Mackay marina

I took this photo this morning while doing my yoga. It was a beautiful sunrise, boy was it cold though!!

We put fuel in the tanks at Mackay and cleared the harbour wall by 9:30. We had a pleasant sail in light winds. We started out with SSE, but once we cleared Slade Pt we had SSW, and by later in the day it went to the East. We ran wing and wing all day.

Now anchored in a very comfortable peaceful spot!! We came out here because we haven't been here before, and what a beaut spot it is. I would much rather be here then St. Bees or Keswick. It is a good NE/SE anchorage. One we will be back to again no doubt.

on our way tomorrow

Well we will be on our way again tomorrow. It has been a good stay at Mackay. We finished the stay with Nancy & John from Alana Rose and the crew from Scarlett at the Mackay sailing club. We all met tonight for a couple drinks. Nancy was telling me how good the pizzas were at The Lighthouse, so instead of having a meal at the club we said goodnight and went for a pizza. I have to say it was probably the best pizza I've had in Australia! It was a good way to finish our stay as we haven't been so lucky with our eat out meals!

We are all provisioned except for the fuel which we will get in the morning. Scarlett is also heading out tomorrow, while John & Nancy stay to finish painting Alana Rose's bottom. We will look forward to catching up with them up the track for sure!!

List nearly complete!

It always feels so good to accomplish your list! We have just a few more jobs to do, well Bruce has a few more jobs to do, service generator, and refuel. We still have to have the engines serviced, oil change, impellers change, new radiator caps installed. That should be happening this afternoon. Then we need to give her a good belt of revs to blow out a clogged injector, as that seems to be a the problem with the port engine. My last jobs is to restock! we are working to get it all done so we can play tomorrow and Friday.

We have a car booked for tomorrow, and Friday we want to have another good look around, and of course use it to do our shopping. My shopping list is nearly ready for tomorrow.

Now that the boat is all clean from the inside out we are going off to have some warm fish & chips!! It is a beautiful sunny but rather chilly day! Oh and maybe another latte! YUM

Land Side in Mackay!

Well I guess you can't have all sailing days! We motored all day yesterday to reach Mackay marina. Arrived about 15:45. We don't have too long here, so we will be full n for a few days. The mechanic is arriving this morning to have a look at the port engine. I'm off to do laundry now, and started with some of the clean up yesterday afternoon!

I have a girlfriend from Dru yoga here and hope to catch up with her for a chat, and of course theres some shopping to do! Spotlight here I come. We will have to rent a car for a day, but that will be a fun thing!

Well I'm signing off now so i can get it all happening!

Hunter to Curlew

Well today was not as fast as yesterday! We averaged about 5 kts in some confused seas. We're anchored now in the NE anchorage on Curlew Island. I feel we are making progress as we are now in the northern coast on the weather reports, and as we travel up we move through the tide book and are now using tides from Mackay.

We will be in Mackay tomorrow. Weather has turned to drizzle rain and it looks like it will be around for a few days.

When we left GKI , Scarlett a seawind 1160 we met while at Lady Musgrave, also left. They are a family on an adventure to sail around Australia in a year. It was good to meet them, and we hope to see them a few more times as we make our way north. I'm going to enjoy their adventure through their blog and thought I would post the link here for others to enjoy as well.

http://web.mac.com/craigandkerry/SCARLETT/Home.html

I'm looking forward to time at the marina tomorrow and the next few days. It will be good to get the boat washed and all the laundry done, legs & armpits shaved and a long, long hot shower!! We've been away for 3 weeks now. We're also hoping to catch a movie as The Pirates fourth movie has been released!

It will be nice to try and catch up with John & Nancy on Alana Rose as well. We have been in the same anchorage for the last few nights, but by the time we get in and get settled it gets a bit late for a visit.

Well thats all for now. I will post some photos later. Time for a shower and to make some dinner.

Sail from Island Head to Hunter Island

We had another fabulous sail today. In 15 to 20 kts of wind E/SE. Coming out of Island Head was very confused seas. Once away from the Cape we started to get back into some more of the swells instead of wave chop. We sailed under full sail and average nearly 7 kts. We were anchored at Hunter by 13:30. WInds still strong and have been for the last week. Tomorrow we will move on to Curlew Island, and then into Mackay on Monday. There is another strong SW change on its way and should be here by Tuesday. Today was nice and warm day, but it is expected to get colder again with the SW change.

sailing from GKI to Island Head Creek

Into Island Head Creek and we anchored inside this creek, winds shifted more to the East and it's not as comfortable now may move on to another anchorage.

2 1/2 to 3 m seas

storms all around, but we manage to stay dry!

Last day on GKI

Time to move on

We have had such a good time at Keppel. The camp that Trish & Lance made is such a good spot to go and hang out! We've been there nearly everyday since we arrived. The weather hasn't changed all that much. Strong wind warnings are gone, but still have 20/25 in forecast and some swell from SE. Tides are starting to come down a bit we had a spring tide along with King tides, which makes for a lot of water moving.

We will decide in the morning, but I think we will be moving on. After here we won't have internet for a few days. We will be making our way towards Mackay.

Camp Keppel

We are having such a good time at camp Keppel. Today we met a couple from Silver Lining, Peter & Sandra. Also had Carl & Lyndie they live here, Trish & Lance, and Rod & Jo off of Zulu come around.

