Woodwark Bay

Tuesday 30th June 2015

Finally we are out of the marina and on our way to anchor somewhere outside the marina environment.

Leaving Airlie Beach behind

Our initial plan was to to go to Cid Harbour.  However, when we left Abell Point, the weather over Whitsunday Island looked very poor. We could see  a lot of rain  clouds and were already experiencing a  a bit of early wind, which turned into a powerful squall with plenty of rain. It was a complete whiteout and visibility was 100m at best, so we decide to just put up a headsail and hide from the weather under the dodger, it was already blowing 18 knots and we were moving along comfortably at around 5-6 knots with just the self  tacker up.

Consulting with Koonya and Wilparina, we decided to head for Woodwark Bay, rather than Cid Harbour, as we had been advised by others that Cid Harbour already had about 40 boats in the anchorage.

Koonya sailing into Woodwark Bay

We ended up having a good sail to Woodwark Bay, running a lure behind the boat all of the way and catching nothing.

It is a very large anchorage with good protection from SE winds, but still a bit bumpy.

Comfortably at anchor Koonya (above) and Wilparina (below)

Once settled, Carole and I put the dinghy in the water and go exploring. It is a very large bay, and right at the end is a luxury residence rented out to the rich and famous. We cannot get ashore as it is low tide and would have to cross a rocky shoal that was too shallow for us to get across.

Looking towards the end of the bay

Dinner tonight is a BBQ on Wilparina. As we have the only dinghy in the water, we provide taxi services.

The strong wind persisted all night, but the rolling was minimal.

Last Couple of Days at Abell Point

Sunday 28^th June 2015

The wind continues to howl, and a check of yesterdays weather observations showed that Hamilton Island had 46 knots last night. One of Smithy’s motor boat mates was over there during it all and said there was a fair bit of tree damage as a result. At Airlie it is very gusty all day with patches of rain, and then a few quiet periods before it is back again.

Janet decided yesterday afternoon to try out Woolies home delivery service, so she put together an order, we added a few heavy items that are a pain to carry over long distances, and the order was placed for morning delivery today. At just after 9 am, the groceries turned up at the marina, and only had to be carried down the marina arm, instead of all they way from town.

It was not a great day to be out and about, so I filled the fuel tank, and topped up the jerry cans, topped up the water tank etc. A walk to the chandlery to get a few bits and pieces helped fill in the morning.

Drinks have been organized on “Ruby”  at 5pm, and we plan to have a baked dinner (chicken) tonight.  The Cobb is fired up and the chicken put on to cook, before we head off. It takes a couple of hours to cook, so should be perfect by the time we return.

Quite a crowd turned up on “Ruby”, with Mark , Janet, ourselves, and Steve and Kim Smith. Ruby is tied up alongside “Mad”, so Garry who we have met along the way also dropped in, as did another couple from another Dufour that the Foghartys knew.

Baked vegies were put on when we got back to the boat and we had a very nice baked dinner with Mark and Janet. Carole dressed up her home baked chocolate brownies for desert which went down very well.

Looks like another windy and rainy night. The winds at Hammo reached 38 knots tonight.

Monday 29^th June 2015

Heavy rainfall greeted us as we rose this morning, it is still blowing hard, and a cruise ship has arrived in Pioneer Bay.  Passengers are being ferried ashore to our end of the marina, to be greeted by local volunteers and a live band.

In the meantime, the team ( a man and lady from Quantum Marine) arrived to remove Koonya’s mainsail and take it off to the loft for repair. It is a big sail and it took 4 of us to get it down and 3 of us to carry it off the marina arm to the awaiting truck.

Carole and I walked into Airlie Beach to buy some fresh veges etc, as we hope to get out of the marina tomorrow. The town was full of tourists from the cruise ship, hopefully they spent some money in the town.

Steve and Kim booked a hire car and went to Dingo Beach for lunch, and then on to have a look at Bowen. We hung around the marina to help put the sail back on Koonya, which turned up just after lunch, nicely repaired. It was still very windy, so getting it back on the mast was a bit challenging, but all went well.

We are meeting lots of people, as everyone is walking around the marina legs waiting for this crap weather to pass through. Today was wetter than the previous few and equally as windy.

