Living the dream: Stew and Survivor (Maggie - Airlie)

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. This was on the lovely sundowner beach at Horseshoe bay, where an eclectic mix of laid back holidaymakers created a nice easy going hubbub. We met rock wallabies on one of our bus trips to the over-priced and under stocked IGA supermarket. All in all, a nice holiday style break for us both.

Also joining us today in our trek South is a large pod of whales, who have kept pace with us at a respectable distance for the last few hours. Their presence marked by frequent splashes and blows. One large pair came within earshot (perhaps 150m away) their squeaky gasping breathes reminiscent of ‘Mr. Wheezy’- the asthmatic dolphin we met along the way on our pacific crossing.

Arrived at the low spit, but supposedly safe for the night, anchorage at Cape Bowling Green. Set anchor on our second drop and will now have an evening filled with a couple of my favourite activities: eating stew and watching Survivor!

The evening did go as planned: well fed and entertained - I was allegedly snoring on the sofa by 9:30pm.

Chez was awake early, thankfully not due to any issues with the anchorage or my snoring. A peaceful flat night for both of us. We upped anchor around 6ish, as my old mate Burney (the sun) came up.

We encountered more whales within 1/2 hour of setting off. A little too close for comfort, the pod passing within 50m of us, blowing and arcing as they passed. The remainder of the day was marked by a few more sightings, some big splashy breaches and a couple of dolphins - sights that would surely have a whale watching boat squealing with delight, but for us, by this stage, we’re just glad they’re not too close! Reached our destination, Shark Bay at Cape Upstart early afternoon. We’ve dragged here before - three times in one horrible night! Made sure the anchor was well set this time, slowly letting chain out and getting a bite every step of the way. Fingers crossed we have a better night tonight. - we did.

The slow release of chain, and getting multiple bites along the drop is my new method this season. It seems to be working well, ensuring the anchor is well set even before we do a final pull back to confirm.

Saw more whales in the morning, hearing them behind us before seeing them - Chez said it’s like a child’s squeal.

Long day of motoring followed, wind becoming fierce as we dropped anchor at sunset just one bay short of Airlie: Woodwalk Bay. The waves are slamming into us and the wind howls as we hunker down for what turns out to be….

Well, quite a deep sleep, and waking up to glass smooth water and birdsong… oh and a dolphin or two swimming by! It’s in stark contrast to the night before.

Motored to Airlie in the morning, and dropped close to our usual spot outside Coral sea marina.

There followed:

Water runs to top up the tanks (the water from Maggie, some way from Bobby Bouché standard). Getting more petrol for the outboard, re-provisioning at Coles and, for me, getting a haircut.

During this time, Chez’s back went from dormant to frequently incapacitating. It’s a miserable situation that she’s struggling to get relief from.

We were closely joined by Greg and Jan on Veridian, the four of us finally getting together for that sundowner session we’d first spoken about in Fiji.

Jan cooked a seafood pasta.

Good night with good people: learning a new card game: 5 Crowns, which was fun, easy to pick up, and enjoyed by all.

Dragged anchor again, the usual middle of the night bullshit - the anchor managing to find a new home of its own accord.

We’ve got even more wind coming, so made the jump over to Cid harbour.

Both Itiki and Veridian joining us, and the 50 or so other boats in the relative safety of Cid Harbour as bullets of wind fired down at us close to constantly for the next few days.

In other news, in Greece, Graham and Julie have left ‘Salty Ginger’ with a broker and headed off, thier sailing days, for now at least, bought to a close. As I said to Graham, when we first heard: The oceans of the world will be lesser bodies of water without you two in them.

Before I leave that particular subject, it came to me writing this that those two have touched so many lives with their genuine warmth and kindness - we’re very lucky to have crossed paths.

Perhaps we can do it again sometime - possibly sail to Surrawow together some time in the future, get on each others nerves and fall out completely!

Another lovely pair, Linda and Keith on Itiki, are also in the process of saying goodbye to the boat. They’ve secured a buyer and look to finalise in a couple of months.

I mention this, as Keith, very generously almost gifted me all his fishing gear. A great selection that I felt guilty for taking off his hands so cheaply. It remains to be seen if any of it will catch any fish!!