Our Swirling Vortex of Christmas Death!

Fake lips and plastic moustaches.
God bless cheap Christmas crackers!

The trip from Curlew to the Duke Islands was great in comparison to some of our recent legs back south. We got an early start on Christmas Eve, raising our anchor a little before 5am. The wind had lots of south in it and the tide was strong enough to help us keep our south-east course. We had decent wind (20-25 knots) and waves (to 3m) for the first couple of hours but then the wind and waves dropped off and we had quite a pleasant sail for the next few hours.

Before the carnage.

We were at the Dukes during spring tides, when there is a big difference between tide heights at high and low tides. On top of this, the tides around Shoalwater Bay are renowned for their insanity and I can't recall noticing springs as much as we did at the Dukes. It took us a few tries to find an anchorage and we ended up in a nice deep bay on the south end of Hunter Island. We spent the afternoon there preparing for Santa's arrival and noticed nothing unusual. Shortly after bedtime however the wind picked up and with it the waves. We were rolling like a crazy rolly thing, and sleep for me at least was impossible, although Shane was fine. It calmed down after an hour or so and I nodded off eventually. After pressie-opening the next day, the rocking kicked in again and we went upstairs to discover that we were in a swirling vortex of Christmas death!! Shane calls it "tidal disturbance" but he is very good at minimising. The vortex was small, only 30m or so across. One side of the bay was an island that at low tide was joined to Hunter Island, but at high tide the water coming over the causeway was quite wild - it was the craziest bit of water in the whole massive bay and we were in it. We paused Christmas lunch prep and relocated (because we can!) to a delightfully turtle-infested bay near the cattle station on the west side of Marble Island. It was calm and lovely and we had a fantastic afternoon that involved lots of eating, drinking, reading, card-playing and snoozing. Santa was very kind to everyone - the kids did particularly well although Santa was perhaps a little mean giving them each a Wii game that they can't use until we're home.

Under spinnaker, me at the helm.

From the Dukes, we continued south and on the way managed to do another all-nighter by accident. The wind swung north and we had a fantastic run to Island Head Creek - so good that we decided to chuck the spinnaker up and keep going to Port Clinton. Shortly before arriving at Port Clinton, Haydee and I evicted Shane and Cam into the dinghy and they took some photos and videos of the boat sailing under spinnaker - something that is hard to get.

Port Clinton is barred and Ex-TC Fina kicked up a wicked 3m south-east swell creating massive breakers over the shallows that meant crossing the bar could have been potentially catastrophic, so we didn't. After another family vote (do we night-sail or anchor overnight and head off again in the morning?), we anchored behind a big rock that mostly-protected us from the swell, had dinner, got ready for a night sail and waited for the incoming tide to turn. We set off again just after 10pm and got to Keppel Bay marina a little after 5.30am.

From here, we have less-than-ideal weather to sail south-east but good weather to sail east and so will head to Herron Island via Great Keppel Island then down to Lady Musgrave via Fitzroy Reef to see some turtles nesting and hatching, we hope!!!

All clear

TC Fina didn't have a very long life. We spent yesterday and today sheltered at Curlew Island, about 45nm SE of Mackay. It has provided us good protection from the SE winds and while we have had a little bit of swell, it has not been too uncomfortable. We have managed to keep ourselves very busy doing absolutely nothing!

The winds are forecast to weaken to 15-20kts tomorrow, so despite them still being SE, we will make the move from here SE to the Duke Islands. We will spend Christmas day on the west side of Hunter Island, and get back on schedule by sailing to Island Head Creek on Boxing Day. The low that was Fina will be well south by Monday and the trough should bring a few days of North-ish winds to help us on our three day run south to Rosslyn Bay. Fingers crosssed ...

Bugger - A Cyclone

We've been watching a low way up north for a few days and have experienced it's effects in the form of 20+ knot south-easterly winds - not good when you want to sail south-east. The low defied early predictions and has come south and strengthened into Tropical Cyclone Fina, sitting 800km northeast of Mackay and heading south-west as at 11.00 this morning. We have decided to stay at Curlew Island for one, possibly two, days rather than continue south primarily because Curlew offers excellent protection from south-easterly winds, seas and swell and our next safe haven is 40 miles away in the direction the wind is coming from.

We will continue to have strong winds but we're outside the BoM's affected areas forecast. I would have preferred that any cyclones held off until we were south of Bundaberg but it seems we may be in for some excitement - and a windy Christmas. Here's hoping it is all a big non-event and Fina eases and heads back out to sea as predicted later today!

Christmas Prep

Can you see our dinky Xmas Tree?

As we were packing our house into boxes all those months ago, I came across the Christmas decorations and briefly pondered grabbing some to bring with us. I had more urgent things to think about at the time so they all got packed in boxes in Brisbane. Nonetheless, we've managed to convert the boat into a floating Christmas bauble with tinsel, balloons, a Christmas tree (secured in its place with blue tack) and lights, e-advent calendars (thanks Nanna and Grandad!!) and more kiddy Christmas craft than you could poke a stick at (thank you Aunty Karyn!!). All our Christmas Shopping, both pressies and food, is done - this is possibly the most organised I've ever been, mainly because proximity to shops means we had to be - and I for one am looking forward to pavlovas for dessert on Christmas day!

We plan on being back in the beautiful Duke Islands on Christmas and hope our mobile broadband antenna will let us skype with family and friends.

In any event, merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for 2012 from all of us!! Take care and we hope to catch up with everyone soon.

The Whitsundays Once Again

Cam's 3,000th fish

Magnetic Island and Townsville were great, Maggie in particular. We made it ashore for beers at sunset once again and the kids took their already excellent water skiing skills to the next level by practicing steering and jumping the boat's wake. They were both amazing and have the water skiing bug big time.