A new neighbor arrived on the other side of our arm this morning, a 58 foot yacht called Pilgrim, which runs charters in Sydney Harbour. They decided to head North this year, to escape the Sydney winter,  and have already picked up a couple of charters to keep them busy. Otherwise, they will just enjoy themselves.

Dinner tonight was at Barcelona Restaurant at the marina. We dined with Steve and Kim, and Mark and Janet opted for a quiet dinner on board. The meal at Barcelona was pretty good, much better than the table service.  

We hope to be heading out into the Islands in the morning. The forecast is still not great, but we have had enough of sitting on the marina waiting for something better.

Exploring Airlie Beach

Saturday 27th June 2015

The community markets are on today in the area outside the yacht club, so we met up with Kim and walked around there at 9 am. Mark and Janet were going to ride their bikes around, but they had not been unpacked when we left.

It is very gusty this morning and the market stalls are finding it a fair challenge to keep there tents upright. Nevertheless, there is an interesting collection of all of the normal clothing, handicrafts, home made pickles and jams, food stalls, and nice fresh vegetables, with a strong Thai influence.

Another surprise at the the markets was the "Old Peoples Choir", not sure they would describe it that way, but they enthusiastically sang songs from an era that we identified with.

We bought salad ingredients, and a green papaya salad that had been prepared raw and came with a Thai dressing. We had it for lunch, and it was delicious, if not a little heavy on the chilli.

The standout boat at the marina at the moment is a Wally Yacht which is 30.5m long, and draws 4.9 m, so is located on a berth near the fuel wharf which must be the deepest part of the marina. As impressive as the yacht itself, is it's tender, which is located on our marina arm.

The Wally 30.5 metre yacht "Indio"

Indio's tender, Indi Jones

Next priority was to find a venue to see the Super 15 Semi Finals. Based on recommendations from the marina staff, we head to Mangrove Jacks Restaurant at the Airlie Beach Hotel, which has a sports bar atmosphere with several screens on Foxtel displaying live sports, and a bistro. It took some time and effort to get them to change the channel to the one which showed the rugby, but eventually they got there.  The boys arrived just before 5.30pm to see the Hurricanes vs Brumbies game, and the girls arrived at just after 6.30am, at which time it was raining.

The Brumbies lost to the Hurricanes, we ordered our dinner which was good food, and sadly watched the Waratahs beaten by the referee and the Highlanders. At least we no longer need to follow the rugby finals.

Our First Full Day at Abell Point Marina

Friday 26th June 2015

As forecast the strong winds blew in at around 3 am, at around 30 knots, it is nice to be sitting on a marina berth.

This morning, I had a bit of a look around at the boats on our marina arm before we got involved in heading out shopping. There are some old workhorses that take tourists out for a sail, and some very nice new super yachts here.

Condor isn't getting any younger

Concerto

This Oyster 725, "Spirit of Phantom", from London is very impressive

We have seen this boat at a few anchorages along the way. She has lots of space and stabilisers and always seemed to be the party boat.

It has been windy most of the day, and we decide to walk to Cannonvale (around 2km each way), to do some shopping at a supermarket (in this case Coles), and to top up on beer and wine. I towed my trusty folding trolley all of the way there in hope of finding some bargains.

The walk is very scenic and takes you along the waterfront for most of the way.

Looks like this boat didn't make it through the cyclone

Looking out at the anchored, or moored boats, in Pioneer Bay

Carole went off to Coles, whilst I investigated the BWS store to see if they had anything worth buying. As it turned out, they had a good range of products at reasonable prices after discount. We left happily with a good range of red wine, and 24 cans of beer.

Transporting our BWS purchases home

With the shopping out of the way, we went back to the boat to do a few chores and await the arrival of Koonya. They came in just after lunch and were allocated the super yacht berth next to us. They had a great sail in a strong SE breeze getting here in just under 4 hours. We have so much room, we could fit another boat in between us, and another forward of us on the same arm.

Mica and Koonya berthed at Abell Point Marina

Ruby also arrived about 15 minutes before them, but they have been berthed miles away. Soon after a big Hanse 545 called "12 Moons", flying a German flag arrived and tied up on Smithy's arm.

Mark's BBQ had finally arrived after being repaired, so during the afternoon we refitted it and this time it appears to work.

