Even nicer times! (Hexham Is - Mackay - Airlie Beach)

We’re off to Hexham Island. The passage was good: 6 hours, all under sail averaging 6+ knots.

Like storms passing, so do my moods, by the time we drop anchor we’re both significantly cheerier than I’d reported in the last entry.

The new anchorage is another picturesque beauty. A small sloping sandy beach nestled between rocky outcrops topped with evergreens. The roll situation is - at time of writing - really pretty good: yay!

Only one minor downer: Chez lost a hat to a vicious gust of wind just after we’d dropped anchor. Considering that’s the first one she’s sent to Davey Jone’s locker during 6 years at sea, that’s really not bad going.

Woke the next day having slept soundly - what a treat!

Gorgeous Huevos Rancheros for breakfast then dropped the tender and made ready to explore (and hopefully climb high enough to get a little bit of 3or4G on the phones to be able to check the weather and the socials).

There’s two words that are rattling around in my head this morning as I prep the tender for our jaunt ashore:

‘Apex Predator’

We’re far enough North to be into croc country. Despite the low risk, it is a real possibility that genuinely terrifies me. I’m hoping this thinking is as ludicrous as a recently arrived backpacker on Coogee beach worrying about snakes and spiders.. but we’ll see.

Note: If this diary abruptly stops at this point you can probably fill in the blanks yourself.

I’m alive!!

The explore ashore thankfully was not spoiled by any large reptiles. I climbed up from the pristine beach to the top of the island and was rewarded with 2 whole bars of 3G.. sufficient to confirm the weather will be benign as opposed to a B9 for the remainder of the week.

After lunching back on board, I took the tender out again in the afternoon to further explore our domain - it’s a rugged, utterly unspoiled paradise. Spent the time ashore climbing rocks, looking around in awe at the sheer beauty of the place.

Sadly the uncomfortable roll, absent for just one night, came calling again - back to aching and tired this morning.

Ho hum.. we’re booked into Mackay marina for a few days next week - hope we should have some flat nights there. Spent another day exploring; took a dip in a rock pool, climbed some rocks and watching the biggest turtle I’ve seen to date chewing on the rocky shallows about 15m below me. Spent another day here at Hexham Island, and realise I really love the place. Got a message from Micheal from Beez Neez after I posted some pics of the island on Facebook. It was here apparently where he and Caitlin had been licensed coral divers back in the day. Fond memories for him too. Next morning, predawn, we head off for Curlew Island, a mixed day of sunshine and rain, motoring and sailing, seeing jumping dolphins and what we think were whales blowing along the way.

Curlew island, whilst beautiful - a long sweeping beach, protecting reef sand spit - was yet another tortuously rolly spot. Our planned ‘few days’ stay became another overnight ‘let’s get the F out of here’. I’m writing this at 5am, both of us managed to get some sleep, but are now wide awake, having been snapped from our slumber after hearing a mysterious and unidentifiable ‘thing that goes bang in the night’. This is a rarity nowadays - we usually know exactly where every little creak or squeak is coming from and why.

It’s a wet and windy day - sails up and engine off… or it would be if the button to turn the engine off worked! After some head scratching, I went below and wiggled the appropriate relay terminals and Presto! It came good.

We’re now whipping along, currently passing through a mooring field full of tankers. They’re awaiting what we believe to be cargoes of coal to be loaded. Chatted to Mackay marina when the phone signal permitted - confirming our earlier than scheduled arrival there, hopefully between 2 and 3pm this afternoon. Ended up with large swell pushing us all the way to the entrance of the marina wall. Tied up without issue at the dock and got settled in.

….and just like that: it’s a week later!

Both now a lot more rested than when we arrived. The marina is a good one; a little way out of town, clean and fairly peaceful. We’ve bussed the short journey into Mackay a few times to go to the shopping centre for provisions. The town itself, was a bit of a let down; very few of the advertised Art Deco facades mentioned in guide books, in fact my lasting impression will be of boarded up shops, sun baked streets, and a particularly nasty looking junkie who snarled a heavily QLD accented: ‘fuckoff’ at me as I passed by. Let’s not tar all of Mackay’s residents with that brush though. One day after some confusion over where to get my bus back to the marina I was helped by an extremely kind lady bus driver. She went out of her way, in fact all the way across town, to take me home (albeit after a 2 hour detour to do her usual route). Left the marina yesterday morning under grey and drizzly skies. They cleared and brightened as the day went on, and we had one of those a ‘that’s what it’s all about’ sails North, making it to the peaceful flat calm haven of Cid Harbour on Whitsunday island as the sun set and the cicadas began their chorus to serenade us to sleep. A good day. Followed by a few more good days: exploring the wonderful island, climbing to the peak, seeing snakes and monitor lizards along the way.

From there, headed across to Airlie Beach and into Coral Sea Marina resort for a week to, a) get the canvas measured for new, and b) catch up with some more good sleep. Airlie hasn’t changed much since we visited with Martin many years ago - still thronged with backpackers. The daily charter boats that leave the marina at 8am and just shy of sunset are all full to the brim. It seems as though Covid has well and truly been moved on from - here at least. Caught up with Cheryl’s old boss, Ben, his wife Suzanne and brother Josh for beers and pizzas and an update on each others adventures. The marina have a courtesy car (more specifically a courtesy Hilux Ute). We took advantage of that twice during our stay - haven’t driven for some months, thankfully: I’ve just about still got it.

