Saturday, June 18, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
UPDATE 14TH JUNE
Monday morning we were off early (well about 9am that's early these days ). With no wind and the ocean like a mill pond we motored off with the sails up. Screensaver along side of us decided he would use calm time to do a bit of cleaning or maybe it was because he saw Elaine polishing our handrails which ever it was it certainly was a great day. Onto Gloucester we went. This is about 10miles away and with the promise of dinner in a restaurant and a beer at the bar on the beach you could feel the excitement building. The resort encourage travelling yachties to stop and allow you to use there facilities and even allow you take your rubbish ashore to dump. There is a shallow channel that you have to through to get there or you can go around Gloucester and stay in deeper water. Seeing it was dead low tide we decided to go the long way and leave Screensaver to go through the channel and shallows. He even offered to go first but after a short discussion we decided to take the long road, it was a nice day . The only problem was we were nearly there and we got some horrifying news, (No Screensaver hadn't ran aground I think ) something that shook the whole core of the crew, " The bar was closing at 4pm" at this stage it was about 2.30pm and we still had to pick up a mooring. Managed to make it ashore quick smart and to the bar at the ECO Resort. A couple of quick beers for me and a couple of even quicker Madori Splice's for her ladyship the bar closed . Not to be deterred there is one other resort just up the beach. So a quick walk along the beach and yet another Bar even closer to the water. Met a few nice people here , a couple of a CAT that have been sailing for 7 years. And also an Indian couple From Airlie that own an Indian Restaurant there that we walked past a few times. We remember this because of the name. " GET THAT INDIA " thought that was a great name . After a few games of pool and a few more beers & Pina Colada's, back to the boat for dinner with a promise of a fire on the beach, but that didn't happen as I fell Asleep.
Awaking Tuesday to a calm and sunny day we have decided to stay here again today. Tomorrow we will head for Grey Bay in Queen Bay (Confusing I know) that's about 14 mile from here then onto Upstart Bay which is about 25 miles further on from there then Magnetic Island.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
UPDATE 12 JUNE 2011
ok Friday 10th we have left Abel Point Marina now, heading over to Woodwark Bay where Yacht Screensaver is. Its only a short trip about 7NM. Motoring all the way as I wanted to make sure all our new electronic charts etc were working, unfortunately there was no autopilot working as it now had to be recalibrated to work with the new system so it was hand steer all the way. Arrived in Woodwark Bay about lunch time and anchored down near the end of the bay. There is a couple large buildings on the shore and the book says they were purpose built for a TV series " Tales Of The South Seas" It ran for 22 episodes and cost 6ok per day to produce , this was based on a Tahitian village and called Matavai, it was built in 1996.
Seems now that it someones private oasis as there are big signs on the beach saying NO ENTRY etc bla bla but not to be detured we ventured in any way only to be greated by 2 guard dogs that were more interested in fetching a stick. But Never the less the signs said " No Exceptions Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted" not really sure what they can do apart form take your name and address , My Name was going to be Ken Pascoe by the way. Any way back to the boat , Rack of lamb for dinner. Most of the night was spent awake, up and down checking alarms as the wind got up to 30knots and alarms were going of here and there saying the anchor was dragging etc. Clearly in the morning we hadn't moved only swung from side to side, so clearly some more homework neads to be done on our new on board systems. As the winds were supposed to stay we decided to stay here another night. We had about 6 dolphins swimming about the boat during the day. Evening again, we have reset our alarms for tonight so hopefully we will be able to get some sleep. I went over to Screensaver for a game of chess with Al and Elaine stayed on board in the warm as it getting colder here.
Sunday morning was a slow start. We decided to head of a bit closer to Gloucester Island. We have ended up anchored in a bay west of Double Bay. very quite. There was what seemed a caravan on the shore and a fire going. Thought this would be nice, fire on the beach , however yet again a privately owned land so we were restricted to just walking along the beach, didn't get an invite to come and sit next to the fire so back out to the boat. Elaine cooked up spaghetti carbonara for dinner and here we are tonight. Tomorrow we are heading to Gloucester Island, thats abot 10-12 nm from here. Its supposed to be nice and there is a bar ashore so it highly likely that we will be going there...
Thursday, June 9, 2011
UPDATE 9TH JUNE 2011
Shit long time between the last post but here goes. Had another fire on the beach on Monday 23rd which didn't go as well because of the rain and finding firewood was a bit trickey. Never the less we managed to get it going. Tuesday we sailed from Macona Inlet to Whitehaven Beach. Had to sail through Hook Passage which was a bit intimidating as that is where the 2 tides meet and that causes the water to form a breaking wave effect and it looks like you are sailing into shallow water. however that is not the case. Had a great sail to Whitehaven, arrived there about 2pm and dropped our anchor. Screensaver was already there. Had some lunch and then took the dingy ashore to have a look around. Its a long beach with white sand. Had a swim and it was f*%$en cold but nice all the same. We werent sure wether we would stay the night as it is quite exposed to the elements but as it turned out we decided that we would stay on anchor for the night. Very calm night which was suprising as you are open to the ocean.
Sun up again early for Wednesday, we went ashore for another walk then back to the boat for lunch before heading to Tongue Bay for the night. It was a nice sail and the sun was shining so we headed to shore there for the walk up to the lookout (630m up) for a magnificent view of Whitehaven Beach and surrounds. Over to Screensaver for farewell drinks for Missy who decided to get off at Airlie Beach.
Thursday morning Screensaver was heading off back to Abel Point Marina to drop of its crew (Missy) as she has decided to get off so we decided to follow them back half way and spend the night at Macona again . After anchoring 3 times and dragging towards the reef we decided to move on to Nara Inlet before it got dark. Not sure why we couldn't get a good hold but anyway anchored well at Nara quite a way down this time. So Thursday night was spent in very calm waters but a chilly evening.
Friday we headed for Cid Harbour until our water in Sail Drive Seal Alarm went off. Trickey as we had no idea what was going on. So we shut the motor off and consulted our manuals. Now sailing towards Abel Point Marina as thats where the wind was taking us we made a few phone calls and decided that we needed to get things checked out so proceeded to sail direct to the marina in case there was any major probs. Elaine got on the Phone as she wont talk on the VHF to see if we could get a berth at the marina as we had motor problems and all was good. Started the motor again about half a mile out and no alarm. Berthed safely.
Ok had the Mechanic come down and have a look and all was good, and also no charge this time. So now we are in the Marina and decided that we would stay here to sort out some other issues that we have. These include new navigation screens and software etc etc . Its now 2 weeks later and we are finally sorted. Today is Thursday 9th June tomorrow morning we are leaving heading North. We have stocked up on supplies and will head to Magnetic Island. Wont leave the next post so long this time for all you readers haha.
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