Moogie 'helminating' at 3.30am

After our fairly horrible time in Bowen on the way up, Shane came up with a cunning plan to by-pass it on the way back down - a 120nm or 215km trek from Townsville, past Bowen, to the northern Whitsundays. We left Townsville at 2pm last Sunday after a bludgey morning of bacon, eggs and swimming and, after sailing all afternoon and all night, dropped our anchor at Gloucester Island at 8.30am the next morning. It was a long long night that included an electrical storm, decent seas at an angle to our course that made sleeping difficult for everyone except Cam, and up-and-down winds that had us raising and lowering sails more often than you'd like at night. But we made it and Shane and I were both super-impressed with the kids who each pulled a night shift on the helm - Cam got 3.00 to 3.30am and H got 3.30 to 4.00am. I was up on deck with them, although not particularly conscious after being awake for 24 hours, but they were both fantastic and remarkably happy to be there. Cam kept thinking I was there to answer interesting questions about coal loaders, big ships and other random-ness. H was accompanied by Moogie, her toy sheep, who she attached to the helm in order to let her steer (or helminate as we have taken to calling it). I should also point out that Shane left me upstairs on the helm during the storm while he sat downstairs nice and dry texting like Gossip Girl, God bless him!

Upside-down H. She can't not touch!

After resting up at Gloucester Island, we headed east back out to Bait Reef once again. Bait Reef has become a favourite and we had it almost to ourselves again. Half a dozen Giant Trevally, some massive Wrasse, turtles and a manta ray kept Shane and the kids company as they snorkelled the Stepping Stones and Manta Ray Drop-off.

We're now back in the Whitsundays and I have to admit that I've remembered why it isn't my favourite sailing destination. The wind gusts and lulls are insane, the bare boats (sadly, we're here during school holidays again) are scary and the commercial operators are rude. We've also had to modify our initial plans to re-visit Border Island and Whitehaven as strong south-easterlies have been forecast for the next few days. We'll seek secure anchorages as we head back towards Mackay via the Smith group and St Bees and Keswick Islands, which I'm really keen to see in nice weather as we had low cloud last time we were there. We expect we'll be somewhere around Keppel Bay - Lady Musgrave Island for Christmas and we're still on track to be back home around mid-January.

Lizard to Townsville

Sadly there is such a thing as too much fish when you don't have a freezer. We had five feeds of mackerel in a row which, while very tasty, can get a little OTT after a while.

Getting ready to anchor at Bowden Island

We're now back at Magnetic Island off Townsville after almost continuous day-sailing from Lizard Island. We did spend time in Port Douglas where we went crocodile hunting, unsuccessfully unfortunately, and Cairns where we took care of Christmas shopping and some maintenance tasks.

From Cairns we made the 90nm (160km) trek to Bowden Island via Fitzroy Island and Mourilyan Harbour. Shane's Bowden Island log uses delightful euphemisms like "Last night was not the best one we have had" and "it wasn't a fun night." We actually endured ridiculous amounts of rain and hideous side-to-side rolling overnight - Bowden Island was the worst overnight anchorage so far, including Thomas Island (see 5 Sep post). I got up, and poor Shane followed, at 11pm or so and we pondered moving but decided not to as nothing nearby offered guaranteed shelter in the weather we were having. I think it was 3am-ish that I nodded off although it was far from a restful night.

Back to Zoe Bay

From Bowden we moved to Hinchinbrook's Zoe Bay where we trekked once again to the waterfall for a swim. There was a lot of rain in the area in the few days before we got there so the creek and waterfall had a lot of water in them but it was still absolutely beautiful. If the bay itself was a calmer anchorage it would definitely be in my Top 10. Similarly, Little Pioneer Bay on Orpheus Island would also be in my Top 10 if the beach was better as it was a fantastic anchorage both times we've been there.

Overall we've done a lot of miles in the last week or so heading south. The weather has been mostly on our side with a few notable exceptions requiring us to make use of the engine - and diesel - more than we might like but we're on track to be back in Brisbane by mid-January as planned. Noooooo............!!!!!!

The Spaniard

We ate the last of our meat last night when we had lasagne and are still a few days away from a resupply in Cairns. Hence, on the way from Lizard Island yesterday we were trolling to catch a feed or two. I was very disappointed that the day finished with four strikes, two resulting in hook ups; both hook ups resulted in lost fish, lure and trace; and the last one took all my line as well.

I woke up early this morning and made myself a new single strand steel wire trace and rigged my rod with the 40lb line. We put a lure out the back once we cleared South Cape Bedford and at around 10:30am we had a strike and hook up. I put the boat into wind then went for the rod. Heather took the helm, started the engine and heaved to. Haydee pulled the main sheet on and then got the fishing gloves, knife and board out. Cameron got the camera and took down the life lines and helm seat to give access to the sugar scoop. The immediate action for a hook up is now a family drill!

Anyway, after about 8 minutes we landed a good spanish mackerel; 105cm long and 6.5kg. I killed and bled it but didn't want to fillet it on the back deck in a rolling sea, so I cut its head and tail off, put it in a garbage bag and into the fridge. Once moored at Hope Islands I filleted it and ended up with enough for five good feeds. The first one went down well tonight.

Give us a kiss, love.

Strangely enough, the lure we got it on is now our most successful lure for the trip; landing the tuna a few weeks ago and this spanish mackerel. It is also the cheapest lure I have; some no name brand out of the specials box at Tackleworld Cairns for $8.95. I bet I don't keep that in mind when I replace the two lures I lost yesterday ...

Port Douglas and beyond

Haydee's prawn claws!

We left Port Douglas and headed out to Low Isles, two islands about 8nm north-east of Port Douglas. One of them people aren't allowed onto at this time of the year, which is fine because the other one is fantastic - great snorkeling, friendly turtles, friendlier locals (the caretaker and his family), calm anchorage and some slightly extroverted black-tips thrown in for good measure.

