Last Day in Mackay

Sunday 10^th September 2017

Still at Mackay, it is an overcast morning but relatively still. Today we are waiting for the wind to move to the east a bit more, get the laundry done, and do the last day preparations for departure tomorrow for Curlew Island.

The morning is occupied with chores and a late morning walk out to the end of the breakwater to check the sea conditions, and get some exercise.

Laundry duty was high on the priority list and it gave us a great opportunity to again use our new folding trolley, as somehow the pile kept on growing.

Trolley in its packed form

Trolley expanded out and ready for use

The view back over the marina highlights how many spare berths there are here at the moment, adding a little bit of substance to our thoughts that the numbers of people cruising are down this year.

Lots of spare berths  and some repairs still incomplete

However it is a very large marina as this view from the outer harbour shows

The revived Sports Club, now Breakwater Café, and the downstairs tenant involved in paddle boarding and kayaking, seem to be having a good day. The stand up paddle boarding classes seem popular and everyone is dressed with great confidence that they will not fall in !

We ended up walking all of the way back to the Northern end of the marina for lunch, so have covered our exercise needs for the day.

Whilst we were enjoying our lunch, (a very generous burger), a fishing charter boat had berthed just in front of us, and were discharging their customers and catch. There were a lot of sealed polystyrene containers and smiling fishermen that left the boat, so one can only assume it was a successful trip.

Fishing charter boat unloading its customers and catch

Finally back on mica we have a lazy afternoon (or what is left of it) and are ready to go early tomorrow morning.  It looks like we have a few days of good weather ahead, with another strong wind system moving in on Friday, so we will plan to get to Rosslyn Bay (Yeppoon) Thursday night.

Internet coverage will  be a bit rough for the next few days as we travel through the military training zone, so it might be a few days after Curlew for blog updates.