It seemed appropriate to have a BBQ for dinner, so we invited Smithy and Kim to join us, and Geoff and Jenny from Ruby came around for pre dinner drinks. The girls got a bit carried away with snacks to go with our drinks, which ended up being 2 pizzas, as well as the usual chips, dips etc. I think we had probably already had enough to eat, but we soldiered on and cooked our steaks on the newly fixed BBQ, and washed them down with some nice red wine.

Airlie Beach

Thursday 25th June 2015

Our plan was to sail to Airlie Beach this morning, but we were in no great hurry. After discussion with Mark and Janet, they have decided to spend another night at Shaw Island, and we decide we will head off to Airlie Beach ahead of the next strong winds that are forecast for the next several days.

We pulled up around anchor at 9.30 am, set our mainsail and headed out into probably the best sailing conditions we have had so far. It was blowing around 9 knots , from the SW, and on dead flat water with about half a knot of favourable current, we were doing 7 knots plus. This lasted until we got to Dent Island, and the wind started to drop out.

Leaving Shaw Island well behind in the background

We sailed through the Molle Channel on the shortest route to Airlie,  past the Molle Islands and the top end of Long Island.

Daydream Island in the foreground

The final outcome was  that we sailed about half of the way, and motored the other half,  a journey that took 4.5 hrs.

Abell Point Marina has come a long way in the past 5 years. The service ethic is unbelievable, and we end up in a super yacht berth, which makes Mica look pretty small.

Having settled all of the administrative issues and had a good look around on foot, including a walk into town, we head back to the marina to catch up with Smithy from Wilparina and his other Akuna Bay mates.

We were planning to have a game of golf tomorrow at Laguna Quays, but have found out that the complex has been bought out by Chinese investors and is being redeveloped before re-opening. This is becoming a bit of a common theme as we head up the coast and the same seems to apply to Brampton and Lindeman Island resorts.

We will check out the golfing alternatives in the morning, but have no enthusiasm to go back and play the Proserpine Course we played 5 years ago.

Once we had our look around we ended up on Wilparina for some pre dinner drinks, followed by dinner at the Sorrento Restaurant at the marina, that offered good value Italian food. The seafood risotto, and Spanner crab and prawn linguini proved the most popular dishes.

Shaw Island

Wednesday  24^th June 2015

The 6 am squall struck again this morning, but without the rain. A quick check of the radar showed a developed band of rain off the coast with a heavy downpour off Keswick Island. Once the squall passed the wind settled back to 15 -20 knots SE, we were ready to go.

Getting off the marina berths in this wind is challenging, because the berths run east/west. I helped Lex get “Rambler” of his berth and he headed out about 30 mins before us. Mark and a passer by helped push us off the arm just enough so that I could get out of the berth, turn downwind and reverse out, as I was being blown onto the marina arm.

Once into the outer harbour we put up our main and were ready to go. After a bit of a bumpy ride out into deeper water, we had a great sail to Shaw Island, gybing our way up the coast. We travelled 43 nm in just under 7 hours, in manageable seas.

Mike supervising the autopilot (it is still pretty cold here in the mornings !)

There is still bit of cloud and rain over Brampton Island

As we turned the corner at Burning Point to enter the anchorage, we saw a lot of familiar boats. “Charm” was there, as was “Eureka” and “Rambler” arrived just before us.

We went ashore at just after 4pm for some sundowners on the beach with Lex. He had caught a nice Spanish mackerel on his way, sadly we did not put a line over,  enjoying the sailing too much.

Mark and Lex 

 Carole, Lex, Mark and Janet having a relaxing drink and chat on the beach

There are about 13 boats anchored here, in what must be one of the better SE wind anchorages in this area.

Just before dark, we headed back to our boats and will make our plans in the morning about what time “Koonya” and “Mica” will head off to Airlie Beach.  Arrival at the marina has to be after 12 noon, and we are looking at a 4 hour sail, so there is no pressure for an early start.

Time to head back to our boats

Another Day in Mackay

Tuesday 23rd June 2015

With a plan to head out at 7 am, all we needed was a nasty little rain squall at 6am that dumped a lot of rain and very gusty strong winds. We decided to delay departure to see how it developed as neither of us fancied a day sailing in the rain.