So.. well provisioned, we left there fussless this morning (edit: yep: I made that word up - but I like it, it’s staying in. Think of it as a recently coined Australian version of ‘without any fuss’). We’d originally been planning to head to our old second honeymoon / 25th Anniversary spot; Long Island. That wasn’t to be - after initially favourable winds, as we turned for our destination, conditions turned grim - in your face sideways rain, and bow slapping up and down hard as we beat into it.

Sod that - changed plan and took a buoy at Daydream island (from where I write this..)

We overnighted there, not a bad spot, bit blowy at times. Next morning we head for the now familiar haven of Cid Harbour for some more flat calm fun.

Spent a lazy week that followed enjoying the relative calm of the Whitsundays (with an occasional catabatic gust here and there). Enjoyed a little exploring around Whitsunday and Hook islands, did some transom fishing: (trevally, grunts, puffer fish, parrot fish, and wrass) - all returned to the water after foolishly falling for my Spam bait. As yet no luck from trolling with my new rod.. all good, it’s early days.

We’re basically killing time until our canvas is made ( now 3 days away as I write this), and until the Gingers head far enough North to come back into our sailing plans.

I used to tell this diary what I had for breakfast lunch and dinner and everything that had happened in between. As you may have noticed, the frequency (…and possibly the quality) of my most recent entries has dropped off somewhat. Not sure why that is.

Let’s carry on regardless:

It’s a week or so later - The canvas is now fitted: Darren and Vicki at Salty Stitches having done a really professional looking job - we opted for the darker blue colour (‘Captains Navy’ apparently), and it’s transformed the boat.

We’re no longer tied to the marina, we left yesterday and had a mixed bag (sun rain wind) crossing to Tongue Bay where we’ve just endured an exceptionally rolly night. To give an idea of just quite how rolly it was; an unidentifiable clunking knock came from the forward sail locker that we hadn’t heard since the Pacific crossing, this all combined to keep our sleep in the fitful range. This clunking was interspersed with the bilge pump activating every couple of hours. I recently managed to track down the cause of that particular issue. It’s the rubber seal (what I’ve previously called the burp gland) that clamps around the prop shaft. I’ve been in touch with the mechanics at Bundaberg (who I was impressed with before when they serviced the engine) and started teeing up a timetable to get that fixed.

Boat life.

Leaving our rolly overnight mooring, we decided to scope out the rest of the bay for any suitable (less rolly) spots for subsequent visits. Nearing what looked like a good spot, I see an uncharted rock - oh dear! With a quick swerve away, Chez takes us out of harms way. It’s then that we realise it is not in fact a rock… it’s actually two large turtles having sexy times on the surface! With a large couple of splashes they head for the deep, disgusted at being caught ‘inflate tender’ - this an auto correct that I’m leaving in - it should read ‘in flaggrenté’

From there we headed off around the corner, past Whitehaven beach (we’ll be back) and down to a beach side anchorage for some lunch. Enroute, the new rod lets out it’s first squeal - signalling my first bite with this setup. Sadly this particular tail is another to add to the slowly growing ‘one that got away’ log. The biggest tuna I’ve seen up close - plump, gorgeous and just shy of a meter or so long. Got him to the transom, where a whipping swish of the head signalled his goodbye and continued freedom. Didn’t feel quite as gutted as I did when the big wahoo escaped - but it’s up there.

That little niggle was closely followed by the realisation that the recently discovered slow leak from the prop shaft seal has now escalated to a medium leak… this throws me into a frustrated ‘why does this shit always happen to me’ style tantrum - which is far from appreciated, and definitely not sympathised with, by Chez.

More changed plans & more expense to follow. (Edit: shaft seal has now been looked at by Coral Sea Marina mechanic from ‘All Marine’ - he greased it, and put our minds slightly more at rest about the whole situation)

Charlie arrived to spend some time with us on the boat - an exciting prospect, but genuinely one which I didn’t know how well, or otherwise, it was going to go.

…well he left yesterday, and we’ve had the best of times together. Or as the holiday saying goes: ‘Nice-times’. During his all too short stay, we managed to tick the majority of items on Charlie’s holiday list:

Bush walk

Beach

Caught his first fish

Saw turtles and stingrays

Did some sailing

Had an adventure (briefly lost the tender in big seas)

Dived in off the boat

Snorkelled coral

..lots of laughs and some great food.

Like father like son.. both Charlie and I sustained a ‘bit more than a scratch’ foot injury during this period - Charlie, taking a sizeable chunk of the sole of his foot out as he dived off the boat. Me, had a barnacle go through my big toe like a meat slicer as I’m relaunching the tender. Not good at the time, mine is OK now, Char’s a bit tender and he’s still limping - his looked nasty.

I’m writing this in the anchorage outside Coral Sea Marina at Airlie Beach. The Gingers are anchored next to us, having come up from Scarborough via, among other places, my favourite; Hexham Island - where they endured an awfully rolly time. Been lovely to see them again, and for them to meet Charlie.

I really haven’t done the weeks we’ve spent in this last entry much justice - you get the gist though.

Let’s call it a day there.