Low Island

From Low Isles we sailed back inshore to the Daintree River bar. We had no issues finding the fairway marker and the two channel markers after it that are meant to guide you in through the deep water. What we did have trouble finding was deep water. Everything except the depth of the water was spot on - we entered the channel a few minutes before the highest high tide of the day, followed the channel markers and, shortly after entering said channel, skimmed then hit the bottom. The wind had kicked up some decent waves which, when we were in their troughs, weren't enough to keep us off the bottom. We've bumped the bottom a few times before - anyone who says they've never touched, even if they own a kayak, is either yet to bump the bottom or they're outright lying - but this was not good bumping. The jolting was bad, the noise was hideous and knowing we had two little kids on board was worst of all. I had to keep doing stuff - ordering the kids to put on their jackets, getting the handheld VHF ready for our mayday call, double checking where we were in the tide, anything to avoid sitting still - Haydee shed quiet tears and Cam sat quietly in his seat. Shane was focused on getting us back to deep water and did so with minimal swearing and maximum grace. I recently read an article in a sailing magazine by a lady who wrote a book called "A Fright A Day" (and thought at the time that she probably shouldn't be a sailor) - we're a long way from a fright every day but attempting the Daintree bar counted as one of them. After making deep water, we scooted back to Low Isles, dove under the boat the look for gaping cracks, monitored the bilge for water ingress and pretended the whole thing never happened - aside from publishing it on the world wide web.

Holding on for dear life, at Hope Island

From Low Isles, we continued north to Hope Islands. The Hope Islands provide amazingly calm anchorage even in dreadful weather, which we sort-of had while we were there although it did clear enough to allow some swimming and kite-flying. From Hope Islands, we moved to Cooktown. That is all I have to say about Cooktown. Seriously though, there is heaps of history on display but, unlike 1770 who have a similar claim to fame, Cooktown is a little stuck in the past. And they need to dredge their harbour (we didn't bump, it's just shallow!)

Anchored at Lizard Island

After an overnight stop at Cape Flattery, we sailed to Lizard Island and were stunned by just how good it was. Beautiful clear water, fantastic snorkeling, secure anchorage, lovely beach and super-friendly locals made this one of the highlights so far. There is a small community of long-term (some as long as 3 months) yachtie residents anchored in Watson's Bay who gather each afternoon on the beach and make visitors very welcome. And we saw more of Lizard Island Research Station's work than I did in 3 years at UQ. One of the highlights was a super-friendly postgrad who showed us some baby coral he'd made. Amazing. Shane and the kids were energetic and did lots of walking and we also celebrated Shane's birthday while we were there. Cam made him some little "toothy critter" gang hooks (we're so proud!) and H made him a lovely nautical paperweight for charts. He also scored a new spray jacket and swim shirt. Lizard Island was our turnaround point and we've been sailing south-ish for the last few days now. The wind has been kind to us so far although we're keeping our fingers crossed and our fuel topped up.

Back to the Reef

We visited Arlington Reef, Vlassoff Cay and Michaelmas Cay after leaving the islands off Cairns. On the first day out, we anchored off the southern side of Arlington Reef, a massive (35km long) reef, and dropped lots of fishing lines overboard. Happily, we caught lots of fish (have a look at our movie below) some of which we kept, some of which we threw back in the interests of preserving worldwide fishy-ness. I'll have to share my dumb fish-smart fish theory another time...

Michaelmas Cay

After a calm night nestled inside the U-shaped reef we sailed to Vlassoff Cay and were privileged enough to see a shark feeding frenzy en route. The sharks weren't big but the birds zipping in and out to pick up scraps were brave. Vlassoff Cay was stunning although our night anchored off wasn't the best. Despite being much more used to rocking and rolling than we were three months ago, we spent a rolly night at Vlassoff Cay, rocked by swell bending around the reef. Shane and I both woke up early as a result and decided to move to Michaelmas Cay before breakfast. It is impossible to see reef unless the sun is shining down from overhead and on the way into Michaelmas at 7am or so we were surprised to see the depth of water under us drop from 25 metres to less than 2 metres in the wink of an eye. It was around the same time that we both saw snorkelers in the water 50m in front of us, a giveaway that there is reef ahead. A quick u-turn took us back out to deeper water where we anchored, ate bacon and eggs and waited for the sun to get overhead so we could see what was under us. After moving into the sand cay, the swimming and snorkeling at Michaelmas were fantastic - the beach not so. The reef is huge but the sand cay is only 400m or so long and more than three-quarters of that is dedicated to sooty terns and other sea birds who nest there. The birds own the island, and people aren't allowed ashore at all, between 3pm and 9.30am. 40,000 birds aren't quiet but it was a noise that faded into the background after a while. Amazing to see but you would have hated it, Mum!

Beers, pink lemonades and chips
at the Port Douglas Yacht Club

After three fantastic days on the reef, we arrived in Port Douglas and started our tour of the town with a few beers at the Port Douglas Yacht Club. So far I'm impressed - it isn't as upmarket as I expected (I don't quite know why I expected upmarket) but is relaxed and has everything we need, other than a willing and able sail maker (we need some work done on our mainsail - it never ends!). Sunday was act-like-a-tourist day; we visited markets, had a ride on the "Ballyhooley", a stinking, filthy steam train that the kids enjoyed, and had a very average lunch at the Central Hotel.

The plan from here is the Low Isles, Daintree River, Endeavour Reef (which Cook bumped into in the the middle of the night), Agincourt Reef perhaps then Cooktown followed by Lizard Island where, sadly, we'll rip on the handbrake and do a u-turn.

Coral Cays

Arlington Reef

Haydee loves tuna!

Vlassoff Cay

Sunset fishing

It's been a few days since we visited Fitzroy Island and I have to admit that the islands and resorts are starting to blend together. From memory, Fitzroy was quite good. After a decent lunch at the tavern, we completed two scenic walks - one to a secret garden that was a little bit of over-promising and under-delivering in my view and another along the island's coast to Nudey Beach. Everyone was clothed!

