Hi Everyone.
Well. life goes on on Rendezvous Cay. It's Friday, May 2, and we're at sea again. Actually, we're just cruising up the east coast on our way to the Great Barrier Reef. It was a pretty sad day on Monday as Rose boarded her plane for the UK. So the captain is a bachelor again. Hoping the UK docs can succeed where NZ and Oz have failed, so maybe Rose's hiatus is temporary.
We spent Tuesday with last minute predeparture jobs, not the least of which was getting a ship's cat. We got a ginger and white 8 month old male, and he seems to have settled in quite nicely. Another additon to the crew will be joining us in early June--Joe's new girl friend, Olivia.
Our trip is good in some respects and not so hot others. We have a high dominating the area and winds are light so we're doing alot of motoring. The upside is calm seas and a smooth trip. Unfortunately, there is the East Australian Current to deal with, and it is wreaking havoc with our fuel comsumption. Our speed through the water has been a consistent 8 knots, but the current is nailing us for negative 3. We're only going about 600 miles so we didn't fill the extra fuel jugs, but with the current against us, it looks like we're going to have to pull in somewhere for diesel. In fact, we're about 100 miles away from the best spot for that and worried about making it. Well, of course the current intensified, so we're pulling into the Gold Coast for the night and to get fuel in the AM. Well, no trip is ever easy. Love those nightime arrivals!! We got some diesel right away Sat AM and off we went--actually making good time as we finally had some wind to offset the current. Hit Wide Bay bar--an inside route to Hervey Bay where Bundaberg is--at about daybreak, and it was a piece of cake. Of course, there was about a 100 smallish boat regatta going up Sandy Straight. We dodged them, in and out, in and out, and now actually had the current with us. So as we approached the north end of the straight I went below to plot our course to Bundy. Noticed we were a little left of a buoy we needed to leave to port and, by the time I got to the helm, we were aground. Flagged some guys in a runabout down to help, and they couldn't get us off; the tide was still going out, and we thought we'd be stuck for a few hours waiting fot the tide to come in. BUT, with a lot of manoeuvering, engine work etc, we did get off after about an hour delay. So off we go again with an ETA in Bundy about 4 PM, looking forward to dinner out, a few cocktails and a good night's sleep. Nope, Joey noticed no water in the starboard exhaust, and we shut it down figuring we must have done something trying to unground ourselves. After another hour, at least, of running slowly on one engine, we discovered a plastic bag was blocking the intake to the water pump. This is pretty amazing as the engine water intake is in the sail drive and consists of several 1/4 inch high by 3 inch wide slots. Got to the dock at about 5:30. Called our friend, Paddy, on the radio and he's there. Came over after we had dinner at the cafe and stayed for a while. Allison, his girlfriend, lives a bit further south and is looking after her daughter's store. Paddy had her car, though, which was nice for getting in and out of Bundy for parts and provisions. Also met some other friends from last season. Seems like everyone is doing the Indonesia thing.
So we took off last Friday, the 9th, for the Barrier Reef. The plan was to do 60-80 mile day hops, but we got sick of that routine and are currently--Sunday night--sailing overnight to get up to the Whitsundays, the premier cruising grounds in Eastern Oz. Turns out our friends from Mariner IV will be hitting one of the same islands, so we can hook up with them before they leave. Their owner is shipping the boat back to the states. In any event, it's great to be back in the tropics and somewhat warm again. Coincidentally, we anchored last night at Cape Capricorn, so named as it sits almost exactly on the Tropic of similar name. Yesterday, we caught a really nice 20 lb yellowfin tuna whose filets now rest in our freezer. So we just dropped anchor at Scawfell island and Mariner IV is here. It's just 7 AM and doesn't look like anyone's up yet. The anchorage is quite scenic and there are only 5 boats here, but I fear the lad will be disapointed as it does not appear there is an adult beverage establishment here. That will have to wait another 35 miles or so when we get into the resort area of the Whitsundays. Tom and Katie dinghied by later and invited us to dinner on their boat. They had some friends on board. Had a nice dinner and caught up on their plans which include Tom supervising construction of a 90 foot 'Gunboat", a South African cat for their owner, Dennis Tito, the rich American who paid the Russians to send him into space.
