so motored up a side creek called Sunday Creek to the first offshoot from it and stayed there the night. I tried to catch tea, but no luck and with the only bites coming from the multiple squadrons of march flies, mosquitoes and mega squadrons of sandflies, I too thought steak for tea sounded great.
We could not leave soon enough the next morning, as the sandflies crawled through our fly wire screens and grazed all night. Port Hinchinbrook Marina (PortHM) was only a 4 hour motor away and we tied up there at 10AM.
I don't know if there were really as many bitey thing there too, or we still had lumps appearing from the night before, but we provisioned asap so we could leave for the northernmost tip of Hinchinbrook Is the next day.
We anchored at Garden Is (a small Is just beside Goold Is near the top of Hinchinbrook), and the wind came in at 20 knots along with a very heavy rain squall. (nice clean boat again...I love rain.)
We dinghied onto the Island and then around it (see photos) and finally anchored at the resort at Cape Richards. (northern tip of Hinchinbrok Is.) Lunch in the resort was the best steak sandwich I have ever had!!
After a late breakfast, we motored across Missionary Bay and up No 6 creek and then crossed over into No 7 creek and all the way up to the boardwalk that traverses west to east to Ramsay Bay Beach (see photos) The creeks started out about 100meters wide then reduced to only about 15 meters wide, so we anchored up and dinghied the last 200 meters or so where it was only 5-6 meters wide. We stayed the night at portHM again and readied the boat for our first visitors. Our daughter Kerrin and Luke arrived before lunch and after driving into Cardwell to get supplies, we left the marina in 2 knots wind for Cape Richards for the night.
The next day we motored to the Brook Islands, about 3 nmiles NE of the resort, and snorkeled around for hours. The wind dropped off completely, and we could see the ocean floor like we were looking through a glass bottomed boat as we cruised around in the dinghy. We saw lots of turtles, along with heaps of little 'aquarium' reef fish. We ate the flathead Luke caught at the jetty for lunch - delicious.
The next day we made an early start( in 2knots wind) for Kennedy shoal and Otter reef about 25 miles off shore and caught many fish, some edible and many too small to keep.
The next morning we started early for Port HM to drop Kerrin and Luke off at the end of their short holiday, then Annette and I motored south through the channel again to stay at Juno Bay In the Palm Island Group, before we sailed the final day on a windward beat in 18/25 knots of wind( and 1.5 to 2 meter seas) to Magnetic Is Marina where we will wait out the next few days of 20/25/30 knot SE winds before our friends from across the channel arrive. Annette says YAY, as we have turned the corner and are heading south to home.
The photo is of Hinchinbrook Is and the channel
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