Fliss.....
After we did our washing we caught the local bus into Mackay to do some shopping (fresh stuff) and are amazed at the locals, everyone is immensely over weight! We had visions of these beautiful sun kissed people looking gorgeous. But it's not surprising looking at the food portions, we struggled to find 2 small steaks as the packs are all super sized and could feed a 3rd world country. We could anchor Naz in storm just using a quiche.
Not wanting to cook yesterday we treated ourselves to a burger. We were stunned when Pete's burger arrived it had; steak, burger, egg, bacon & salad, it was huge!
Tomorrow we'll head off towards the Whitsunday islands en-route to Cairns, can't wait!
19th June 2008
Fliss ...........
Lovely short hop to Brampton Islands.
Gorgeous Island which is a holiday resort! We took the dinghy ashore & saw Kangaroos! The water is brimming with Turtles and little swallows land on the guard rails & just sit their happily chatting away to themselves, Magical!
Brampton Island Resort
Brampton Island Kangeroos......
20th June 2008
Another short sail to Shaw Island, another stunning island with white sandy beaches. This really is the life!
21st June 2008
Fliss .........
We upped anchor at 11am to head for Airlie Beach. It was really quite blowy at 25 knots so we decided to just pull out the headsail. With wind against tide we had steep waves. Our concern was that the dinghy was surfing down the waves and nearly over taking Naz each time the dinghy slipped back the painter would come up hard. We were nervous that it would snap & we would have to try to get the dinghy back in steep waves, not easy!
Pete attached another line to the dinghy to try to stop the snatching movement. I said that I didn't trust the integrity of two lines tied together, Pete just grunted that it would be fine & to stop fussing.
Airlie Beach is a lovely tourist town! It reminded us of Cornwall with the surf shops, trendy bars & cafe's.
Watch out Stingers about!!!
We successfully managed to raise the age limit as it really was full of youngsters on a gap year.
Main reason for stopping here is to re-provision Naz for a trip up to Cairns, which is approximately 12 days from here. Our plan is to do an over-nighter & then hop up the islands.
22nd June 2008
Pete ......
We left Airlie Beach with 2 reefs in the main and a scrap of headsail out, we were doing 7.5 knots close to the wind in about 25-30 knots our plan was to go to Cid Harbour. We had discussed the dinghy before we set off and I thought it would be ok towing since the wind in the anchorage was (obviously) much less than out between the islands. Fliss voted for stowing on deck. Anyway, we towed it and it eventually turned over and broke the line to it. We quickly turned into wind, furled the headsail and started the motor - which instantly coughed and died. I immediately thought that the broken line had wrapped in the prop and so we spent about 45 minutes doing man-overboard drill under sail in steep waves and windy conditions. The real problem was that an upside-down dinghy has nothing to attach a boat hook to securely and although we came right alongside the dinghy on every attempt, Fliss could not quite catch and hold onto it. Eventually, turned my thoughts back to the engine and realised that it would not go even when in neutral. It was a fine time to run out of fuel!!!! I switched to the Port-side tank and we started the engine, dropped the main and got the dinghy back.
After all those shenanigans, the windgen started making funny noises and I had to strap it up to stop it turning. Investigation at our anchorage showed that we had burned-out the primary 50A fuse and molten the fuse-casing - I thought the max output was supposed to be 30A! I have replaced the fuse and casing with a 30A fuse which is the largest spare we have on-board.
So, a few lessons learned........Unless it is really calm, stow the dinghy on deck. Remember to check the engine hours so that we know when the fuel is getting low (I had forgotten about a couple of nights running into Mackay).
Fliss.....
I won't say I told you so.....
23rd June 2008
Lovely day just walking around the island & relaxing on Naz.
24th and 25th June 2008
Pete..........
We set sail from Whitsunday Islands at just gone 9 in the morning and had a superb downwind sail up to the Palm Isles. We had 180 miles to go to our anchorage and dropped the hook at just gone midday yesterday. We had a blinding run of 165 miles in 24 hours with 3 reefs in the main and a reefed headsail. It took a bit of care occasionally as the wind was directly behind us most of the way and sometimes the wrong side of 'safe' from a gybe perspective. It is quite amazing how the seas pick-up even though we are inside the barrier reef.
After we arrived at Orpheous Island, we simply dropped the hook and chilled out for the rest of the day.
26th June 2008
Pete ............
We set off to go between Hitchinbrook Island and the mainland through a narrow channel. The approaches from the South are shallow but the cruising guide showed enough depth following the leading lines at the state of the tide. C-Map did not. So, we tentatively entered with a bit of swell pushing at the aft-quarter and at 2.4m depth, we touched the mud in the hollow of a wave and
turned straight about and ran away!. C-Map showed more depth South of the leading line but, with tidal shifting sands, we decided that we would live to fight another day. We cruised up the Eastern coast of Hitchinbrook Island and have now just dropped anchor off Goold Island.
27th June 2008
Fliss.....
Another short hop to Dunk Island.
Dunk Island is a tourist resort and we feel that it has been slightly trashed by it's guests. Looking along the beach you can see knackered old sun loungers just left to rot in the sun, a real shame, why don't they just clean it up?
A local yachtie rowed over to Naz and asked how the conditions where outside of the anchorage. He had broken one rudder (catamaran) and was trying to make it back to the main land but was concerned as to the strength of the wind and the waves.
Whilst chatting with him he told us that walking across the island he had seen quite a few snakes just basking in the sun.
We decided to go for a walk, Pete made me laugh! He stamped his feet as he walked and talked loudly
to frighten off the snakes he also complained at having to go 1st! He nearly jumped out of his skin when he tripped over a root of a tree! I think it was all done for affect, or was it??
29th June 2008
Pete.........
Today saw us sailing and motoring through the English drizzle and rain just 20 miles to Mourilan Harbour where we anchored amongst a huddle of local boats on moorings in an attempt to keep off the mud-flats. Luckily, the boats all behaved during the turns of the tide and we didn't wake up to the ominous sounds of bumping.
30th June 2008
Today, we woke early and are having to motor towards Fitzroy Island (just 15 NM SE of Cairns). The weather has turned back to sunshine and hopefully the sea breezes will give us a lift later. In the meantime, I might well do some more scraping and sanding.
Fliss....
Another resort island which is being seriously developed. It looked gorgeous from Naz but ashore is just a building site, luckily they are being sympathetic and have left all the trees along the shoreline so the buildings will be hidden.
2nd July 2008
Fliss....
Only 15 miles to Cairns where we'll get ready for Holly's arrival on the 4th July. I really excited about seeing her and counting the hours down.
As we arrived in Cairns we spotted our good friends Ian & Cathy from Ariel anchored just off the Yacht Club. Ian said it was sensible to stay on the boat when the tide changes as the anchorage is known as a bowling alley as yachts drag and then take out other boats on their travels. How many points for a dark catamaran?
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