From Fitzroy, we sailed into Cairns Marlin Marina where we spent a busy few days restocking, maintaining and cleaning. The kids enjoyed Cairns' lagoon which we visited a few times despite some dreary weather.

We are currently exploring the reef as we make our way slowly from Cairns to Port Douglas. Green Island was inundated with day trippers, so while it was nice it was not our favourite spot. Our next stop was Arlington Reef. We did some fishing and saw a black tipped reef shark take a fish right near us. After moving to our anchorage we did some great snorkeling and had a comfortable night sheltered amongst the coral.

As we sailed from Arlington Reef today, we had a strike on one of the lures and landed a 72cm, 4.1kg tuna. At least three feeds in that one. Soon after, we saw a feeding frenzy (bait fish, medium fish and sharks) beside us and then at the back of the boat. We continue to catch more sharks than fish, with Heather landing one last night and Cameron catching another one tonight. We definitely stay out of the water around dawn and dusk!

We spent this afternoon anchored in amongst the coral at Vlassoff Cay. The water is warm and spectacularly clear. Life is good.

After visiting Michaelmas Cay, we will head back to the mainland to restock at Port Douglas for a trip up the Daintree River where the kids hope they'll round out their wildlife experience with wild crocodiles. But not too close up, of course.

Hinchinbrook to Fitzroy Island

Going up Hinchinbrook's
Number Six Creek

The Ramsay Bay Boardwalk

Haydee at Ramsay Bay

We finished our Hinchinbrook Island tour with a trip around Missionary Bay's shallows to a deep-ish water channel into Number Seven Creek, the seventh of eight numbered, not named, mangrove creeks at the northern end of the island. Swimming in the murky brown water isn't an option (I'm sure I saw some glowing green eyes looking out at me from the water!) and there are very few places to go ashore in the creek complex, but fortunately for us some lovely person has built a jetty and boardwalk that takes you across the mangroves to Ramsay Bay, where we all had a swim. We spent the night anchored in the creek with a few thousand mozzies. When we had enough tide to cross the shallows again the next day, we made our way back out of the creek and made for Dunk Island, stopping in for a swim at Hudson Island, a beautiful deserted island we found on the way to Dunk. We had some anchor excitement as we left Hudson Island - our bow was pulling down rather than our anchor coming up as I operated the anchor winch and no manoeuvering would free us. Shane went diving and untangled our anchor chain from a large rock it was wrapped around and away we went.

Sadly, Dunk Island was badly damaged by Cyclone Yasi and remains closed and, it appears, uninhabited other than some work crews dismantling damaged buildings. We didn't go ashore and continued north the next day to Mourilyan Harbour, stopping on the way for yet another swim at yet another beautiful bay. Mourilyan provides safe harbour but little else, its focus being bulk sugar loading rather than tourism. From Mourilyan it was north once again to Fitzroy Island, 15 miles south-east of Cairns. I have to admit to being a little sick of our recent sail-anchor-sail routine, especially after yesterday's 40-plus miles, and managed to convince Shane to spend today at Fitzroy Island before heading in to Cairns tomorrow. I can currently hear lots of splashing as Shane scrubs the hull and squealing as the kids "help" him; and we'll go ashore to the resort a little later today.

Hinchinbrook = Serenity

Hinchinbrook waterfall and swimming hole
(Shane and the kids are at the base of the waterfall)

From Orpheus Island we moved on to Hinchinbrook Island, stopping in at Zoe Bay on the eastern side before zipping around the corner to enter the southern end of the Hinchinbrook Channel near Lucinda. Zoe Bay was recommended to us as a good lunchtime stop in calm weather and the guide books noted a swimming hole. We went ashore and, after a 15-minute bush walk, found a stunning waterfall and swimming hole where we spent a fantastic 2 hours swimming and basking. The Northern Territory seems to pride itself on its swimming holes; this one gives them a run for their money!

Hinchinbrook Island is remarkably rugged; the tops of the hills have had clouds sitting on them the whole time we've been here. As a result, the channel itself is protected from weather and the few days and nights we've spent anchored here so far have been beautifully calm. We've seen lots of small fishing boats zipping around off in the distance but you'd have to work hard to get within cooee of other people. As a result, my overall impression of Hinchinbrook is peaceful serenity - lovely!

Action Cam!

From Scraggy Point where we were anchored last night, we're ducking across the channel into Cardwell on the high tide today for bread, milk and water then onto Missionary Bay on the northern side of Hinchinbrook to investigate some of the creeks that run into the bay. We're expecting mozzies but are well-prepared having bug-proofed the boat with some flyscreen in a custom built frame Shane made and mosquito netting for hatches that I'm prototyping.

We're also getting ready for a small girl's 11th birthday in a few days! Shane and I suspect she's half expecting Hagrid to appear on a flying motorcycle and take her off to Hogwarts...

The Drama Continues....

Cooling off warm toes
in Upstart Bay

The weather since we were in Bowen took longer to clear than we would have hoped meaning we didn't make it back out to the reef unfortunately. When I last blogged, I said we'd take two or three days to head from Cape Upstart to Townsville, which was good in theory. We in fact did the 79 nautical miles - or 142km! - in one 13-hour stint. We made the almost never-ending trek across Upstart Bay and found, on rounding Cape Bowling Green at 4.00pm, that Bowling Green Bay was abysmal as a protected anchorage in strong south-easterlies so we made a communal decision to continue on to Cape Cleveland. Shane enjoys night sailing, which is fortunate as it was dark before we reached Cape Cleveland, 11nm from Townsville. Given we were so close to Townsville, we kept going and finished the long trip a little before 10.30pm after setting sail 13 hours earlier. I was overjoyed when Shane selected an anchorage that would see us in just 1.7m of water, with our 1.7m draught but, as usual, we were completely fine (and we made sure we were clear by the next low tide which was 20cm lower and may not have seen us fare so well).

