Pilings (Cairns - Maggie)

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 hopefully they enjoyed it too

What else has been going on… well, let’s not sugar coat:

Arguments - proper dingdongs.

Glum days.

Kidney stones and a helicopter crash.

The pesky stone had me twice up to the hospital in the worst pain I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing. All good now - the stone finally showing itself after three long weeks.

Cairns isn’t a bad place, we’re now familiar with the local nutters (one leg, the shouty bike guy, and the fat tanned walrus who sits outside the library)

Our days, had slipped into something of a routine when we go ashore: public shower, Maccas for breakfast, library for wifi, peace and aircon, then Woolies to top up the food, and back to the boat via the taps on the dock to keep our water topped up.

I’m sure lots more has happened between July and Sept, but high level, that’s about it!

It’s now the 6th Oct. No excuses: I’ve let the diary fall by the wayside - artwork, learning Spanish, a bit of Economics, Scrabble with a lady from Croatia and various other online pursuits have been alternatively filling my spare time.

However, I’m now compelled to write again, as the overnight passage we’ve just completed is yet another that’s well worth a mention;

We’d been staying on oh so beautiful Magnetic island. We left Horseshoe Bay on Maggie at first light yesterday morning. Initially motoring (as we’d expected). The wind rose and was just far enough off the nose, for us to get the sails up.

Late afternoon we were both standing in the cockpit during one sail adjustment, when I noticed a flat patch of shiny clear water drift past us. It’s about 3m round, I point it out to chez, and we start discussing what it might be when that question is well and truly answered for us..

The wide glistening black back of a whale arcs out of the water about 5m away from our Port bow. It lets out a big gasping breath, releasing a slightly yellow tinged cloud of vapour. This, thankfully, drifts past us without bothering our nostrils. Both now intently staring at the area where it had just disappeared, we were immediately treated to another graceful show;

Taking a final inward breath, another whale arced out and departed with a slow flick of its perfect tail. Revealing a porcelain smooth dappled white underside contrasting with its shiny blue/black upper.

The pod (no idea how many but at least 5) stayed around, showing themselves in 5-10 minute intervals, expelling large puffs of vapour. I feel very honoured to have seen them.

A whale visit is a rarer occurrence than seeing dolphins, and unlike one of their visits, it also comes with a small nagging concern: When they’re this close, a wrongly timed breach by something of that size could easily take out both us and the boat - that feeling passed, the whales headed off, and we rapidly move on to the next adventure.

I had two rods trailing, the older and uglier of the two, is baited with a cheap pink Kmart squid jelly, with a weight and hook inside.

An hour or so before sunset: SQEEEEAALL! Goes the reel. I’d hooked into something big. It’s stealing line fast enough that I had to employ my (soon to be patented) spit on thumbs and use them as a brake method to try and slow the rapidly spinning reel without losing all my line or burning them too badly! After surrendering most of my line to the powerful beast, I eventually manage to slow the reel to a stop - stalemate position. From there I begin the slow task of trying to get it onboard.

.....and without all the boring details, I did eventually get a 1m plus wahoo right up to the transom….where I lost out to a frantic head flick and some broken fishing line. That takes the ongoing tally against this particular fish variety to:

Wahoo 2, Richy 0.

Chez seemed genuinely traumatised by the whole affair (she’s not a fan at the best of times), so the rods are put away and it’s tinned ravioli for dinner.

A great night passage followed, with periods of sail alone, at one point (specifically Abbott’s Point) we had to weave our way through a stationary field of tankers. They’re awaiting loading with coal (I think) - it was quite erie passing by their well lit hulking bows in the dark. Both managed to get a few hours sleep, and arrived just shy of midday into a perfect secluded bay one headland short of Airlie beach (Woodward Bay). Peaceful serenity - it’s utterly gorgeous here, two swallows greeted us as we relaxed after setting the anchor in this tranquil paradise.

…and that entry seems to end there.

We did return to Bundaberg, nearly running out of fuel on the run in. On arrival there, our neighbour, an old salt called Peter very kindly, and unbidden made us a dinner of spanakopita - what a guy! Hauled out there and spent a few months on land.