Lots of whales and Ships
05 September 2010 | Mackay
Michael and Jackie
We motored peacefully through the night towards Mackay. Our weatherman, Bruce had told us to expect a Southerly surge in the morning. Sure enough 7 am the wind piped up and the engines were off. We were sailing again. The sea bubbled up with a bit of a chop, and we bowled along. As we approached the Mackay area the AIS came into life. It picks up signals from ships which indicate their position and course. First of all six ships at anchor at 20 miles, then 12 then 35. At first we thought we should divert to avoid them, then as more and more ships came into view we realised that it would be essential, but in fact quite easy to weave our way through. There are actually about 70 ships anchored here. They are all bulk carriers waiting to load up with coal and minerals for China. Some of the ships look quite smart, others looked dreadful - rusty hulks with old fashioned lifeboats.
As we looked at the anchored armada we saw plumes of white spray and realised that in the midst of all these ships humpback whales were breaching and blowing off. A truly wonderful sight. Cheek to jowl with the ships there are all sorts of special environmental zones. As we quickly learned, Australia is very much into rules and regulations. You name it they have a rule about it.
Mackay has some of the biggest tides in Australia, a difference of just under 5 metres. Sometimes we were gaining 2 knots with the tide and sometimes losing. We scooted into the marina and found the quarantine dock. There are lots of horror stories about the rigorousness of Oz customs & quarantine. Actually you couldn't have asked for better. Efficient, courteous and good hearted. Quite a contrast with the over-officiousness of NZ customs that we hit last year (the year before had been totally painless).
The marina is out of town, furnished with a number of restaurants but amazingly no chandlery and few boat services of any kind.