Enjoying Reef HQ

We spent two nights in Townsville's Breakwater Marina, which was quite a good place to stay, taking care of the usual essentials before heading north to Magnetic Island where we had two lovely nights in Horseshoe Bay. Shane booted us all out of bed early this morning in an attempt to get us underway before 9am. The flaw in the "get up early and go" plan was Haydee's excellent eyesight. She spotted something odd floating about half a mile away from us. We went to investigate and found a tinny, half full of water, with no one in or around it. Shane hopped in, put a bung in it and bailed the water out before hauling up its anchor and, in turn, a fishing rod and bimini. We towed it back to Horseshoe Bay and handed it over to the Water Police who told us that they had found the owner safe and sound but that he and two mates had been capsized while out fishing. The police returned the boat to it's owner on Magnetic Island but I've decided that it is futile to get out of bed before 8am and will avoid doing it ever again.

On the way to Orpheus Island

Aside from a slightly delayed start and a lack of wind, we had a good day today, motor-sailing from Magnetic Island to the beautiful Orpheus Island where we've picked up a public mooring buoy in a beautiful bay on the western side. Our next stop is Hinchinbrook Island via the channel, a part of the trip I've been looking forward to.

Finally, can I mention that we have now caught 4 sharks and 2 more maybe-possibly-sharks (including the big one in Shute Harbour, Greg!) that we haven't landed. I haven't let the kids go swimming for ages but, strangely, they don't seem to want to.

Bad Bowen Ju-ju

Washing up

Bowen was good for protection from the rather insane weather that has been hitting various parts of the Queensland coast recently but, unfortunately, that was really about the best bit of Bowen. We hunkered down on a marina berth for three nights after two nights on a pile mooring. There isn't a lot within walking distance of the marina so after groceries and some purchases to allow us (i.e. Shane) to install 12V fans in each cabin in preparation for the warmer weather we're heading towards, we spent a lot of time on the boat.

The culmination of the bad Bowen ju-ju was probably our efforts to re-fuel prior to leaving the marina yesterday. We cast off without problems and went round to one of the two seafood companies in the marina that sell fuel to the public. Shane had spoken with them and they said to just pull up and re-fuel. Unfortunately when we got there trawlers were on all their jetties so we couldn't pull in. We needed to re-fuel so we called the other company who confirmed they could re-fuel us so we pulled in there instead. Our fuel filler cap is on the stern of the boat so I stupidly convinced Shane to reverse in. The wind was still blowing ridiculously hard and we ended up with our bow being pushed to one side of the pen, blowing us onto one of the trawlers as we drove out to try again. There was some scraping and general unpleasantness but the only damage was to two of our stanchions and, of course, our pride. There were a few swear words emanating from Shane as we sailed out of Bowen and, even if there had been a cyclone warning, I don't think I could have convinced him to stay in Bowen any longer and I suspect we won't be pulling in there on the way back down.

A new boat speed record

A strong wind warning was current as we left Bowen meaning our 43nm cruise to Cape Upstart, that based on our planning speed of 5 knots would take 8.5 hours, took just a little over 6 hours. And we set a new boat speed record of 10.3 knots. There were some decent waves coming through in sets, particularly as we cruised along the northern side of Cape Upstart where we had, I think, the biggest waves we've seen so far, and a wind gust of 37 knots at one point. I wasn't overwhelmed but the kids thought it was pretty cool and Shane thought it was 'awesome'. We spent today tucked up in Upstart Bay doing schoolwork including a rare appearance by the Science Master who did lots of cool experiments on surface tension of water.

The weather isn't due to clear until the end of the weekend so we have changed our plan to head north and visit the reef again and will now head north-west to Townsville in two legs over the next two, maybe three, days.

Finally, I would like to once again thank Oatsey for his fantastic hospitality while we were in town. You're awesome. So is Toby (aka Porridge).

Goodbye Whitsundays, Hello Bowen

Cam enjoying the view
of Edgecumbe Bay

We have a few cruising guides on board that we refer to often to find out about places to visit (or not), how and when to get there (approaches and tides), where to anchor and what to do on shore. Generally, we've found them to be 10 years out of date but still useful. After we got into Bowen Harbour yesterday, I had to go back and look again at what the cruising guides said about Bowen. One of them, Cruising the Coral Coast by Alan Lucas, says Bowen offers "...a return to sanity and economies after the excesses of the Whitsunday-Airlie Beach area...well-recommended to those needing security surrounded by low-key, but more than adequate, facilities." In 100 Magic Miles, David Colfelt says "Bowen has an atmosphere of an unhurried and unspoilt northern Queensland town."

'Excessive' is a good word for the Whitsundays - we saw more mega-yachts at Whitehaven than at the Gold Coast last year, I reckon - but I don't know that 'low-key' and 'adequate' are accurate for Bowen. It has been invariably easy to find the information we need, including who to contact, for the marinas we've visited so far. Bowen not so. Strangely, Queensland Transport run the harbour and seem to administer the pile berths and a marina pool that was dredged at least 10 years ago for a marina development that never happened; the yacht club administers a dozen or so berths on a jetty on one side of the harbour and a seafood company administers another dozen or so on the other side. After an internet search and three or four phone calls we were eventually given a mobile number, listed in the cruising guides as emergency only, and were directed to a pile mooring. We couldn't get a marina berth for Sunday and Monday because the yacht club were holding a regatta and were full. We passed the regatta - three boats!! - on their way out as we were on our way in. After mooring to piles (for the first time ever), we visited the yacht club and had a drink. There were half a dozen blokes in there who, rather than making us feel welcome as I would have expected in an "unhurried and unspoilt northern Queensland town" made me feel like I had three heads. I say all this knowing that we have just been spoiled by the excesses of the Whitsundays and that we haven't been into the town proper yet but I really hope my impression of Bowen improves because so far I am really underwhelmed.