Today is Wednesday and we arrived at Hamilton Island about noon after spending a rain soaked night at Brampton Island, about 30 miles SW of here. Nothing to write home about there. Ah, it's nice to be back in civilization. Expensive but all the amenities including a pretty reasonable happy hour and strong signal phone and internet. This is a major tourist destination in the Whitsundays with its own jet airport and an entire townlike environment. Reminds me of Mackinaw Island. You can rent golf carts to drive around so we did and toured around the entire Island. Nice beaches and resorts as well as multimillion dollar homes. They even set up a happy hour at a scenic lookout for sundowners!!!
Okay, enough of civiliztion. We decided to head off to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. Billed as a must see and world class beach. And it is. Seven kilometers of fine white sand that squeaks when you walk on it. Tons of tourist boats as well as bare boaters. The revelry reminds me of first nighters on Rendezvous Cay in the BVI. It was so nice, calm and pretty we spent 2 nights before heading off to Long Island that has a supposedly nice resort. I say supposedly because we never stopped. On approach, we radioed the island for mooring instructions and were informed a ball for the night would be $100--the same as we paid for a slip in Hamilton with power and water!!!. So we changed course to the next island up which was S.Molle which allegedly welcomes boaters and had a nice anchorage. Well, our guides are a bit out of date. Only moorings and $49 a night. $30 buffet dinner. So, we had a $6 beer after we paid for the mooring and spent the night on the boat listening to the backpackers party very loudly on the beach until 1 or 2!! Made Joey very crabby the next day, but I slept through it.
Okay, enough of these ridiculous prices. We decided to head to the mainland staging area for all the Whitsundays, Airlie Beach. Open and free anchorage. Yahoo!! It's the mainland so it's got to be cheaper. Wrong! Loads of backpacker places, bars and restaurants, but a really crummy and expensive grocery and no dinghy dock in town. So we got a few good walks in during our 3 day stay as the dock near the anchorage was about 2 km away from town. The old man was home early each night, but the lad managed to party a little. One night some 20 yo backpacker chick accused me of staring at her boobs. But I'm completely innocent. Really. She wasn't even that good and there were plenty of others. Gave Joey a good laugh and everyone else he could tell about it!!! I figure she was just breaking the ice and wanted me, but I was mortified and went home.
I should interject here that it's not really that warm here and we're at the same latitude of the BVI. 50's or low 60's at night and 70's daytime, but we like to sweat!!! So much for global warming. Anyway we headed off north which is like south in the northern hemisphere to get warmer--made a noneventful stop on the way with a fairly long sail up to Townsville and Magnetic Island. Had the usual harrowing experience getting into Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island at night. The next day we decided to move around to the almost new marina there as we were going to take the ferry from there to Townsville. What a change!!! $58 night and free resort amenities including free laundry. Great spot and we stayed for 3 nights, rented a pink island car/cart and drove all over the place. Ferried the 20 minutes over to Townsville which was no great shakes, but we needed a few things. Not the least of which was some kind of high sided box we could use as a litter box for the cat. I'm new to this cat thing, you know, and they scratch litter over their business when they're done. Anyway, even though the "real" litter box we bought had a lip. litter was getting everywhere, so we got a big plastic bin with much higher sides and that's done the trick. Charlie doesn't seem to mind. I also need to remember to put my water glass in the sink at night as he invariably knocks it over if I don't!! He's really taken to us and the boat. Cute little bugger. Tonight we've moved back over to Horseshoe Bay planning to head north again tomorrow. There were a few boats we knew in there earlier last week, but they didn't answer their radios and have now moved on, themselves, but we'll see them later as it seems we're all doing the Indonesian thing, now dubbed the "Bali Rally"
We're about 150 miles south of Cairns, and our next stop is the Hitchinbrook channel, a scenic wonder, so I think I'll stop this here as it's getting a bit long.
Cheers to everyone
Tim, Joe & Charlie
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