With two beautiful full moons and 650 miles of sailing we are now at Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday islands at the Great Barrier reef.
Our numerous stops have been already blogged,so I shall only mention some of the most memorable ones for me.
Leaving Brisee April 6 was a reintroduction into the sailing life for me ! I had left New Caledonia by plane for London last September and when I returned back to Oz it was to Sydney for our walkabout .In early January we flew to london to meet our new granddaughter and I stayed on a few extra weeks while Michael flew back to sail Callisto up to Brisbane , I then flew there and we began another walkabout,so it has been around 6 months since my last sail.It takes me a while to adjust back into this lifestyle !especially getting used to the motion of the water and taking the obligatory scopolamine :(
I am unable to read at any length under these drugs ,it gives me a lot of listening to music and reflection time ,we also embarked on another scrabble tournament last week ,so far the admiral is 5:2 to the captain. We thought we would ease me back by trying to make these legs with day sails alone and therefore many stops.We only had one overnighter around Fraser island with favorable wind and a full moon. There are always challenges however well we plan our legs ,our grounding at Scarborough was an eye opener! I hadn't realized before I experienced this, that once hauled over, Callisto could power off ,rail to the water.I stood on the high end rather like the sinking titanic.Surfing in through the entrance at Mooloolabah harbour was very nerve racking ,trying to dodge surfers and jet skis who were in our path.These challenges certainly keep our minds alert !
Heading north has brought us into the tropics with sugar cane fields and pineapples around Bundaberg and gathering our first coconuts in Australia from the beach on Great Keppel island, a very pretty stopover.
The meteorology department say the weather is now transitioning into an el niño pattern ,but we are finding that It still can be unpredictable,despite the fact that it is nearly winter and we should be having drier weather ,it has been altering between a week of perfect conditions with a week of rain and very high winds, so we have been playing a dodgeball game with the traveling . We purchased a very clever device from Telstra ,a prepaid mobile wifi modem with which we can use up to 5 devices simultaneously, a great boost for our communication ,no arguing about whose turn it is to be on line.So far there have only been 5 days out of 5 weeks where we were in such remote areas that it failed to work
The Australian coastline is a true tidal experience of enormous proportions, the best $5 a cruiser can spend in this state ,is the Queensland tide tables,a bible for these waters.Not only tides ,but currents come into play along this vast coastline ,so there are many factors along with the weather to take into consideration between each leg , Local knowledge has also been very helpful.
A very noticeable menace are the different bugs,sand flies, biting flies and mosquitoes , so another must are mosquito nets on all the ports and hatches .I made one for our companion way ,so that we can have air flowing through Callisto,whilst keeping the pesky critters out. Once leaving the boat especially at dusk insect repellant is a given.Everyone has a recipe ,the latest concoction I heard about is equal amounts of detol and baby oil with a smaller amount of tea tree oil,mix and then spray :) I have yet to try it,I personally don't like deet ,but it works.
I spent my birthday (May 1st) in Yeppoon,and as you know most countries take the day off to celebrate this day (with a march ).I had an extremely relaxing stone massage at a local day spa called 'Satori'.I am now a proud owner of an IPad 3 ,which allows me to have wonderful onesided skype conversations with our little Granddaughter Sydney and now she can see me rather than wonder who is talking to her through the computer.The screen resolution is phenomenal also.
We ate a delicious birthday dinner of soft shell blue crabs and a dessert platter extraordinaire consisting of mini versions of creme brûlée ,Indian rice balls with a nut ice cream,decadently,dark chocolate cake paired with a fresh raspberry vanilla ice cream,and a profiterole accompanied with thin almond biscuits . The restaurant was called 'Megalomania' ,and is deservedly ,the 'our pick' in the lonely planet and also a choice from my food spotting app.What would I do without my apps! Talking of which ,the app "planets" allows us to look up into the night sky and see the names of all the stars and planets, we dont need wifi as it is through the built in GPS ,but the best app I have found recently is called "postcards" it is fantastic , I am able to load a photo of my choice ,and add a personal message including my signature ,then have it transformed into a postcard and then physically mailed to any address worldwide .No more having to look for postcards and post offices,especially in remote areas where they don't exist.Brillant!
We have had dolphins and turtles along the way and keeping us company in the anchorages ,this is always a special sight and brings a smile,a few small sharks have also been spotted. It is wonderful to be in the clear turquoise tropical waters again,leaving behind the dirty water in the harbour of Sydney and the extremely brown muddy river in Brisbane .
West bay on Middle Percy island is one of these 'must stops for yachties',(boat is the only way to get there,as are most of these remote places),
On the beach is an A frame ,as you can see in the photos,with mementos given from those who have passed this way for the last 50 years. It is a gathering spot for fellow sailors. There is an excellent 5 mile hike ,a canopy covered track, (which at this time of year was full of tiger blue butterflies,)up to the homestead where we had a good cup of tea with Kate ,who with her husband is managing a wonderful homestead that has been in her family for many years,the homestead house as with all traditional Queensland homes was built before air conditioning ,so it is built on stilts over a stone/ concrete slab so that the air can flow beneath to help keep the house cool ,as well as large covered verandas so that the sun is kept out and the air can flow through the open windows especially when it is the rainy season. They collect rain water from their corrugated roof into large tanks,plus being lucky enough to have some fresh water on the island also.They raise goats ,bees and chickens ,with a few peacocks wandering around .There are many varieties of fruit trees and vegetables growing. She shared her delicious bread made from her own wheat.Kate is a lovely ,hospitable and unbelievably hard working lady . We had a good conversation while her two adorable labs sat under the table for me to play with, they made me pine for my long gone labs :(
It is this kind of unexpected rendezvous that "makes my day "along our journey.
We have now reached Hamilton island known in Oz at 'Hamo', this is an island with a large marina ,resorts ,and golf carts transporting everyone around ,restaurants ,plus very expensive homes for the rich and famous, rather like an upscale Catalina.We have been busy washing, cleaning and provisioning as we always do when we have unlimited water, before we set sail tomorrow
around the islands ending up in Cairns by the 24 th May.
