Magnetic Island & Townsville 1st - 10th September

We departed from Gloucester Island and Shaggers early on Sunday morning in still conditions and motored across Edgecumbe Bay to just off Bowen before any wind arrived. From then on a good breeze blew us north to Cape Upstart where we made the decision to continue on to Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island. Cooking dinner was interesting as we had rolly, quartering seas and using one hand for me and one for preparations made things a bit slow and messy. As I was dishing up the meal I happened to look out of the window and nearly levitated as this huge black shape appeared about 50m away. Momentarily I thought we were about to hit something large. It was large and turned out to be a whale breaching. At least half of it came vertically, head first, out of the water. Peter saw it too as it repeated the performance, then followed up with some tail slapping. Maybe it didn't like us being so close, but as we never saw it in the first place and as it was almost dark, we obviously both got a shock. That was close enough for me and I hoped there would be no more whales on our night's path.

It was still dark at 5am as we entered Horseshoe Bay and slowly crept into the eastern corner of the bay and dropped the anchor outside the moored/anchored boats. Then it was time for a proper sleep. This bay is very beautiful and is one of our favourites. We spent three days in Horseshoe Bay and walked over the range on the national park walk track to Nelly Bay where we investigated the possibility of leaving Rene in the Nelly Bay Marina over the summer. We also walked to Balding Bay and spent some time at the coffee shop at Horseshoe.

Horseshoe Bay

 

 



Early morning, Horseshoe Bay

 

 



Townsville's Breakwater Marina had advertised a special deal for "Shaggers" so we took advantage of that and booked in for three nights to fuel up, clean up and meet up with Andrew (Peter's dad), Clive (Peter's brother) and other family members. Meanwhile we checked out the rates for leaving Rene at either Breakwater Marina or the Motor Boat Club Marina in Ross Creek over the summer while we spend some time back in WA. There really was no choice. Nelly Bay was about $1200 cheaper for the seven months so we booked in and made our way over there as soon as our short stay in Townsville was over.

Peter has taken the injector fuel pump off Rene and brought it over to Townsville to have it fixed and then he has the wonderful job of putting everything back together again. To reach this part of the motor he had to take off the entire exhaust and manifold system and the water pump before removing the injector fuel pump. It has kept him busy for a few days travelling to the island and back, organising a fuel pump specialist to do the work and ordering parts. It sounds like it will be ready by Thursday so he will have the job completed by the time we leave for WA. Whilst researching where to leave Rene for the summer we discovered that the Magnetic Island ferry cost $5 per trip for those in possession of a Senior's Card and if you buy a book of 10 tickets. This helped convince us that Nelly Bay was the place for us.

Unfortunately, we have decided to cut our sailing season short by a month or so because the tenant in our unit in Perth is vacating and we want to do a quick renovation and try to sell it before the Christmas break. We are both over dealing with the various problems associated with rental properties. Our plan is to fly to Sydney to see Greg, Leisha and Jessica for four days, on 19th September, then fly to Perth on 23rd ready for a session of painting, cleaning and gardening.

 

'Friends'  showing a great deal of interest in me putting on my shoes

 

 

 

 

Crab art, Balding Bay

 

 

All the other crabs just put their little sand baubles in a pile around the holes, but this one obviously has a bit of crabby imagination.