On a pile mooring in Bowen Harbour

I mentioned mooring on piles for the first time ever. Berthing is always fun with two short-ish crew members. Generally, we like to reverse into a pen as it means our 240V power lead is likely to reach the power pole and that I can get off the boat onto the jetty and be ready to take a bow line before the bow is in the pen. If we nose in, the bow is almost fully into the pen before I can get off and get up there. A kid, normally Cam, throws me the bow line to tie off as Shane reverses the engine to stop the boat's movement. Shane then hops off and secures the stern with a line Haydee throws to him. I take a brake line onto the jetty with me to brake the boat if needed but generally I don't use it as it tends to swing the boat the wrong way. Strong wind always makes berthing fun. I've been left on the jetty once or twice in the past because we've had to abort, go out and try again.

Mooring to piles for the first time yesterday was almost as fun as berthing. In theory, you attach long lines to your bow and stern, the helmsman sidles up to the stern pile and a crewman puts a line around it, you nudge forward to the bow pile and put your bowline around it, then you adjust both lines so your boat is centred between the piles. Like berthing, I think the hard part is the throttle control which, fortunately, is Shane's job. We were put on a mooring that had lines tied to both piles already meaning we didn't have to get too close to the piles, we just used a boat pole to pick them up. The wind was blowing us around a bit and we had to drop the stern line at one stage and try again as our bow blew too far off the bow pile, but we then got both lines on and secure and the boat now sticks out like a sore thumb in amongst the fishing trawlers and, of course, the racing fleet.

Another shark!

We landed this one tonight, and let it go again. It was just a baby (about 80cm) compared to the one at Shute Harbour, but at least we got some footage. Enjoy the commentary ...

The new addition to the family ...

Ruby Cooper

It would be remiss of me not to mention that there has been another member added to the wider clan. My sister, Kirrilly and her husband, Brad had their first child the other day. Ruby Cooper was born on 9th October at 9:58pm, 48cm long and weighing 2.8kg (6lb 2oz). Brad came through it all just fine. The kids are very excited and are looking forward to meeting their new cousin at some stage in the future. Oh, Kiz and Ruby are both fine as well! CONGRATULATIONS.

Shane and the Shark

Mental arithmetic in pyjamas

We're currently on a bit of a fishing odyssey, it would seem, having left the protected marine park zones of the Whitsundays. It all started last Sunday in Shute Harbour when we think Shane hooked a shark. Either that, or he hooked something big and a shark started chasing it. He had a pilchard in the water on a deep sea rod and the brake clicked gently a few times. He got the rod out of the rod holder and upset whatever was nibbling the pilchard, making it swim away from the boat quite quickly. Shane and I both happened to be looking in the right spot when a 1.8m or so shark jumped sideways fully out of the water, showing us its belly. Shane was sitting on the back deck to reel whatever it was in and asked me to get knife and gaff ready. The gaff is a horribly sharp hook on what suddenly seemed a very, very short pole; I really wasn't keen to have a shark on the boat with us. After a few minutes of rather active fighting, whatever was hooked managed to break the line and, I hope, got away and is safely back home in a lovely underwater cave with its babies, and now knows not to bite hooks anymore. Or so it goes in Heather-world... Shane has recounted everything, with much more blokey detail, in his ship's log entry of 11th October.

In Bona Bay

In the 30nm we've covered since leaving Shute Harbour, we've dragged a lure almost the whole way, made two lunch-time fishing stops and fished morning and evening. We haven't landed much but Cam in particular is having fun and learning lots. Amongst all the fishing that's been going on recently, we managed a lunchtime stop-over at Monte's Reef Resort, a small beach resort on the mainland with a pretty good bar and restaurant and are now messing around Gloucester Island, east of Bowen. Last night's overnight anchorage, Bona Bay on the western side of Gloucester, is apparently a popular day-trip destination out of Bowen and I can see why. It has a beautiful beach, camping facilities and is well protected from northerly winds and swell - meaning the kids were able to get the dinghy on the plane really easily!

Goodbye Whitsundays!

Shane and the kids in
Daydream Island's pool

We've managed to fit a lot in since our last posts from Hook Island. We visited a site, part of the Ngaro Cultural Trail that winds over a number of Whitsunday islands, with 2,000-year-old aboriginal rock art on Hook Island. It was well-presented and worth a visit (although had it been as long as the trek up to Whitsunday Peak, I may not have been as impressed). We then moved around to Daydream Island, picked up one of their mooring buoys and spent time ashore swimming, watched "Rango" at their outdoor cinema (what a strange, strange movie!), kayaking (for Shane and Cam) and generally people-watching. The kids in particular enjoyed Daydream and I'd recommend it as a stop-over to other cruisers. Everything feels very relaxed, there is lots to do and see, and it isn't expensive to pick up a buoy.

The kids doing knot-tying practice

We continued our circumnavigation of Hook Island, spending time at the very beautiful and popular Blue Pearl Bay and Cid Harbour and the less popular but still gorgeous Macona Inlet before berthing at Hamilton Island, where Haydee was adopted by two girls on KBG. After overnighting there, the kids and I left Shane on Hamilton for 3 days (the poor boy) and flew to Sydney for my cousin's wedding (congratulations Nikki and Steve! enjoy the Cook Islands!), returning yesterday to a spic and span boat with freshly painted engine mounts, clean and waterproofed dodger and bimini, and lots of other maintenance jobs done. We left Hamilton shortly after the kids and I got back and moved across to Shute Harbour where we're now moored 30m away from a sunken boat that we're told has been like that for 2 years (!) as the owner, we assume, wrangles with an insurance company. All you can see is the top metre or so of its mast. Unbelievable.