Even the marina arm is covered in water 

At 10 am, there were still heavy falls just North of here in a band that ran across from Brampton Island to the mainland. No-one was enthused to head into weather that was worse than we were experiencing here, so we abandoned our plans and will go tomorrow. We will give Goldsmith Island a miss and head straight to Shaw Island, which is quite a nice anchorage. On Thursday, we will then have a leisurely sail to Airlie Beach, (only about 25 nm), where we have booked into Abell Point Marina.

A number of boats that left earlier than us are already there, so we also look forward to catching up with a few people.

Today is a bit of a lazy day, going for walks, doing a bit of extra washing and a few things around the boat. Only one boat left the marina today, and they didn't even put a sail up. They look like they were motoring out east in the direction of Keswick/St Bees Islands which are not far from here.

Mark and Janet got put their folding bikes and went for a ride to Slade Point, and met a resident who had taken his 6m tinnie from here to Kurumba in the NT.

We shared a BBQ on board Mica tonight and will leave tomorrow. The weather forecasts here are allover the place, so as long as there is some sort of trend, that is all you can trust.

Reprovisioning in Mackay

Monday 22nd June 2015

The wind howled last night, bouncing the boat around on the marina berth, accompanied by some early morning rain.

It is a designated shopping day today and we caught the bus from the marina into Canelands Shopping Centre at around 9 am. We gave Woolies a good workout, I had a haircut, loaded up with a few other essentials and caught a maxi taxi back to the marina after a light lunch at the shopping centre.

When we unloaded all of our groceries from the cab, there was not a marina trolley in sight and it is a long walk to our berth. The trolley shortage here is frustrating, and we will try to avoid provisioning in Mackay in future.

We caught up with a few of the other yachts we have seen along the way and discussed what everyone is thinking for the next few days. There are a few looking to leave tomorrow, as we are, but the challenge is to get to the next secure spot before another bout of strong winds. In our case we will head for Airlie Beach. If conditions are right in the morning, we will sail to Goldsmith Island, and anchor there overnight before moving on to Shaw/Lindeman the next day.

Trip planning from now on, and on the last couple of legs, requires careful attention to the tides, as the worst seas are generated by wind against tide, and strong tidal currents. In this area the flooding tides flow south and the ebb tide to the north, so the most comfortable sailing in a strong SE breeze is running with an outgoing tide. This generally results in flatter seas and a bit of help from the current.

Rambler, owned by Lex who we met at Curlew, is on a nearby arm, also looking at leaving tomorrow

Boats are prepared and ready to go. Koonya has found there are plenty of places to hang the washing which dries very quickly in these windy conditions.

Keeping the sheets out of the water was the main challenge

We decide to have dinner at The Deck Steakhouse at the marina tonight, and had a good meal at a reasonable price. We will have an early night and hopefully when we get up in the morning, the conditions will look good to go. The forecasts look fine at this stage and hopefully it won't be bucketing down with rain.

Mackay

21st June 2015

A nice change to have a good nights sleep in still water, despite plenty of wind noise in the marina. We awake to a fine day with a breeze similar to yesterday, but predicted to increase later in the day.

Fully rested, we catch up on our communications with everyone, having been out of touch for the last 5 days.  Following that, we go for a late morning walk out along the breakwater, and are surprised at how extensive the cyclone damage to the wall has been. Obviously it is now under substantial repair.

As we are walking out, a ship is heading towards the harbour, so we sit down and watch the whole process of the ship entering the harbour and being docked in a very strong crosswind.

Ship "Alexander Spirit" entering the outer harbour

Tugs working heard to push her towards her berth against a strong southerly wind

During the docking process, the outer harbour is closed to traffic, and no-one can leave from the marina. There is a catamaran going around in circles in the inner harbour for at least half an hour waiting for clearance, and when it is finally clear, six fishing dinghies race out into the outer harbour, followed by a large trawler. There is lots of activity around the areas where the tugs have stirred up mud from the harbour bottom, but we have no idea what is going on.

The fishing boats race out into the harbour whilst the mud stirred up by the tugs is still there

Soon a trawler appears, seeming to co-ordinate activities

The trawler then headed out to sea towing all of the fishing boats ?

