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Cursed!! (Wide Bay bar...)

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I may have mentioned before - I think we may be cursed. If I had to guess, I think it was done by a Romany lady from whom I’d refused to buy a ‘lucky sprig’ of lavender and rosemary, outside Covent Garden tube station in October 1997. Following on from the snake incident, there was the GPS drop outs in the shallows, then we had the Elbow Point storm… I’m starting to wonder what fresh new hell will today bring? We’re heading out from Fraser Island today - out through Wide Bay Bar. The prospect of which has had Chez appropriately concerned all week. It has the distinction of being the most dangerous bar crossing in Australia. The most perfect flat calm/no wind conditions at dawn saw some of our neighbours head out while (me at least) was still asleep. We’ve opted to head out on the next rising high tide at noonish. The wind did of course pick up to concerning levels as we waited at the bar entrance.. New buddies on Eudora (Sue and Ron) were also heading out, so we opted to follow in the...
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The worst storm in 8 years at sea.. (Pancake Creek - Elbow Point QLD)

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Pancake Creek turned out to be a good place to relax after our snake encounter. After a restful day, an early night and a flat peaceful sleep, we were up again at 3:30am and off on our way to Bundaberg. Six hours later, we’re still happily gliding along, the breeze is just starting to become usable.. which is nice. Through the long day the wind picked up, making our dusk entry into the channel at Bundaberg a hand steered splashy affair. Fuelled up at the dock, then entered our berth with the normal marina associated angst and a few harsh words here and there. I then did a quick stomp up to the bottlo in Burnett Heads, getting swooped 4 times - magpie style- by a masked lapwing. I learn that angrily swiping my hat in its direction as it gets within pecking distance makes it veer away - this saves my eyeballs. Having survived that encounter, we treated ourselves to rather good fish and chips from the marina shop. The next morning both of us braved the walk back into Burnett heads - this...
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An uninvited guest arrives

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After a restful day off in Rodds Bay, the next morning we planned to jump the short distance around the corner to Pancake Creek. This will give us a head start on our journey down to Bundaberg the following day. The outflowing current is best for a 7am departure. At 6:30am, I’m enjoying my first coffee of the day in bed when I hear a blood curdling scream from up on deck (Chez says it wasn’t blood curdling... but it was!) “RICCHHHYY!!” It’s the type of scream I used to wake up to on our long Pacific crossing. Those ones were just nightmarish hallucinations in my head that didn’t actually happen (I was having a bad time back then) - This one was not. Dashing up the companionway stairs I see Chez in a state of heightened distress, which I initially think is either a dirty inky squid or a large flying fish that has somehow jumped on board overnight - this was not the case. The scream inducing interloper was in fact an Aussie icon - one that throws unaccustomed Poms (like us) into a terrif...
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Mainly on the nose (Airlie Beach - Rodd's Bay)

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Day 1: Bleary eyed, at 4am, Chez lets me know it’s time to go. Goodbye Airlie - it’s been special. It’s now time to begin the long migration South. We up anchor under a bright full moon, and head out from the back of the anchorage, past Funnel bay, Pioneer rock on the corner and down towards Long Island as I write this. We’ve got 4 days of island hopping to get us down to Great Keppel, with (allegedly) usable wind throughout. Fingers crossed for that. With the current helping us along, and actually getting some just about usable wind (pretty much on the nose) we made good speed through the morning in flat water. That ‘pretty much on the nose’ translated into a mildly frustrating, and an exceptionally tiring time, pulling the sails in and out seemingly every 15mins or so as the direction and strength ebbed and flowed. At 2pm, with the wind, the tide and the current trying their damndest to get us to go back the other way, we opted to call it a day. It was that or continue motoring at hi...
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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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