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Golf Buggies and good times (Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island)

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I’m writing this one at anchor, bobbing around outside the Coral Sea Marina in Airlie Beach. We’ve been here for a while, Charlie having left us a week or so ago.. I’m warning you now, I’m going to miss great swathes of what went on, as I’m writing this some time after the fact. After returning from Maggie, we had a wiggle round the Whitsundays - as delightful as ever, but we were basically killing time until Charlie turned up. We headed back over to Airlie to get into the marina a day or so before his arrival. He flew up business class, using some of Chez’s Qantas points to get here and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. In summary - the time he spent with us was wonderful, chaotic and tiring. Here’s some snippets of what went on; Both Chez and Charlie both badly seasick in windy rolly conditions enroute across to the islands. We remained fairly boat bound for the first day or so, but made up for it when we arrived at Hamilton Island - hiring a golf buggy and sedately whizzing (yes bo...
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Living the dream: Stew and Survivor (Maggie - Airlie)

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Writing this one heading south (It’s Eastish really, but you get the idea) going down from Magnetic island after spending three lovely weeks in now one of our favourite places. Lazy days were the norm, an occasional bush walk or kayak to break up the days. Caught up with Bev and Bob (formerly of Ikarus first met in the Cook Islands), who now live in Townsville. Nice to see them, and enjoyed lunch out at the local brewery where Chez and I indulged in a wooden paddle filled with 6 rather good beers. Other than a couple of relocations to get closer to shore, our only other big boat trip whilst there was to visit Balding Bay on the day of our Coral Anniversary. Lovely spot, with the large outsize rocks defining the beautiful bay nicely. Dined on barely mediocre ‘Mexican’ fajitas and margaritas that night (or a Long Island iced tea in my case). Our other ventures out for food (not cooked onboard) while we were there was to twice visit the pretty good fish and chips purchased as the sun set....
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Mixed bag (Shaw Island and onwards)

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Starting this one on a grey morning, motor on, rod trailing, heading Northish from Thomas to Shaw island. Having written that brief intro, the rod came to life, and I managed to land a decent (4 meals) sized School mackerel. Initial impressions of the anchorage at Shaw island are very favourable. Flat calm, clear sandy bottom, peaceful & lovely. It’s strange how bolts from the blue come at you. The next morning, we had one. Our little old man Ri Ri taking a rapid turn for the worse (he’d been ill for a while with thyroid issues). This resulted in Charlie, once again, having to be the person to head to the vets with one of our pets. RIP Ri Ri. The feeling of uselessness and guilt about not being there kicked in hard. After very little discussion, we agreed that a bit of support back in Sydney would be a good idea all round for a few days. That decided, we made an afternoon dash towards South Mole island (a halfway stop enroute to Airlie)- however the only four mooring buoys there we...
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Heading North (QLD coast)

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Having had a jet setting break from the boat - including (for myself) time in Sydney with Charlie, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand with Martin, and a very merry month of May in the UK with family. We find ourselves once again, back in Bundaberg, readying the boat for a return to the water. Sanding, antifoul, too much fish and chips, a bent prop shaft, and getting the leaky seal replaced were the highlights. Left there, possibly for the last time, and headed North at dawn on Friday 13th June. Both feel a little strange being back on board - the floor moving under our feet once again after such a long break. As we made our way through the channel markers in the Burnett river a pod of small dolphins came to welcome us back to the water - thanks guys With our recently painted bottom cutting through the water nicely we made good time to Pancake creek. Stayed a day, then headed up to Great Keppel island, where strong winds had us making a home there for 9 days - during which time we met a nice g...
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Pilings (Cairns - Maggie)

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We’re still tied to the pilings in Cairns. Our tired old Zodiac has leaked its last.. well, for us at least - having tied it to the side of the boat with a ‘FREE’ cardboard sign attached, it was towed off to its new home further down the river within an hour. Chez had managed to track down a bargain replacement tender from BCF (a walk there and an Uber back) The new tender, a ‘Hydro Force Caspian Pro’ is lighter and significantly less leaky than it’s predecessor - it will take some getting used to, but all good. ….and bizarrely, it’s now two months later. To summarise, we briefly had a Pacific reunion of sorts with 'Mowzer' and 'Miles away' both in Cairns. Both have now headed off - and once again, I wish these were people we’d further connected with earlier in our journey - both lovely warm families. A highlight, for me at least, before they departed was having an art day for the boys on Miles away (Dexter and Felix) making a fish collage - great great fun, and hopefu...
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Fun in FNQ (Magnetic Island - Cairns)

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Charlie's appendix successfully removed by the excellent team at the Prince of Wales hospital in Randwick. The fallen palm tree in the garden was removed by Prompt Tree Services who were good to their name. I spent a wonderful week down south, with Charlie, who was taking it easy and recovering nicely. Daily jousting session with each other at Chess, Battleships and Scrabble. ….and all too soon, flew back up to the boat in Townsville. We’re easing ourselves back into it with a short trip from the marina over to Magnetic island. En-route we had a minor mishap: snagging the line from a yellow buoy as we entered Horseshoe Bay. Not a disaster by any means, however getting into the water to swim around and under the boat to free up the buoy, I see the words ‘No Swimming / Shark Danger’. This is not my idea of fun - once the boat was free, I rapidly exited the water keeping the panic and splashes to a minimum. Despite the circumstances - it’s nice to have a swim! Horseshoe Bay is a wonde...
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Two solid hours of banging… and various other tales (Whitsundays - Magnetic Island)

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I’m starting this one a few days after Charlie departed the boat. The usual post-guest departure gloom was thankfully lifted by the Gingers. With whom we left Airlie yesterday morning and headed back across the shortish hop to the islands, specifically Manta Ray Bay on Hook. There we took buoys and had two really good snorkels. First amongst a shoal of passengers from one of the day tripping jet boats. The second, from a tender buoy we’d tied to previously. The same group of large batfish and a massive, inquisitive Māori wrasse we saw during the first visit (with Charlie) made a second appearance for the Gingers. Graham and Julie, initially a bit wary of swimming with them,were soon in the water. The three of us swimming in amongst them while Chez - watching on from the tender - happily threw bread at, and around us, to keep our fishy friends interested. A great experience. The wrasse, as big as a long human torso, stayed close enough to touch, eying us curiously. It’s skin a wondrous ...
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