Mixed bag (Shaw Island and onwards)

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 were taken, and after one unsuccessful attempt at anchoring in the sloping broken coral bottom, we agreed to push on. We made it in post-sunset half light to Funnel Bay. The bay is so called because the wind funnels down there - well not for us: slept like babies. Woke to find a boat we know from Greece sharing the bay with us: Schooner Windjammer.

We last saw them in Elounda in Crete - since then they travelled East, and we travelled West - a joint circumnavigation if you will.

Managed to arrange a spot in the marina, and in completely different conditions to our arrival at Mackay, we docked beautifully. Tied up, faffed for a bit, then with a quick hug and a kiss goodbye, I jumped on the airport shuttle from where I write this.

And after an unexpectedly lovely week with Charlie I’m back on the boat up in Airlie marina. Did I mention I won two back to back poker tournaments while I was down there? (….lost a few games of Scrabble though)

First night back, into town, bucket of prawns, fish and chips and back home to both collapse on our bed at 8pm!

Next day, fueled up and headed out to anchor outside the breakwater - on the cheaper side! Took the tender over to Coles and grabbed a few bits we’d missed from our earlier trip to Woolies in town first thing. After a peaceful night at anchor, we headed across to the islands in rising conditions: benign to feisty as we passed Funnel Bay. This did however make for a quick journey across. Nara inlet was to be our destination, but after hearing it was quite rolly there from Linda and Keith (Itiki) we opted to head around the corner to one of our favorite buoys at Stonehaven. Had a howly windy night there, but no roll - for once, very glad to be on a buoy. Remained on that buoy for two days (don’t tell anyone… it’s got a two hour limit!). Left there as soon as we awoke on the second morning. Headed down to Cid Harbour - we’ve anchored there before and know it to be flat and good holding.. what more could you ask for!

After heading below to make some breakfast, I return to an excited Chez telling me she’s seen a couple of puffs of whale breathe some 200m away. Spent the next five minutes staring at nothing but undisturbed blue. Thinking I’d missed them, (or Chez was hallucinating) I was delighted to see a massive breach and splash as the shiny black leviathan broke the surface - happily far enough away not to be a danger to shipping (or more precisely, our ship!) had goosebumps, and feel once again honoured to have seen something so special.

Arrived into peaceful Cid harbour, and are soon joined by Linda and Keith on Itiki. Pop over for coffee and a catch up, and the four of us enjoy a beach stroll. The best nights sleep in a long time follows - wonderful.

Keith spotted a shark feeding while out on his SUP. Had them over for a nice meal: chicken stew and Linda brought over a lovely home made lemon and apple cake. Nice to chat to people who’ve done it - ie had similar journeys to us.

They returned the favour the following day - with us heading over to Itiki for Linda’s rather good moussaka. Exchanged upcoming plans, and will likely meet up with them again in Maggie or Airlie in the coming weeks.

Cid harbour is lovely, ticking nearly all the boxes for me. The only downside is a lack of phone signal - not ideal just at the moment, with sails en-route. This being the case we headed just around the corner into the next bay, where, two blips of 4G can be had if you stand on tippy toes.

This turned out to be a wonderful spot: Ospreys, sharks (black tipped reef shark), turtles, friendly swallows and dolphins. Spent a peaceful couple of days exploring the shoreline and relaxing - all rather lovely. From there, we headed back over to South Mole - another cyclone damaged resort ashore.

Had a morning stroll across the causeway with Chez, then an afternoon one on my own up to the peak, Spion Point, which, as advertised, did have some wonderful views. It also had another single male stroller: Don. He turned out to be a chatty sailor, and occasional single hander on a boat called ‘Honigdach’ which I was a bit pleased with myself for being able to translate: honey badger!

Two walks in one day = healthy afternoon nap: from which I have just woken to write this.

From South Mole, we headed back to Airlie to reprovision and pick up our new sails - due to arrive from Hong Kong (Far East Sails) any day now.

Had a couple of greyer than usual days in the anchorage outside Coral Sea Marina.

Did some re-provisioning and water top ups.

The sails arrived - which we were able to pick up without having to get a costly marina berth. Yay! Fitted them when the wind dropped without any major issues.

Had a nice final dinner out with Linda and Keith at the exceptionally busy Whitsunday Yacht club, food was good, but very noisy (God I sound old!)- they’re heading South, and we’re going up to Magnetic island.

I’m writing this enroute, having just seen a small pod of whales messing around on the surface: splashes, waving fins and big breathes like jets of stream shooting up.. and all that before 7am!

A little later, some way off in front of us and slightly to Port, we had another whale show - was glad it wasn’t closer. Not sure how many, but repeated and sustained breaches, the beasts genuinely seeming to stay upright for longer than you’d think possible, before flopping hard back down into the water with massive white splashes. This was accompanied by repeated massive tail slaps. This went on for some 5mins.. then nothing. There followed a nervous quarter of an hour until we saw them re-surface behind us - once again, very active on the surface with splashes and breathes marking their position. I’ve said it before: it’s nice to see them, but it’s a bit of a worry.. it would only take one flop from one of them.. and.. well it wouldn’t be good! Saw a few more splashes a long way off as we approached Cape Upstart. Our destination for the night: Shark Bay.

The wind hasn’t been too bad today, behind us as in the low to acceptable range, which made for a slightly rolly journey in good sized following seas. The relatively low wind, also meant the new sails - and me - had a good workout, both sails being unfurled and winched back in on a number of occasions.

Dropped anchor and set on the second attempt at sunset. Quick, burgers for dinner and an early night for us both. That was until the gusting howling wind had us dragging anchor at about 10:30pm. Spent half an hour in the cockpit hoping that we’d re - set the anchor. Sadly we hadn’t, and with one more especially vicious gust we were once again dragging. Upped anchor and re-set with more chain out. Not the easiest in darkness with the wind howling round your ears. It’s now just shy of midnight - we do now appear to be holding.

….and then it happened again!

Pretty shitty night all round to be honest.

Up at 5 and away in semi darkness for half hour or so until the sun showed its face.

We’ve got another 60nms to go today to Maggie. Quite a rolly ride today.

The day didn’t start right, but the journey was a good one, the wind dropping to gentle & useable and the sea following in an easy rocking motion. I managed a cat nap mid afternoon.

Saw yet more whales on our approach: this encounter was more:

“Not now!” Instead of “Oh Wow!”, they passed by without incident, and we happily dropped into a relatively busy (but still oodles of room) Horseshoe Bay.