13, 14 and 15 June
Robyn flew back to Mackay and
managed to contact Ian who had been out fishing and playing at Scawfell Island
– 26 miles north east of Mackay. No
phone reception out there. Our neighbour’s
son Adam was travelling up to Mackay for his grandfather’s funeral on the same
plane. Was lovely to catch up with our
neighbours on Friday the 14th – they came out to the marina at
Mackay and spent most of the day with us.
Spent Friday afternoon with our
heads into our maps and two great books:
Cruising the Coral Coast by Alan
Lucas and
100 Magic Miles of the Great
Barrier Reef by David Colfelt.
Wonderful to be able to read up
about which islands offer good anchorages and scenery etc.
16 June saw us heading out of
Mackay Marina at 9.30 am bound for Brampton Island which was 20 miles NNE. Was a magic sailing day – just enough wind to
get over 4 knots, a little rolly but beautiful, we anchored at about 2.30 pm
alongside Brampton Island.
Brampton has a deserted tourist
resort which has a caretaker and we are not allowed in it. There are good National Park walking tracks,
but you have to scout around to find them as the beach near the tracks are very
rocky. We pulled the RIB up on the beach
near the resort and then went scouting for the National Park Walks.
Ian and I went fishing in the RIB
(Rigid Inflatable Boat) around the reef
and caught quite a few Tusk Fish – all the fish up here seem to be brightly
coloured. We were very good and threw
them back in as they were short of the 30 cm required.
Brampton was a lovely anchorage,
very comfortable, good for sleeping.
Views amazing – we have so many wonderful sunset photos now. So many that we keep saying we won’t take any
more, but then you can’t resist and away goes the shutter bugs yet again.
Quiet and relaxing walk around
the beaches and near the National Park camping area – interesting things in the
low tides, anemones etc. Tides dictate
when you can get back to the boat, had to wait a couple of hours. Quiet and comfortable anchorage here.
Worst thing is that mobile phone
reception out here is non-existent, so cannot keep in contact with family and
friends. As we get closer to Hamilton
and Lindeman Island we hope that this will change.
Monday, 18 June 2012
Anchor up and gone at 8.30
despite the weather report of 15 to 25 knot winds which seem to keep others in
the bay. Guess this weather is tough on
the motor cruisers. We had a very lively
sail, reef in the mail sail and jib up front to balance the boat, scooted along
at 7 to 8 knots for about an hour.
Anchored off Goldsmith Island behind Farrier Island by 11.30 am.
Love the sails up here as you can
see the island you are heading for before you leave your anchorage.
The winds stayed up to 20-25
knots all morning and most of the afternoon which was a little rolly in the
bay, however forecast was for 10 to 15 for the evening and yeah – it was
exactly what we got, so great sleep last night in very quiet conditions.
We are staying here for two
nights – which we think we will do for most of the rest of our stay unless we
get good fishing conditions. Forecast
today is same as yesterday, so this morning we are gently rolling around and
hopefully it will again quieten down this afternoon, so we can fish the reef.
Dolphins were fishing the reef
right near us, also am sure I saw the black tip of a reef shark. Turtles pop their heads up here and there and
also lots of birds, ospreys etc.
We had a great chat with a couple we met at Brampton who have a little
rough coated Jack Russell. Although they
really enjoy him, they say they wouldn’t bring a dog again. They fished with good success for dinner
last night. We only mananged to get entrée – one rock
cod. Very pretty brown and white.
Wednesday 20 June – Thomas Island
Possibly the prettiest of all the
islands. We anchored here all by
ourselves, dropped the RIB in and rambled around on shore on the beach and in
the vegetation. We tried to see if we
could walk through to the other side of the island and I guess we could if we
battled the bushes. So ran around the
beach instead.
Anchoring near coral is always a
worry and at 3 am our anchor was really straining, which alarmed us until we
worked out that the anchor chain was probably caught in a bombie (coral
formation) and really pulled at us now and then. Ian went out and pulled up the chain as we
always have heaps out and that solved the problem a bit.
Thursday – a yatch Sperenza (with
Pattie and Keith) and also a motorized cat (3 people and dog) parked near
us. Had a lovely chat with Pattie and
Keith who have been sailing the Whitsundays, originally from Canberra and
Sydney , for THIRTEEN YEARS. They gave
us some good advice for anchorages as the wind is forecast to change from the
10 to 15 knots up to 25 until next Tuesday.
Well we caught enough Tusk Fish
for dinner and also lunch on Friday. The
fish sure look different up here so a quick check of the fishing book is always
important. The fish bones are a very pretty blue!
Friday 22 June – Shaw Island
which is 2 miles from Hunter. Love the
short distances.
Shaw Island is a long, large
island just off Lindeman Island. Good
anchorages in heavy winds so we sailed over.
Was like sailing in Lake Macquarie – nice lazy 5 knots and wow – back into
reception. I really miss not being about
to contact family and friends. As soon
as Lindeman Island came into view messages came through our phones went off. Great to let everyone know where we are after
being off the radar for nearly a week.
We may end up in Airlie Beach
next weekend as Pat and Chris Frahm are coming sailing with us for a weekend –
hope so. They are great company and
Chris knows the area well. Ian and I are really enjoying the time
together, however tis nice to add more personalities into the conversation.
It’s raining this afternoon, so
Ian is asleep and I am attacking all our photos and trying to get them into
some order. Not sure if we have enough
reception to get my blog updated and get the photos on.
Now to see if I have enough reception to get some photos on.
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