29 May - We made it to MACKAY

Phew!  What an interesting few days we have had.  We have sailed over 1000 nautical miles!!

Great sail from Yeppoon to Cape and Port Clinton.  We didn't realise that it was taking us into a communication black hole.  So no phone messages etc from Friday until today Tuesday  - 10 nm from Mackay suddenly our phones were going off.

We were working up the coast, Mainsail and Headsail out and it was pretty gusty.  A squall came through which made sailing interesting and Ian was debating whether to bring in the Headsail (we are getting a furler, not much fun out playing with headsails in rough or raining weather), however he stuck it out for about five more minutes.  Getting 8, 9 and 10 knots.  So we were flying.  Round the corner changed course and away she went beautifully and more comfortable for us.

Our neighbours, Terry and Eileen and Zac the wonderful ship's cat,  from the Yeppoon Marina, heard us logging off with the Coast Guard at Cape Clinton and called up to say, wow that was a quick ride. 

PORT CLINTON is amazing - huge, isolated.  The Army own it for exercises, so they put out Mariners' Notices now and then to say the public cannot be there.  So if you are planning on visiting, they have banned you for two weeks from 11 June.  :) Jo Beionki Peterson wanted it named after him and he was going to let Lang Hancock mine it.

We have been travelling about 35 to 45 nm a day lately - enough to move us on but not too exhausting.  Often arrive about 2-3 pm when we can relax and fish or sleep.

The coastal scenery all the way up here is outstanding.  Islands and rocks everywhere, so you have to keep your wits about you.   Range after range of mountains moving into the misty distances.

The tides are TEN FEET - wow, we have to be very fastidious in working out the tides and travelling at the right time.  Also anchoring has been a problem as you don't want to anchor in a hole and end up on a shelf. 

Ian has worked out the anchoring well now.  We follow the Chart Plotter and the Depth Sounder - then he does a complete circle. He plops the anchor in the center with up to 120 feet of chain!!  Then when we are obsessive (well really that should say scared, worried, anxious) through the night, we  pop up and look on the Chart Plotter and see that our tracks are staying within the circle and we feel a lot more confident knowing that we haven't moved.

ISLAND HEAD CREEK - not too far from Port Clinton - 26 nm.  Good job too, it poured with rain and we were worried as we approached the entrance to the creek (read large river) as visibility was low.  Ok, it cleared for about 20 minutes and in we popped, following Alan Lucas and the chart plotter as lots of sand banks.

Beautiful - fantastic country.  But we got a nasty afternoon with storms and rain, we were ok.  Just listening to the Coast Guard as a catarmaran had left Port Clinton with us in the morning heading South West for North Keppel Island.  Bad choice in this weather.  Well the news forecasts did say the rain and wind change was coming late Fri, not lunchtime Fri.    They called in very worried at about 4 pm and they were only doing 4 knots in very heavy weather, up to 47 k wind speed.  Poor things, they must have been terrified.  I really felt for them.

As Saturday was forecast to rain, we stayed put, the storm disappeared at about 8-9 pm Friday night.    So we had a really nice night, quiet and good sleep.

We went for a Saturday afternoon drive.

We did - drove around the creek and found Kooee holed up where we would love to have been if only we were a centre boarder!  Kooee is owned by Jill Knight who writes a lot of sailing articles.  So we took a photo of Kooee and Jill for you Dave Wilson :)

Sunday off an at 'em again.

It was so interesting, looked out the wide bar seeing all the yachts and cats taking off for their various destinations.  We had about 8 boats leaving, so sailed with a mono and two cats for a while.

We decided to go for Hunter Island in the Duke Isles, as it was about 36 nm, good distance without being too far.  Good sail, beautiful island. Sailed past lots of island.   Horrid night.  Wind gusts pouring around and swell rocking us.  I don't think Ian slept more than about 30 mins.  I kept telling myself that the boat wasn't my responsibility and to go to sleep, but of course my subconscious wouldn't allow me to do that, would it now and neither would my body.  It rock and rolled and then wham a huge swell, so your body changes position.  Not fun.


Curlew Island in the Guardfish group is beautiful, speckie in fact.  We sailed between two islands which Alan Lucas suggested.  Always feels as though we are doing something dangerous when we only have about 800 feet between islands.

Was like a little fiord!  Round the corner, great bay.  Did our usual circle and anchored.  I caught a fish!!  What type, you knows.  About 30 cm, long skinny, two sets of pectoral fins and a very fat head.  Scarey!!  And wasn't even Mel B.

Sometimes ugliness does save you.  He was too ugly to even think of eating, so we let him go!  If it was a him.

Pretty good night, gentle rolling but then about every half hour a bullet of fierce wind would shoot down the hills and swish us around.  Ian slept well, making up for the night before.  I found a Biggles book entertained me from about midnight to 3 am.  And it was about a yacht darn it. 

I have been reading a book Mavis and Warren gave us called - Attention All Shipping - A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast.  Irish writer, Charlie Connelly.  Very funny and about the history behind the weather forecasts, lighthouses and the English areas in the forecast.  Very interesting, but of course includes all the shipping disasters too!!

I think I had better find a book for read which isn't about shipping.

MACKAY - well we certainly had lots to keep us busy today.  Once we left Curlew Island, we spent 15 nautical miles avoiding shoules, rocks and islands.  At one stage, the depth sounder suddenly starting rising up, and here we were in the ocean, near an island, though and up came this very steep depth.  Not on the chart plotter or the GPS, so that was scarey.  Only 27 feet which isn't good.  We marked the position, so maybe we can get an underwater rock named after us.

Once we got past the sholes, then we travelled through 2.5 hours of huge ships waiting to load coal, just like Newcastle.    Was so windy, there was not coal being loaded and not much activity, other than us bouncing around and a helicopter visiting some of the ships.  Probably the mail run.

Hurrah, then the text messages started arriving, we were back in communication.

Our lovely English couple - who have been sailing around the world for 12 years, SMSed us to say they were in Mackay and would come to our pen and help us tie up - so we got out pen number from the Mackay Marina and Anthea and Derek helped us find it, by running down the floating jetties and then helped us tie up.

Nice to have a lovely, long hot shower, some clean clothes, meet a few people and stop a while.    Going to see Pat and Chris Frahm tomorrow night!!  Great.

We will sleep well tonight. 

Ian is staying in the marina for a week and will do some jobs on the boat while I fly back on 31 May to 13 June to see our new grandson, Euan Flynn and all our lovely family and friends.