Provisioning Day at Airlie

Friday 1^st September 2017

Whilst yesterday was maintenance day, today is provisioning day, and there is still a bit of laundry to be done.

We still have a bit of a niggling problem with the anchor winch, which as we have fixed everything back down the line is now showing up at the solenoid.  After almost a month of no problems, when we left Cid Harbour to come back to Airlie ,  the anchor winch was playing up, but we eventually got it up. I went up to the electricians today to get a replacement reversing solenoid, and what they had on offer was too light, so I have ordered a replacement over the net, to be delivered to Mackay Marina, our next stop. Let’s hope I don’t have to end up pulling the anchor up by hand!

Today we do a big shop and walk in to Cannonvale  where our favourite butcher resides. Coles have a large supermarket nearby, so we ordered our meat to be vacuum packed, and went on to the supermarket to get our grocery shopping out of the way. It was then simply getting a taxi back to the marina and lugging it all back to the boat. We now have more than enough supplies to keep us going until we get to Mackay.

By now we were quite hungry and some salmon sandwiches on board soon filled that need. We had a bit of a rest and then walked into Airlie, just to get a bit of exercise. The lagoon is now almost fully open has strong support from the backpackers and families.

We got a few last things from Woolies before heading back to the boat. There is a lot going on along the shoreline with stalls being set up, food vans moving into the carpark before the shopping centre and a lot of sponsors banners being erected. Soon it becomes clear that there is a Triathlon here over the weekend and this is all part of the deal.

In the meantime, the marina is visibly emptying out. We plan to leave tomorrow.

Tonight there were fireworks, also part of the start of the weekend activities.

Dinner on board tonight is Mackerel Curry, very nice !

The Saturday fresh food markets are on tomorrow, so we will head in early to get our fresh fruit and veg, and then head out of the marina as part of our slow move South.