The catamaran finally gets up his sails and heads North (why in these conditions ?), and the trawler emerges with the six fishing boats towed behind him heading out to sea.

After an entertaining time watching all of the boating antics, we strolled back to the marina, deciding to have lunch at the Mackay Yacht Club on the way. The club was very busy, obviously a bit of a favourite place to go on a Sunday. Initially, we had to sit in the back of the club with no view, as all the good tables were reserved, but soon they left and we had a nice lunch with lovely harbour views.

With full stomachs we headed back to our boats, for a bit of a rest. We have agreed to eat on board tonight and are looking forward to a seafood curry that Carole is cooking, using some green prawns we have had in the freezer from Yeppoon, some queenfish from our mates on "Charm" and a Kerala seafood curry mix we bought in Yeppoon.

It was great !

As we go to bed tonight the wind is howling and the boat leaning against our berth so hard I have put an extra fender there to absorb the load. Glad we are in the marina, because anchoring anywhere in this would not be pleasant.

Head to Mackay for Shelter

Saturday 20th June 2015

The weather forecast is deteriorating and strong winds are forecast for Sunday and Monday, with 20-25 knots expected for today. All of the boats at our anchorage departed at between 6 and 7 am this morning, including us. It has been windy all night and we already have a 20 knot SE breeze to help us get to Mackay.

We sailed with a mainsail only with a single reef in it and covered the 46 mile trip in 7 hours averaging 6.6 knots, and reaching 11.3 knots maximum. We had a slight adverse current due to the incoming tide which reduced our speed over ground a little. The seas were rough and the short wave frequency here can make for some uncomfortable sailing when the wind is against the tide. There are a lot of shoals in a direct line to Mackay, so we opted for a more comfortable ride and stuck to the deep water, through the Prudhoe Channel.

It was an overcast and cool day, and we were happy to be tied up in the marina at Mackay by 2 pm.

Fortunately we were able to get on the same marina arm, close to each other

Once registered at the marina, we had a late lunch, and my afternoon project was unblocking the forward head, which had inadvertently tried to consume a tissue (unsuccessfully). Once that was done, we relaxed for a while, and after a pre dinner drink, went to Georges Thai Restaurant in the marina complex for dinner. The food was good, if not a bit Australianised, but the service wasn't terrific. They were understaffed and the restaurant wasn't as busy as you would expect on a Saturday night. The whole marina seems a bit quiet, and apparently things aren't that great in Mackay economically since the large cutbacks in the coal mining a few years back.

In any case, we enjoyed our meal, caught up with a few of the people we have met along the way who are also seeking refuge for a few days, and headed back to our boats for a good nights sleep.

A Second day at Curlew

Friday 19^th June 2015

We had such a nice day at Curlew yesterday, we decided to spend another day here, before moving on to Mackay. Two of our Hanse companions, “Soleil” and “Eureka”, left this morning, as did “Magma”.

Only 2 Hanses left this morning

The guys on “Charm” are still here, as are 2 other yachts. After breakfast we went ashore for a walk and further exploration.

Rocks pushed up to form a natural retaining wall, we think from the recent cyclone

The Casuarinas took a fair beating with roots exposed and rocks washed between the roots

Lex , a guy on his own on a yacht  "Rambler", decided to have a beach BBQ for lunch and lit a fire and invited everyone. We sat and talked with him and Ken and Robert from “Charm” for sometime, but didn’t have anything ready for BBQing, so eventually headed back to our boats for lunch.

Robert had caught a 12 kg Queenfish off the back of their boat last night, and we were immediately offered some, as they had more than they could eat. Ken delivered some to each of our boats after lunch.

Ken delivering the queenfish fillets

The weather today is a bit overcast, ahead of a change expected to start coming through tomorrow. We are all heading out of here prior to the strong winds expected for Sunday.

This afternoon a Beneteau Sense, “La Tardis”, arrived, and later a motor boat that we had previously seen at Hunter Island.

At 4pm we went ashore to have a go at the oysters which are everywhere on the rocks at low tide. Whilst they were small, they were very tasty, and washed down with a bit of champagne, made for a perfect end to our last day at Curlew before leaving for Mackay in the morning.

The girls waste no time getting into the oysters

Time for a glass of champagne and a snack