List of all our Anchorages to Mackay

Well checklist Robyn (thanks for the title Vicki :) ) is at it again.  Decided I wanted to write up all our anchorages.

List of Anchorages while Sailing North

Date	Anchorage	Comments
25 April 2012	Left Home Silverwater Lake Macquarie, Swansea Bridge, sailed to Newcastle, anchored off Pirates Port Cove	Airforce F18 saluted us as we left (nothing to do with ANZAC day of course
26 April	Sailed from Newcastle to Port Stephens – worst day – 4-5 metres swells, rough and rolly. Anchored in Fame Cove - Bliss	Will come back to stay at Fame Cove – just beautiful.
27 April	Anchored in Shoal Bay – not nice, rolly with the swells	Should have stayed in Fame Cove and got up early rather than in Shoal Bay.
28 April	Shoal Bay (Pt Stephens) to Tuncurry (2 nights)	Tie up to individual wharves, did washing ashore in the park, great anchorage 2 nights
30 April	Forster/Tuncurry to Camden Haven	Anchored opposite Ex Servicemen’s Club, great anchorage.  2 nights
2 May	Tuncurry to Port Macquarie	Great anchorage in Hastings River
4 May	Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour	Best day’s sailing yet, long day, Coffs Harbour is terrible anchorage, then went into Marina which was great.
6 May	Coffs Harbour to Iluka	Iluka just magic, great anchorage
9 May	Our first overnighter from Iluka to Southport – Gold Coast Seaway	Anchorage in Bums Bay – just lovely despite the civilization
12, 13 and 14 May	Southport to Great Sandy Straits – off Frazer Island	Got a southerly set of Cape Morton and didn’t go anywhere for a whole night. 4 am anchorage behind Double Island Point, crossed Wide Bay Bar on High Tide – anchored in a gutter – Brown’s Gutter, great anchorage.
15 May	Brown’s Gutter to Big Woody Island(off Frazer Island)	Great anchorage in Great Sandy Straits
16 May	Big Woody Isand to Bundaberg through Hervey Bay – great day’s sailing	Burnett River – Bundaberg – Bundaberg is down River.  Great Anchorage – stayed in Marina one night, very good.
19 May	Bundaberg to Pancake creek – 65 miles today – very long, good sail	Pancake Creek, Bar crossing at night, but good and good anchorage.
20 May	Pancake Creek to Cape Capricorn	Rolly with swells, but good anchorage and very nice.  Windy bulleting down from the Cape into the little bay
21 May	Cape Capricorn to Great Keppell Island	Alan Lucas did warn us that not many quiet anchorages  from here to MacKay – another rolly night from swells.
22 May	Great Keppell Bay to Rosslyn Bay - Yeppoon	Very rough quick trip into Rosslyn Bay – Marina is lovely
24 May	Rosslyn Bay (Yeppoon) to Port Clinton	Amazing large bay, great anchorage, but tides are huge, careful anchoring required.
25 May	Happy Birthday Kent – no phone coverage in here Cape Clinton to Island Head Creek	This is where the army practice firing and bombing.  Beautiful.  Large tides.  Good to anchor here in a reasonable storm – stayed two nights until rain cleared.
27 May	Island Head Creek to Hunter Island	Possibly worse anchorage – swells trying to drive us onto the beach.  Lovely and quiet when we arrived.  No much sleep here!
28 May	Hunter Island to Curlew Island	Magic day’s sail – beautiful anchorage.
29 May	Curlew Island to MacKay Over 960 nautical miles to Mackay	Mackay Marina – good marina – gets more expensive as you go up the coast.

10 July - Looking for blue sky

Ian and I were reading in bed this afternoon and then I started trying to find some blue sky through the aft hatch.  No such luck but what the hec we have dark chocolate tim tams!!

It's no use railing against the weather, it will pass, won't it?

We have booked into the Marina until Saturday, so hope we can get the furler fitted by then.  Would love a good walk, maybe we will just throw our old clothes on and walk in the rain, we do have a large umbrella.

Socialising when Sailing

One of the interesting phenomenon of sailing is watching the configuration of people on yachts and other boats.

Mostly each boat is crewed by a couple, however quite a few single men live on yachts.  We chat to quite a few in the different marinas.  Some have been sailing by themselves for years.

When we were anchored off Shaw Island, we noticed that a man came out on the deck and mopped it down and then disappeared.  I always wonder what they do to while away the hours.  I asked our friends Anthea and Derek from England, what they do.  Same as us, read, sleep and make a big deal of meals.  Spending time deciding what to have, time preparing it and then you don't have to rush eating your meal.  Ian fixes this and that or fishes and I play on the net and knit!

We anchored off Airlie Beach this week.  We arrived back here last Sunday 10 July with Chris and Pat.  Ian loaded them and their luggage in the RIB, buzzed around to the Marina and let them off near where their car was parked.  It had been a lovely weekend.  Weather beautiful.

On Monday we rang around to try to find someone to fix a problem we had with the heat exchanger on the motor.  Most people in Airlie Beach were not helpful and said we would have to go to Mackay.

Luckily, we have been keeping in contact with Kerry and Eileen who we met in Rosslyn Bay (Yeppoon) Marina.  They are locals and suggested people we could call.  They also have the same engine as us - except that they have two of them.  So we finally found a very experienced radiator repairer in Proserpine.

