Airlie Beach to Hinchinbrook
After getting our fuel and water we were ready to leave Arlie and make our way across to Woodwark bay, which was a good and calm anchorage for the night. From Woodwark bay we sailed through Gloucester passage, due to the shallow depth and the rain it was challenging. We anchored off Montes resort at cape Gloucester, from there we sailed across Sinclair Bay to Bowen where we sheltered in the marina from the strong winds that where forecast for the next 4 days. We celebrated Anzac Day with the town and attended the dawn service which was very moving standing in the rain with all the old diggers while the bulger played the last post is one that I will always remember. Bowen is nice little country town with people full of kindness. Once the weather cleared, we headed off for Townsville, stopping of at Cape Upstart and Cape Bowlingreen along the way, 4 days later we arrived in Townsville and went into the marina. In Townsville we met up with some of Mum and Dad's old friends from when they lived on Orpheus Island, Trevor and Jo invited us over for dinner and they were kind enough to lend us their car which we used to drive to Crystal Creek, such a beautiful place with waterfalls and rocks slides with the clearest fresh water to swim in. On our way back we stopped at Frosty Mango's where we got a delicious ice cream and mango smoothies. Townsville has a lot of old building and a great foreshore called "the strand". From there we sailed over to Magnetic Island and anchored in Horseshoe Bay which has a lovely little village. We caught the bus to Nelly Bay and enjoyed a little bit of shopping then on the way back we hope off at Alma Bay for a swim and some lunch at the beach which was gorgeous. On Mother's Day we went for a walked for 3 hours through the hills stopping at beautiful lookouts along the way. The weather was so good that we were able to take the tender around to Radical Bay and swam in the beautiful clear water. The wind was back so we picked up our anchor and sailed over to Orpheus Island where we anchored at Yanks Jetty and did some wonderful snorkeling (and I had to put up with mum and dad reliving there past days of living on this island) just saying, from here we moved around to Pioneer Bay for the night, the next we were able to take the tender over to Pelorus Island and spent some time exploring this beautiful place. From Orpheus we sailed across to Lucinda leaving a 4am to get the high tide we needed to get though the entry to the Hinchinbrook channel - the Lucinda wharf is over 5km long - we anchored off Dungeness where we used containers to fill up our water tanks this took 5 trips in the tender. From there we motored through the Hinchinbrook channels to Haycock Island where we anchored for a couple of days, Dad went crabbing and chasing Barra. Hinchinbrook is full of beautiful sites such as the mountain range and the mangrove channels it also has some of the best sunsets so far. We then continued motoring through the channel to Scraggy point where we anchored for a couple of days. It was time to get going again so the next morning we went over to Cardwell where we had to anchor a long way from shore due to the shallow depths, we went in and enjoyed our time having breakfast and we did a little shopping where we met some beautiful people in this small town. Form here we will be heading to Cairns. Please check out the Photos in the Gallery of this blog.