Airlie Beach is referred to as the gateway to the Whitsundays, a colourful and inviting holiday town lying on the shores of a palm fringed beach and overlooking the calm waters of Pioneer Bay dotted with yachts. We had been looking forward to getting here as our supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables needed to be replenished, I had also never been here before and so I was keen to have a wander around.

We anchored off the beach near the Whitsunday Sailing Club and hurried off into town to shout ourselves a meal. It was just about to rain. We made it to the nearest backpackers/pub just before it started and sat down to a cheap meal washed down with a beer. Aaah.. it's a hard life! Then off to our work for the day, hunting down the nearest supermarket and getting out shopping out of the way. The hard thing about going into these towns that are swarming with backpackers is that when asking waitresses, bar people, tour operators etc. directions to get somewhere you are inevitably met with, 'I don't know, I've only been here 2 days'. We walked around in circles following directions from people who didn't know what we were talking about and finally boarded a bus only to get off two stops later, we were fairly close after all!

The next day we all came ashore and went our separate ways to get things done. Jay and I walked down to Abel Point Marina to try and find out where we needed to go to fill up with fuel and fill a couple of gas bottles. As we walked towards the entry to the Marina office a door to the side of us flew open and a voice said, 'I don't believe this!' It was Richard Barrett who used to be Harbourmaster at Sanctuary Cove for years, he is now a General Manager at Abel Point Marina. He happened to look up from what he was doing and saw Jay and I walking by. We hastily organised a berth for the night and made plans to catch up for dinner with Richard and his wife, Rochelle.

We chose a new restaurant in town called Fratelli's, the menu read well and although Richard could not recommend it having not dined there before, we all decided to give it a try. Now, let me tell you, this restaurant made Fawlty Towers look 5 star! You know there's something wrong when you ask for some breads to start and you're told that the kitchen is struggling as they are so busy and so there will be a wait and when you look around the restaurant is only half full. You can't leave because you made the mistake of ordering a couple of bottles of wine and you're sure they won't let you take them with you. That was the other thing, the only had one brand of wine on the wine list and it's not BYO so if you don't want that, you get nothing! They don't put the name of the wine on the list because I'm sure that they pick up a case of whatever's cheap that week and charge over $30 for it! All that aside, I watched meals come out at the rate of one every 1/2 hour but the restaurant seemed to be thinning out so we decided to persist and order our mains. The meals were ok, not fabulous but ok, except for Loretta's. She actually told the waitress it was revolting and the waitress looked at her, waited for a few seconds and then said 'I don't believe that for a minute', she'd decided that Loretta was joking. We left soon after that! I must say though that the company more than made up for it. Richard and Rochelle took us to a funky out of the way bar where we indulged in several cocktails, we didn't have a camera but we tasted a Pina Colada in this establishment and it wasn't a very good one.

Suffice to say, the next day nursing sore heads we organised to stay at the marina for another night. We spent the day swimming at the lagoon, browsing the markets and shops and enjoying some fast food in order to recover. Richard turned up at the lagoon and it wasn't long before we were inviting him back to the boat for sundowners that afternoon. Richard turned up with wine in one hand and Kava in the other. We all partook of both and were soon relaxed and happy. Richard, if you are reading this we would like to thank you for your hospitality and extend an invitation for both you and Rochelle to join us at some point on our trip, we would love to have you.

Well Airlie Beach, it's been fun but it's time to move on towards Townsville!