Townsville to Hichinbrook Island (26th July)

As predicted Amanda departed from Sally on the 12th of July and it was once again back to two of us. We stayed at Townsville until the 17th July and had a good look around the town including the Maritime Museum, many walks down The Strand and quite a few swims in the Tobruk Pool.  We also tried to watch Jack Miller in the Moto 3 race being run on Sunday night but were unable to find anywhere televising the race, however we did get to follow the race, and ultimate victory to Jack, via the internet.  Just in case you don't know he is currently leading the Moto 3 category - not bad for a young bloke from Townsville!



The Forts Walk - Magnetic Island

We departed from the marina in Townsville on the morning of the 17th and headed back to an old favourite, Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island, where we caught up with Gail and Ian Pearse (L'etoile)from down south who have been enjoying a few days with friends at the Lotus House.  We decided rather than rush off we would enjoy a few more nights at Maggie, especially as the weather is continuing to be rather nice.  We enjoyed this time and did the walk to The Forts, which was the forward defence for Townsville during the Battle of the Coral Sea which was pretty much fought on the door step of Townsville.  We also walked down to Acadia which is the other main town on Maggie Island and stopped in at Gilligan's cafe' for a coffee and morning tea.



Maggie Island Local

View from Maggie

Site of Leper Colony - Fantome Island

On the 20th (Sunday) we finally left Horseshoe Bay and started the trek north yet again.  Our first stop was at Juno Bay on Fantome Island in the Palm Group which is about 40NM north of Townsville.  We spent a couple of nights in the anchorage and went and explored the old Leper Colony that was only shut down in 1973 -  which was not that many years ago. Hopefully we are still leprosy free!.   We also were visited by a Navy Patrol Boat during our stay - it is quite a daunting sight to see one heading straight for you! 

Navy on Patrol -Juno Bay



Zoe Falls

As our remarkable run of calm and warm weather is forecast to continue for a few more days we figure this our best opportunity to finally get over and explore the very exposed eastern side of the world heritage listed Hinchinbrook Island.  Our first stop is in the very well known and beautiful Zoe Bay where we went for the short walk up to Zoe Falls which is definitely worth the stop.  Naturally as there was a lovely big pool of fresh water I decided that I must go for a swim and also decided a bath was in order only to find our later on that perhaps I should not have been using detergent in the source of drinking water for the many walkers that frequent this area - so I apologise for the error of my ways and promise not to do it again.


Zoe Bay

As Zoe Bay is totally exposed to the East we figured it is a better option to anchor up for the night in Little Ramsay Bay which is only a further 5NM north and has much more protected and ended up spending a couple of nights there on the pick which were a bit rolly but certainly worth it to get to spend some time on Hinchinbrook.   The anchorage is quite spectacular as there is jungle down to the beach and has the mighty Mt Bowen as a back drop.  There are also the well known Achtung Signs around warning that Crocodiles have been seen so we are pretty careful when making our beach landings!  The world re-known Thorsborne Walking Trail extends for 32kms along the eastern of the island with camping sites along it length.  Luckily enough we were able to walk on some of this trail from the anchorage at Little Ramsay to the north end of Zoe Bay and return which was fantastic and can see why so many people make the effort to walk this track.  During our stop in Little Ramsay we were also joined by some of those very intrepid Sea Kayakers that were also enjoying their visit to Hinchinbrook.



View of Mt Bowen - Hinchinbrook Island

Not wanting to push our luck too much and with easterly winds forecast we figured it was time to head back down to Orpheus Island (also part of the Palm Group) for a few nights.  This was quite a shock to the system as we actually had to go onto the wind and tighten the sheets which is something we haven't down for a very long time.  Anyhow we managed to deal with the situation and cope with the 20nm trip south and pull up a mooring in Little Pioneer Bay.  We were quite keen to pull up a mooring as our normally very trusty anchor winch has been a little temperamental of  late which we are pretty confident is a problem with the solenoid.  Mark went to work and has given the contacts a good clean and so far it is all looking good although we will give it a bit more time before we make a final analysis on that!

