A few departures and Birthday celebrations

Friday 18^th August 2017

Today is Carole’s birthday and it looks like being a very warm day, with only the lightest breeze.

Jo –De 7 left for Townsville at 8 am this morning to get refueled, catch up with some family and then intend heading further North for a few days.

For our morning exercise we went for a walk around to the western side of the Presto Breakwater, which forms the harbour of Nelly Bay. The eastern side of the breakwater, at Bright point, was formed initially by the wreck of an Adelaide Steamships Co ship, named “Presto”, hence the name of the breakwater. The ship was wrecked in a cyclone and towed to form the initial breakwall in 1897.

The rock wallabies are very tame

Bright Point

A park has been established on the western wall, where part of the wreck is on display, and the story of the Presto explained on a series of displays. A few sculptures and some landscaping has made quite and interesting park. There is also a great view of the bay, marina and Peppers resort.

Remains of the Presto and Carole reading the story boards that explain the history

Ferry leaving Nelly Bay

Looking back towards the Marina, Peppers and the Ferry terminal

Janet from Koonya is flying home today for a week, and we arrived back at the marina just in time to see her off. Mark intends to follow her tomorrow. The strong winds in Sydney have disrupted flights, so it looks like she is in for some long delays.

Lunch involves a walk to Arcadia, to a restaurant that sells home cooked meals and is famous for their pies. Pip’s Homemade did not disappoint on the pies, and Carole’s Coral Trout and salad also looked pretty good.

The walk along Geoffery bay was a very different view to what we have been used to with a very low tide totally exposing the reef.

Low tide at Geoffery Bay

We walked off our lunch returning to the marina, and hid from the afternoon heat fir a few hours before heading out to Horseshoe Bay, for Carole’s Birthday dinner at a highly rated restaurant, Barefoot Art, Food and Wine.

Walking from the bus stop to the restaurant we ran into John and Sue from imagine, having dinner at the marlin Bar. They had arrived back from their trip North to Orpheous Island and anchored in Horseshoe Bay. The will return to the marina tomorrow.

Mark from Koonya and Brian and Amanda from Dalwhinnie joined us for dinner, and the food was very good with the serves quite generous.