Mackay for a few days

Friday 8^th September 2017

It is a bit overcast this morning and we are headed for Mackay. The breeze is neither strong nor co-operative, being on the nose pretty much all of the way, so we look forward to a few hours of motoring to get to Mackay. “Freestyle 1” the yacht anchored near us pulled up anchor and headed off about 15 minutes ahead of us, also headed for Mackay.

Sea conditions are mild and there is a bit of wind against tide wave action, but it was a comfortable trip and we were in our berth by 10.30am. Somehow we passed Freestyle 1, and they arrived on the same marina leg as us about 20 minutes later.  I suspect they went to the fuel wharf on the way in.

We have booked for 2 days, hoping to get back out there as soon as the wind pattern looks good for a sail South, and we need at least a full day to provision and do washing etc. At the moment, Sunday is not looking promising for departure so we may stay another day and leave on Monday. However, the weather forecasts at the moment are very fluid as a large high sits over Australia and doesn’t appear in a big hurry to move on. We are happy for it to stay where it is, as we are getting a fair bit of relief from the normal 20-25 knot SE trade winds.

We do all the normal marina chores. I head out to do the paperwork, come back and do a run to the fuel wharf to fill the jerry cans with diesel, and Carole gets things in order and hoses the boat down.

After lunch on board, we went for a walk to stretch our legs, and a few things have changed since we were here in late June. The repairs to the marina seem mostly complete. The Sports Club that closed after going into voluntary liquidation, has reopened as the Breakwater Café , but there is still not a lot of commercial activity.

Breakwater Cafe and Bar

We walked north up past the Lighthouse Café and back down to Harbour Beach. There appears to be some construction development going on, along the road frontage of the marina complex, including Customs House.

There is also a big party happening at te Clarion Hotel, which we later found out is an annual function called Nude Lunch which raises funds for Cancer Research. It had nothing to do with nudity, and the guests were very well dressed. It seemed to have a lot more to do with drinking and having a good time. Live music was on tap. It apparently started at 10 am, and was still going strong well into the evening.

The walk along the beach took us as far as the surf club, an impressive structure, with not a lot going on. We walked back to Mica along the pathway from the surf club to the marina.

Harbour Beach

The Surf Club

A few Reasons why you might think twice about swimming here

For dinner, we decide to eat out, and went back to the Chinese Restaurant at the marina that we enjoyed so much on our visit here. The food was still very good and we were one of 3 couples in the restaurant. Business here is pretty tough.