We sang songs, ate coconuts, sat by the fire, and had afternoon tea.

GKI again

Well our lovely week on the reef came to an end yesterday. We went from Lady Musgrave to Fitzroy lagoon where we stayed another 2 nights. Then we were issued a strong wind warning for Sunday, and knew it was time to leave. The only problem with reef anchorages is that once there you can't plan to have any night or early departures as you need to see where it is you're going as far as bommies go. Even though you have a gps trail we wouldn't want to go without having a good visual. The earliest we felt we could attempt to exit was around 8 a.m. we decided that we would sail onto GKI as we are comfortable coming into this anchorage at night. Bruce wanted to go to Yellow Patch, but we haven't been there before and there is a bit of a bar to cross to enter, and it was going to be dark by the time we got there, so we'll have to save that for another time. You can't do everything in one trip, and we were so happy to have reef time. That is what we want to explore more of this year.

We finally caught up with Euphoria, and Alana Rose! We've all been facebooking each other, and today we are all in the same anchorage. We went a shore to what Trish calls camp Keppel, a place to gather around a camp fire. Was really good to finally catch up with them all. We might even see more of each other along the way as we all want to go to the same places this year.

We are staying here through this next lot of strong winds then heading on.

Mothers Day 2011

Lady Musgrave Reef
A pod of dolphins a few hours off Lady Musgrave.

We left Awinya Creek around 7 pm on Saturday night, and travelled through the night to arrive in good time to enter Lady Musgrave lagoon. We wanted the sun to be high enough so we could spot the bommies. We arrived at around 11:00 a.m.

On the way we saw a hugh pod of dolphins, and some came to swim on our bow. I took this as mothers days gift from the Universe! I thanked the girls for sending Jolly Man to me. ;o)

I did miss not being able to see or speak to the girls on this day, but doing one of my most favourite things, snorkelling, made up for it!!

All went well on the entrance, but it did takes us a couple of times to get the anchor secure.

Although we were tired after travelling all night (we took shifts 2 hrs on 2 hrs off) we decided to take advantage of the calm waters and sunshine. We put on our gear and got in the dingy, and went to find some reef to snorkel on. It is a good thing we did as yesterday it blew and rained all day, and today the sun is shining, but it's been blowing about 20 kts all day.

Platypus Bay

We had a GREAT sail today! Winds today were from the S/SW to S/ SE from 11 to 19 kts. Sailed with the wind through the straits, and around to Awinya Creek, Fraser Island. Once we tacked towards Fraser we had the wind on our beam and we were flying along. Clocked 9.4 kts at one time with a wind gust to 30.6 kts. From here we will sail to Lady Musgrave.

Wide bay bar crossing

sunrise
even Bruce is rugged up
I have on so many layers brrrr
Ngaragen coming out while we were getting ready to cross
The washing machine between way pt 2 & 3
A beautiful sunset!

It was a very good night last night. We had some really strong thunderstorms come through the Mooloolaba area around 5 to 6 last night. I was glad they moved through while we were in the marina. We weren't planning to leave until 8 because we wanted to be crossing the bar the last hour of the run in tide. The first way pt was 54 nautical miles away, and we worked on an average of 5 kts. The exit out of Mooloolaba went well! We had some calm weather after the storms. Once outside we did get into some swell, but they were long period swells and not very big. We did get some wind during the first part of the night of off Coolum and we were able to sail for a while. That was really nice WSW around 16 kts. under the headsail. Then the winds died off again.

At around 2 a.m. I asked Bruce to have a lie down, so I could have the helm for a while. I had it for 1 1/2 hours while he rested. Right before he woke up I started to see shooting stars. I saw 3 in a row. When he took the helm I had a lie down for about 45 mins. By now it was a little after 4, and I wanted to enjoy the last part of the evening. I made us a cup of tea, and we both were in awe of the sky so lit up by the stars, and so many meteorites. We were like there ones and another oh wow did you see that one? I saw one that I actually saw the smoke trail behind!

Then we were greeted by this sunrise. (above) The bar itself wasn't bad, it was the area between 2 & 3 that was quite animated!

Once inside the harbour we decided to continue n to cross the Sheridan Flats before the tide got too low. We finally anchored at Yankee Jacks around 12. Had an relaxing rest of the day. Then we were blessed by this sunset! Maybe it is a sign that this cruising season is going to be a good one!

we're making ready

Yesterday we took advantage of the sunny day and washed the boat and all the cushions. I finally got our laundry done as its been a while since we had sunshine! We are getting ready to leave Mooloolaba, and the boat is just about finished. A few jobs tomorrow before we leave. Bruce has to replace a batten in the main sail, and I'm out and about doing the shop for fresh produce & grog.

Had a long hot shower tonight as I do before we leave the marina. Tomorrow weather i looking good so far, but the stronger winds that had beeb predicted for Thursday are now coming in late Wednesday. Also now in the forecast is for scattered thunderstorms, which wasn't n the forecast earlier. We are going to be pushing off about 7:30ish to make a morning crossing over the Wide Bay bar.

Jo's Birthday

We went down to Brisbane for Jo's birthday. We also celebrated with Peta as her birthday is coming soon, and we won't be around for it. It was a fun day with Jo, Mitch, Issa, Peta, Samantha & Brendan.