As we are moored right next to the reef we figure it is a good opportunity to hit the water again and enjoy some snorkelling and we weren't disappointed as the bay has some beautiful hard corals.  We also took a dinghy ride down to Pioneer Bay (about 1nm) to see if we could have a look around the James Cook University Research Centre but unfortunately our timing is not good so that one got ruled out however, we did go and have a look at the Giant Clam Garden which was very impressive with huge numbers of clams over 1mt across.  As our visit was at low tide we also got to see the Squirting Giant Clams which very much reminded us of the water feature in the Crown Casino at home - it is worth googling this as their are a number of you-tube clips showing this phenomenon

View from Orpheus Island

This morning (26th July) and we are still at Orpheus and went for the walk to the top of the island which has some great views of the windward side of the island down to Great Palm.
Luckily the good weather is continuing so I think we might be off for another snorkel this arvo or at least a couple of swims.  Tomorrow the plan is to head off early to meet the tide going into the entrance of the Hinchinbrook Channel at Lucinda and head up to Haycock Island for the evening.
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Whitsunday's to Townsville (11th July)

As planned we picked up Amanda at Hammo (aka Fat Island) on Friday 27th of June.  We enjoyed a couple of days at Hammo including a day sunning ourselves by the pool and the highlight of the stay was our trip over to Dent Island which is right next door to Hammo.  They have built an 18hole golf course over on Dent however, for those of us not quite up to playing on this very challenging course, you can take the soft option of lunch and tour of the course which was excellent fun.  You hop on the golf ferry at Hammo for the short trip across the Dent Passage where you are picked up in a mini bus and taken to the club house for a pretty swanky lunch with an awesome view over Hamilton Island.  Once lunch is complete the team all hop into golf buggies for the island tour.  As we were a group of 3 we got to go with the guide and lead the party which meant that Amanda and I, who were sitting in the back, had an excellent view of the golf buggy chaos behind us.  Eventually all 12 buggies made it back just in time to catch the ferry back to Hammo.  As it was such a lovely afternoon we decided that we should finish off the day with drinks at the Bommie Bar at the Hamilton Island YC before calling the day quits.

View from Golf Cart on Dent Island

On Monday it is time to get moving again and our first stop is over the Whitehaven Beach for a few nights before heading around to the top of Hook Island for a bit of snorkelling around at Maureen;s Cove with our overnight stop at Stonehaven on the 3rd of July.  We were lucky enough to catch up with our good friends Bill and Sue on Dilligaf again and naturally dropped in for a few sundown drinks!!

Whitehaven Beach

As the temperatures are now starting get a little cool in the Whitsunday's it is definitely the right time to be heading north again.  Our first stop on our trek north is Gloucester Passage which is well known for the Shag Islet YC, Monte's Resort and also the Gloucester Passage Resort which is where we decided to stop in for drinks and a meal.  As the wind is forecast to abate over the next few days we figure it is better to keep moving north while we can sail rather than going into Bowen so on the 4th July (Independence Day) we are on our way to Cape Upstart for the night and then up to Cape Bowling Green before making it into Horseshoe Bay at Magnetic Island on the 6th. 

Poor Imitation of Noodies

When we arrive at Maggie Island the weather is amazingly calm and as hoped warmer and to make it even better we have the same forecast for the rest of the week!  As we made it north a little quicker than initially planned it means we are lucky enough to spend a few days out at Maggie which always a bonus.  We had a few sunset drinks at the Marlin Bar, had a lovely walk over to Balding Bay (aka Noodie Beach) and Radical Bay (Family Friendly Beach) and also took the bus down to Picnic Bay for a spot of lunch at the pub.

Sunset at Horseshoe Bay

We arrived in at the Breakwater Marina at around 9am yesterday morning (Thursday 10th July) in order to meet the tide as the depth at the marina entrance is only 0.5mts so we need at least 1.5 and preferably 2mts to get in and out!  Luckily you get a lot of big tides around Townsville.

Surprise Surprise  - our cruising buddies Arjuna and Dilligaf  have beaten us in!  Townsville is a really nice spot to spend a few days and after giving the boat a bath it is off for a walk down the Esplanade and then over to the Yacht Club for a meal with Bill an Sue.

Today we are going to head over to the Aquarium which is always worth a visit and may also get to the Maritime Museum if we get time.   Amanda is getting voted off the island tomorrow and is heading back to winter in Melbourne.  We are thinking of spending at least 1 week here and hoping to get up to see Margy and Joseph on their cane property at Mourilyan during our stopover.

Some other highlights during the last couple of weeks:

• Mark caught a fish and we ate it!
• Carlton finally managed another win against the Saints
• Dan Ricciardo got a well earned 3rd in the F1
• Matt Lawrence (Mark's nephew) and Matt Seton finished the Melbourne to Vanuatu Race (~1800NM) last night on Jazz Player which is an awesome effort.  Hope they are enjoying the celebrations which I am sure will continue for a while.  Great to see Adrian and the Geomatic crew make the trip over to Port Vila to welcome in the competing crews  - even though it ended up being in the Flying division. after having to retire from the race.

Matt & Matt - Jazz Player