Fun in FNQ (Magnetic Island - Cairns)

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 wonderful spot - gorgeous out of scale rock formations dot the shore, and the sunsets across the water have been spectacular.

Spent quite some time learning that smoked back bacon rind is NOT a good fishing bait - only two unsuccessful nibbles across a day and half of fishing off the transom. However.. cheese, it turns out, is the go: caught a nice perch the next day with a chunk of cheddar.

Had a couple of good strolls ashore, one of which, along the long sweeping beach, is from where I’m writing this.

As I’ve said before: we rather like Magnetic island - and Townsville for that matter: now a contender in our future plans, more so for Chez than me at this stage ..but isn’t it always the way!

We left there this morning (Sunday 23 June) and have enjoyed a wonderful day sailing / motor sailing in beautiful sunshine. I caught and released a large gorgeous looking Spanish Mackerel. If I hadn’t been making beef stew in the slow cooker, he’d have been dinner, but as we haven’t got a freezer, it’s his lucky day; back to the water he goes which everyone involved is quite happy about. It’s another fish, like the barracuda in Samoa, that I’d previously painted a watercolour of without actually seeing one in the flesh. All in all, I’m a bit pleased with myself with the whole situation.

Our destination for the day is Orpheus Island - made it to our buoy mid afternoon.

After a few too many bowls of excellent beef stew, we had an early night watching ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ in bed (5.5/10, formulaic claptrap).

Woke predawn to the sound of useable wind whistling through the hatches. Both awake, we decided right then was a good time to leave. At time of writing (just shy of 10am), the wind has faded, the swell is in the corkscrew range and Chez is starting to look decidedly peaky. She came good, as did the journey, arriving in to the bay at Dunk Island under sail well before sunset.

Spent a night and a grey day at Dunk - no doubt a beautiful place when the sun shines. Took the tender ashore in the drizzle for a little look see. Dunk was formerly a luxury resort, sadly decimated by a direct hit from cyclone Yasi in 2011. The jungle is slowly reclaiming the beachside apartments for now.. until some enterprising wealthy optimist cleans it up and brings it back to life. (…until the next cyclone hits anyway!). Met a nice Brazilian couple, who were temporarily stranded on the island for a few hours. Their tripper boat crew were busy untangling some fishing lines they’d snagged on the propeller.

Other than that, not much to report from Dunk. Spent an afternoon unsuccessfully fishing off the transom, the highlight (lowlight) being a bite that was big enough to snatch the hand line reel out of my hand and take all the tackle. We did also see something quite spectacular while we were there at Dunk - a fish, perhaps a tuna or large mackerel, jumping 3m in the air (that’s not an exaggeration) and coming back down head first terrorising a school of bait fish. It did this another 2 times, definitely a hunting tactic, but not one we’d seen before.

Left there, a little bleary eyed this morning around dawn (not sunrise..as it’s again an opaque heavy grey sky above us). Making good progress as I write this a few hours later, motoring North to Normanby Island. Arriving mid afternoon, we have the place to ourselves. We took one of the available 24hr buoys and settled down for a lazy afternoon/evening after the early start.

The rolly swell had us both awake predawn, and glad to be moving on shortly thereafter despite not having explored the rather cute little island.

Blessed with a dolphin visit along the way - always a mood lifter - then on to High Island where we anchored in what feels like a smashed coral bottom.

Mid morning we were visited by two very amiable and knowledgeable guys on a fisheries boat - Chris and his un-named mate on the helm, not at all officious, chatted boat to boat about the local regulations for fishing, our plans and some good local spots to head to. A very positive experience from my perspective, and a credit to QLD fisheries. Rowed to shore to see what High Island has to offer: sand, coral, birdsong, butterflies and a jungly lush interior rising high (hence the name) behind the foreshore. There’s also quite a large slippery rock ashore - evidenced by the nasty gash on my shin. Chez advises as she bandages me up; ‘You and Charlie are a right pair!’