So on Monday night, Ian pulled the Heat Exchanger off the motor.  We cleaned it, wrapped it in an old towel, then in plastic and then into a soft suitcase.  It was very heavy.  Tuesday morning saw us up at 6 am, then loading this heavy parcel into the RIB.  The bus left from Airlie and not the Marina, so Ian took me and the gear around to the beach near Airlie, dropped me off and then buzzed back to the Marina where it was a lot safer to leave the RIB (we have chains and locks on the engine and petrol tank - and take the petrol hose and key with us everywhere).

Ian then walked the 15 minutes into town and we found the bus stop.  Its handy having a Senior Card so the bus costs me almost nothing.  It took about 40 mins to get to Proserpine, where the radiator specialist came and picked us up from the bus stop. 

Peter, the specialist rebuilt our heat exchanger in three hours, which was great.  He asked us what we were going to do in ProsVegas within the three hours!!  But we had fun, coffee in the three coffee shops - morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.  Walked the whole town and did some grocery shopping.  The town park was lovely, so we spent some time there reading and relaxing.

Got back to our home (windChalmer) about 5 pm and Ian put the heat exchanger back in on Wednesday.  We had thought about sailing out to Hook Island, however it has been very windy and cold, so we decided just to stay here.

A smaller yacht next to us, dragged it anchor on Wednesday morning, we rushed up on deck and luckily they had noticed, so they waved and shifted their boat.   But they didn't move very far and the next morning they had dragged again.  They had come over and apologised the first morning.

So Ian went over and asked them to come over for a cuppa.  They come from Melbourne - Irish originally.  So we had fun with them and then met them at the Community Markets this morning for coffee.    They have been sailing all their lives and I think have been coming up here for about 15 years. 

The sailing community is very interesting.  You have the really posh boats and moneyed people and then just all the normal ones like us. 

When we took the bus to the Whitsunday Shopping center we asked about shopping on line.  Our new Irish friends did their shopping on line and had it delivered to the marina.  So I hopped on the net and worked out what we needed and it is all supposed to arrive at the Marina on Monday between 1 and 2 pm.  How good is that?

8 and 9 July:  we are back in the Airlie Beach - Able Point Marina to have the furler fitted.  So we will get a good long shower and do the washing and lots of walking!

Photos of Airlie Beach Foreshore

Airlie Beach is great for walking.  The foreshore has been beautifully landscaped and kept looking lovely.

Pool on the foreshore with Sails at Airlie

Great Board walks from Marina into town, also around the opposite way to the Big Shopping Centre

Am hoping we get the warm weather back so I can go for a swim

Apartments off the Beach

Looking from where we re anchored towards the Marina - some masts lit up like Christmas trees at night

Yachts are moored everywhere in Airlie Harbour

Boats either anchored near us or moving by

Ian doesn't even have to travel these days to indulge in boat watching.

Sitting in our cockpit we can see:

Mono hulls of every description - ketches, sloops, cutters, luggers, schooners, yawls, three masted schooners, brigantine - you name it, it is here.

There is a 120 foot cutter in the marina which is royal blue and white and absolutely shines!!  As the Americans would say, it ooozes southern money or the Brits would say - it oozes old money.  At night there is a light on each of the four spreaders - lit up like a Christmas tree. 

Catamarans of every size - power catamarans and sailing catamarans.  One very, very huge one is PURPLE. 

Trimarans - one very, very huge white one, among the others.

Rubber duckies - as well as the usual ones - there are really huge ones with WAVE RAFTING on the side - takes tourists out for the day.  There usually leave at about 8.30 am and arrive back here at sunset.

Dragon boat racing, wind sailing, parasailing.

As well as this a Tiger Moth plane does his acrobats right over our heads each day.

4 July - anchored off Airlie Beach, Pics of Cid Harbour Sail

We had a really amazing weekend with our friends Pat and Chris.  Here are some pics which Pat took.  I was too busy talking!   We sailed out to Cid Harbour, lovely gentle sailing conditions.

Just because we sailing doesn't mean we can't have the Sunday morning cooked breakfast by Ian. :)

Pat and Chris relaxing in the beautiful weather they brought with them

Adding Chris to the crew list

Robyn checking out the amazing views

Anchored in CID harbour

In the Able Point Marina at Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach

Well, this little tourist town sure has some major attractions.

The Marina has a constant flow of boats taking backpackers and tourists out to various islands or for one day trips for diving, snorkeling etc.

We had a most wonderful weekend on 29, 30 June to 1 July.  Our friends' Chris and Pat from Mackay came and stayed Friday night at the Able Point Marina with us.  Pat's nephew, Dan, his partner and mother also came for dinner.  I had cooked a large pot of minestrone soup with Bruchetta  - tomato and basil, also houmous and Pat brought some great brownies.

Dan and Belinda sailed their yacht, Tinker out to Cid Harbour.  We had a really lovely quiet sail out there.  The weather was just amazing.  Enjoyed our walk onshore from one beach to another.  Sunset, bikkies and cheese goes down well.

Wonderful quiet night, so pretty with all the anchor lights around the harbour.

Not a breath of wind today, so we motored back to Airlie.

Ian and I are now anchored off the marina at Airlie watching sunset and lots of boats go by.  It is a continual stream.  We hope they are all rushing in before sunset and then it will quiet down!

Walkways have been built around the foreshore with wonderful parks, swimming pools and tourist areas.  Very pretty tourist town.

We think we will stay here for a couple of nights, might even shout ourselves a dinner out somewhere!  Then off to Hook Island for a week or so.

Yeah!  Ian's sister Jan is flying into Hamilton Island on 20 July to spend almost a week with us.  How amazingly wonderful.