Whitsunday Trip Map

If you have a close-up look at our trip map you'll see lots of crazy blue spaghetti between Hamilton Island, Airlie Beach and Hook Island marking our travels around the Whitsunday islands. I think it's safe to say we've done the Whitsundays, at least until we're on the way back down again. It's been fantastic - it is a stunning part of the world and we've been lucky to spend so much time here - but it is time to move on again. Bowen, Townsville and Hinchinbrook are the next major destinations as we approach the half-way mark on our trip. I'm not sure Shane is going to be easy to lure away from here as I think he still wants to catch his spotted mackerel's brother, but my theory that all the bareboaters here over the school holidays caught all the Whitsunday fish may hold sway yet!

Zinyowa the Chihuahua

Yesterday we came from Stonehaven and then came here, Nara Inlet. We went swimming after finishing off schoolwork then we went ashore on our boogie boards and found a rock with a cave in it and Haydee and I decided to climb into it, but, on the way we found a lot of obstacles, one was even a scorpion about 2cm long.

Today we are going on a walk to see Aboriginal rock art. We're also going to go snorkelling at a reef about 20m from our stern (back of the boat). Tomorrow, we will be going to Airlie Beach, sadly we can't go fishing there, but we can take the tender around where we are now and then do some fishing.

Here is a little poem that I wrote earlier on:

My Future

When I am 20
I will own a boat,
it will be a shark cat,
and I will keep it in a moat.

I will buy a dog,
it will be a chihuahua,
I will care for him
and call him "Zinyowa".

I'll live in a house
with not even a mouse.
It will be very clean,
and when I say clean
that's what I mean!

So that's what is going to happen
when I am 20.

Hook Island and bad dad jokes

Cameron and Haydee on
a big rock at Hook Island

We're currently anchored in Nara Inlet, a beautiful calm inlet on the southern edge of Hook Island (which I told the kids was named after Captain Hook!). We're taking our time to go around Hook and may not even make it all the way round at our current rate of travel, which is quite fine by me. Yesterday was spent lazily dragging a lure from Stonehaven to Nara. We weren't in any hurry which was good because the wind was so flukey that we alternated between leaning over and flapping sails.

Haydee and Cameron relaxing in our bed

Despite the beauty of our surroundings, Shane's attempts at humour are causing we three sane ones to consider mutinying. Or throwing the sod overboard. We've developed a groan-meter which has now been in use so long and so much that rather than responding to Shane's jokes by laughing, groaning or crying, the kids just say a number between 1 and 100 where 1 is a bad joke and 100 is completely dreadful. The really bad ones get more than 100. And there has been a few of those. I think the only reason we haven't left him behind in our wake is because I'd eventually run out of fuel and don't think we could berth this sucker at a fuel wharf by ourselves. Yet. The kids and I are looking forward to our upcoming Sydney trip! Having said that, I'm sure Shane is too...

The kids are back at school this week after a week off last week and our work on fractions (which Haydee is loving and doing very well at!) will continue. As will Shane's efforts to catch the brother of last week's tasty spotted mackerel, and mine to continue reading every book on board. Joy!

The GBR

Haydee snorkelling at Bait Reef

Our Whitsunday fun continues as we continue our grand tour of this lovely (if busy!!) bit of the Queensland coast. We've seen some beautiful places but the highlight this week would have to be a few days we spent on the reef. On Tuesday this week we left Airlie Beach after stocking up on food, fuel and water once again and overnighted on a mooring buoy at the stunning Butterfly Bay on the northern coast of Hook Island. We left bright and early on Wednesday and sailed out to Bait Reef, accompanied part of the way by some of the biggest dolphins we've seen yet (well fed on reef fish I reckon) and a couple of whales playing not too far off. We picked up a mooring buoy at Bait Reef and the kids enjoyed feeding fish from the back of the boat (see the video below) and snorkelling around the "Stepping Stones", a dozen or so tall coral columns with amazing fish life, while I shepherded them in the dinghy.

Thanks to Graham and Meredith on
Stray Cat, who gave us the Silver Spoon
lure we caught this spotted mackeral on

We then moved around to Hardy Reef and managed to find the entrance to the lagoon (we have the lat and long for the waterfall if anyone needs them) and spent the night by ourselves near Reef World. The wind, 10-15 knots when we first arrived at the reef, picked up to 25 knots overnight but the outer reefs absorb almost all swell and waves from the Pacific so it was surprisingly calm. Leaving Hardy Reef through "The Waterfall", an 8m wide gap in the coral (Seasprint is nearly 4m wide), was interesting as we had decent wind trying to push us sideways into the reef and water rushing out of the lagoon with the tide. God bless 50hp, which also safely took us down a deep channel between Hardy and Hook Reefs where swell from the Pacific kicked up 2-3m waves for us. We went back to Bait Reef, which we liked a bit better than Hardy, and spent our second and third night on the reef there with one other boat (hi to Emily and Ryan on Lucey Blue).

We're spending the rest of this week circumnavigating Hook Island and are right now sitting off Black Island after trolling around Hayman Island, snorkelling at Blue Pearl Bay and swimming at Langford Island today. It's a hard life - friends and family who are up this way are very welcome to join us!!

Whitsunday fun

We decided that we would spend this week and a half or so doing a leisurely lap of Whitsunday Island. After leaving Airlie Beach on Friday 9th September, we sailed to Gulnare Inlet as somewhere to spend the night while the wind swung back around from northerly to the typical south-easterlies. The plan for Saturday was to sail to the world famous Whitehaven Beach.

We arrived at Whitehaven on Saturday afternoon; after a small diversion to Hamilton. We dropped off the 5hp to have some work done on it after a gust of wind in Gulnare Inlet flipped the dinghy with the 5hp still on it. The leg was unceremoniously standing straight in the air and the power head was under water. After giving it some first aid and making some phone calls, we headed to Hamilton to drop it off with a marine mechanic. Anyway, we arrived at Whitehaven on Saturday afternoon (sans the 5hp).

