Mackay Marina 17th – 18th June

Our trip to Mackay took us through the Mackay Outer Harbour port area where many huge ships are anchored to await their turn at the coal loading facility at Hay Point. We counted 23, but there could have been more as they were parked as far as the eye could see.

 

Not nice! Luckily it was anchored!

 

Mackay Marina has plenty of room for visiting boats and the facilities and service are excellent. They appear to be making a big effort to encourage visitors to use the marina. We were lucky to be there for the fortnightly Marina BBQ  - sausage sizzle, salad and drinks supplied. The hot showers are blissful. I think I emptied half the Mackay water supply on the first night. A big shop for supplies was needed, so with Ric and Val we hired the marina car for the day. We got a special deal and for $39 we had the car for the whole day instead of half a day. Day two saw Val and I off to the marina hairdresser. She was well worth the visit and I felt civilized again when she had finished.  That night we had Ric and Val for Beef in Red wine on board Rene.
 

Peter Loses Tiger

During the afternoon that we had the marina car Ric, Val and I decided to hit the shops in Mackay. Peter, not interested in more shopping, decided to stay back and dogsit Tige and work on a few boat jobs. All went well for a while. Then Pete decided to go below and do a small maintenance job on Rene. He tied Tige to the winch and told him to stay put. A few minutes later when he popped his head out, no Tige, only an empty collar and lead attached to the winch. Panic!! Peter searched our pontoon. No Tige! Meanwhile Ric got a phone call to let him know that his dog had befriended all the girls in the marina office. Someone had let him out of the locked marina gate. Ric rang an anguished Peter to tell him the dog had been found. Apparently Tige did the guilty, hang dog look when Pete rescued him. The funny thing is that when we were on the beach having sundowners on Brampton Island this evening, someone we’d never met before, brought up the “lost dog” episode at the Mackay Marina. Must have been a good story!!

 

Thinking about it