The leg’s healing up nicely now, it’s a day later - we lifted the anchor, and headed the two hours over to Fitzroy Island hoping to take one of the four 24hr buoys. All four are taken - by boats that have their washing out drying, and don’t look like moving anytime soon. Given we weren’t very happy with our set in the corally bottom, and that Chez really does need to get an angry abscess on her shoulder looked at, we head on again to Cairns. The winds not quite enough to have the engine off, but sails filled, we make the four hours to our river anchorage just after lunch.

Tender into the marina, an Uber to the out of town medical centre and Chez is soon seen and walking away with a prescription for antibiotics - which happily we already have on the boat.

Back to town via a very chatty Uber driver, who tells us, among may other things, that after Cyclone Jasper (Dec’23), in the flooding that followed, 300 crocodile babies were washed out of their pen on a local farm and into the neighbourhood. - it’s like the start of a horror film!! Blimey.

Dined out on the way home at a dockside Italian - pretty good fair, and some great people watching. I’m now sitting here in the croc rich waters outside the marina - it’s been a long day - I’m off to bed.

Next morning, we upped anchor and took a drive-by the Gingers (currently in Japan), they’re tied to mooring posts front and back - good system, but new to us. Re-anchored and headed over to town to try and sort out a hire car for Port Douglas. It’s a long walk, and Chez’s tender feet and Ill fitting thongs make for a less than cheerful rambling companion. Got to the ‘Rent-a-wreck’ and arranged a $60 a day bargain for later in the week. Home via Woolies, then watched a cruise ship head out. A pilot boat buzzing around the anchorage keeping the area clear - our French neighbours getting told to up anchor and move out of the channel before the cruise ship departed.

We got some happy holidaymaker waves from the ship’s balconies a mere 50m away as it passed. I ruined a curry for dinner - surprisingly managing to either under cook or over cook each and every single component of the meal. This was followed by a really rather good fireworks display on the opposite shore. We had a lazy boat day the next day, I’ve been ticking off a few boat jobs: cleaned a sticking winch, re-furled the Genoa furling line, and today; completed this years tax returns. Doing that while a 2m crocodile hung around the boat, surfacing every now and then to show off its gnarled head and muscular tail. The tail has two tapering jagged ridges down its length, which it gracefully swirls in the murky green water of the channel. I’m really excited by it and so glad to have now seen one in the wild - Chez, while sharing these views to a certain extent, is a little more concerned by the beasts appearance.

The Gingers returned the next day, napping after their early arrival, we caught up with them late afternoon. They helped us get our lines onto the deep set mooring piles. We’ll up anchor and head over first thing with the big boat. We plan to hang there for a few days while we hire a car and head up to Port Douglas for a look see.

That all went to plan, the Gingers helping us from their tender as Chez gently glided us in - fussless.

Over to the shore to find the well hidden marina office, where we paid for a full month at the piles - a surprisingly cheap option.

The P&O cruise ship Pacific Encounter, our new neighbour, provided the entertainment for the next few days.

Hired a car from the aptly named ‘Rent-a-bomb’, spending good times with a Graham and Julie. Firstly heading to Kuranda, a small town just North from here up in the rain forest. Nice vibe to the place: relaxed hippy, and sufficient quirky shops and bush walks to keep us all happily entertained for a full day.

The following day had us heading further North to a frequently visited favourite: Port Douglas.

Apparently, we bought a house there back in 2017.. A house that incidentally I had never actually seen!

After a nice lunch at the Courthouse Hotel (the quickest prepared fish and chips ever!) Chez and I headed off to see the Property manager (Monica) and take a look at the house. The tenant greeted us with ‘welcome to your house!’ Which was all very strange. All good there, the tenants are happy and the income is useful.

Next day: Sundowner drinks with Mowzer (Angus and Zoe), the Gingers, and a few new faces at the Salthouse bar on the dock - nice spot.

Found out a day or so later that Zoe picked up Covid along the way somewhere. The reaction to this news compared to a few years ago; it’s now just seen as a bad cold you need to keep away from.. well that’s how I’m seeing it. We spend some lazy days around Cairns - not a wonderful town, but has all the amenities due to their role as a cruise ship destination.

All too soon our friends are departing, the Gingers, Graham and Julie heading North to continue their adventures. We’re very sad to see them go. They are THE best people! Their departure is leaving a big hole for both of us - Fair Winds friends x