Happy Hour on Whitehaven Beach

We spent most of Sunday at the beach. We had a picnic lunch, then went for a walk and had a look at the picnic areas and campsites, but didn’t bother with the walk to Chance Bay. The tourist boats were everywhere bringing the day-tripper hoards from the mainland, and then there were the charter boats that all seemed to be jostling for the imaginary “pole position” at the southern end of the beach. We often felt that someone was invading our personal space; which is dictated by the swing circle we have at anchor, so is it too much to ask to anchor a little further away? We had to make a quick trip back to the boat at about 4:00pm (after the day-trippers had left) to get a picnic happy hour, which we also enjoyed on the beach as the sun sank lower behind us.

I started Monday with a swim to the beach and a run along it for a few km, before swimming back to the boat. September’s PT complete, we had breakfast and then the kids started their school week with some water sports (ski tube and water skiing). While the 5hp may have been out of action, the 15hp was fortunately running well. Haydee had her first crack at water skiing and did really well, and Cameron is now a veteran (his next step is steering and crossing the wake). When they finally finished their school work I took them back to the beach for some more swimming and a spot of beach cricket.

Lookout over Hill Inlet

On Tuesday we moved around to Tongue Bay, where we walked to the lookout overlooking the spectacular Hill Inlet. Wednesday saw us move up to Cateran Bay on Border Island, before our sail today to Cid Harbour on the west side of Whitsunday Island. We will duck down to Hamilton tomorrow and return to Cid Harbour tomorrow night so we can do the walk to Whitsunday Peak on Saturday. Monday will see us back in Airlie Beach for resupply and some repairs, then we will spend a week or more exploring Hook Island.

Crazy Town

Heather and Cameron on Shaw Island

We unfortunately had to return to civilization because we ran out of milk - even the no-name UHT emergency spares. Sad but true.

Before we left Shaw Island, Shane rigged a swing for the kids (and himself, of course) using a halyard, spinnaker pole and water skiing handle. It was quite windy but following the "if you build it, they will come" theory, both kids had lots of goes. Have a look at the video, below.

Haydee looking at coral

From Kennedy Sound, we gave Lindeman Island a miss (too expensive) and continued north, overnighting in "Happy Bay" at the northern end of Long Island where we went ashore and had dinner and a game of ping-pong at the resort before continuing onto Airlie Beach yesterday morning. It was a beautiful sail past Shute Harbour, South Molle and Daydream Islands but insane as we came into Airlie Beach. There was a ridiculous number of boats anchored, arriving or leaving. Some were going way too fast, others going way too slow. It was crazy town but we somehow got through it all (nice work, Shane) and are now berthed in the marina. Yesterday was dedicated to spending way too much money in the Chandlery and today will be groceries, washing and a visit by a rigger who will climb to the top of the mast and have a look at a misbehaving headsail for us.

From here, we'll spend another night at Airlie Beach before a grand tour of the Whitsundays including Whitehaven Beach and an attempt to find Heart Reef - we're all looking forward to the next few days.

The Nicolls of Lindeman Island

The kids doing the "invisible
park bench" skit

We've had a week or so of strange and crazy weather here, bringing our dream run of perfect weather to an end, I think. We had three or four days of fog (in tropical Queensland!?!?) followed by three days of strong, 25-30 knot, winds. We've been making full use of some cruising books we have on board to find comfortable anchorages. Thomas Island, while very beautiful, lulled us into thinking it would be good in strong winds however two saddles in the island seemed to channel the wind straight at us. Overnight, when we weren't being hammered by wind, we were being rocked by swell swinging around the end of the island. We experimented along the edge of the bay we were in but couldn't find a sheltered spot so we decided to try Kennedy Sound in between Shaw and Lindeman Islands, a few miles north of Thomas. I can report that it is very comfortable in 25+ knot winds, with good holding - some kind of grey clay comes up on the anchor; messy, but it holds us well - no swell, and the batfish are really friendly here, there is a whale swimming past us as I type and a rainbow behind me.

Happy hour at Goldsmith Island
(with Haydee pulling insane faces)

Shane and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary last week and worked out that we would have been honeymooning on Lindeman Island this time 14 years ago, probably to the day. I recall a round of golf that was very scenic but went on forever (like all golf) and Shane recalls (temporarily) losing his wedding ring. We're going to visit the resort - dinner could be on the cards but, at the very least, we hope we can pick up some bread and milk.

I think the boat is starting to take offence at all the work we're making her do. Our wheel lock (to stop the rudder turning the wheel when you're anchored or faffing around with a fishing rod) has jammed, and we've had problems charging her batteries this week - we initially thought it was a result of the fog but Shane discovered our (shiny new!) solar regulator, installed under Cameron's bed, had burnt out. (Cam can be a bit too much like a nine-year-old boy sometimes, but I'm attached to him and would like to keep him for a bit longer!) The installer (back in Brisbane) has been good and we should get a new regulator soon. Perhaps most disturbingly of all, however, is that Haydee has taken up pole dancing on the compression post (under the mast in the saloon). I'm so proud!

Thomas Island

Yesterday we came in here from Goldsmith Island. We went to the beach and found some small sculptures and Haydee and I decided to make one each as well. Then we took the dinghy around to the other beach and had a fire there. After that we went back to the boat, had dinner, did times tables for a chocolate and then I went to bed while Mum, Dad and Haydee stayed up and read for a little while.

Yesterday Dad went up to the top of a hill and took this video of the anchorage we’re at now:

Right now we’re at Thomas Island and Dad’s thinking that we get away from the side-ways rocking by taking the dinghy to shore. My favourite thing to do on the beach is to paddle on my boogie-board even though the waves are forcing me to the beach but I’m going along the side of it.

We haven’t got a plan for tomorrow but we are going to stay here.