Friday 4th July - Coral Sea Marina

With Lazuli ready and Craig and Tal onboard, it was time to head off. It was easy to drop lines with a few extra hands.

With a good 15-20kts SE it was a quick and fun sail across to Stonehaven. Craig took us all the way across.

We grabbed a mooring just as the sun was going down.

Tal kicked me out of the kitchen and whipped up a delicious salad to go with our steaks.

Saturday 5th

Coffee time, then over to Blacks for breakfast.

Fantastic snorkel along the eastern wall.

Motored around to Maureen’s to grab a mooring there. We were aiming for Mantaray Bay, but that and Luncheon were full.

Another delicious lunch - thanks Tal.

Nauti Kitty was in Butterfly Bay. We’d offered (via message) to take the boys around to the fish but got no reply.

Slow tender ride around to Mantaray Bay. Fun feeding the fish and watching the massive GT’s cruising around, and George the massive Maori Wrasse.

I dropped Kristie and Craig back on Lazuli, then took both girls around to see the boys.
They had been keen to go, I just didn’t get the reply in time. They got their wetsuits on and I headed back with the 4 kids.
(I went via Lazuli to let Kristie know - and suggested they move Lazuli around to grab one of the free moorings next to Nauti Kitty.)

The kids had fun feeding the fish. We had the whole place to ourselves when we got there.

Slow ride back to our boats.

Sunday 6th

Up for breakfast, and getting ready to sail down to Border Island. With the SE winds it meant tacking all the way.
Slow trip down with #2 reef and small jib.

We eventually made it to Border Island, but no free moorings. We motored past the other boats to see what they were doing.
One was leaving soon, so we dropped anchor and waited for them.

Lunch while we were waiting.

As the other boat was taking off, Craig zoomed over in our tender just to make sure we’d get it.

With Lazuli safely on the mooring, we all got in the tender and went into the beach. Off for a quick walk.

We stopped quickly at the start to put on shoes, but got slaughtered by mozzies. Once out of the track and into the wind we were safe.

Quick walk up to the saddle for some photos, and then onto the end of the walk to the lookout.

We then walked along the track to the lookout on the other side. Not a big walk.

Back to Lazuli, and Kristie and Craig geared up for dive. I surface watched while they swam around the eastern side of the bay.

Sips ‘n dips. Dinner. Whales.

Yep, whales swimming between the boats anchored out and us. There were at least 4 that came through at about 8:30pm, then maybe the same ones came back an hour later.
It looked/sounded like one of the cats anchored behind us would have got wet from the whale spout it came up that close!

Monday 7th

Another fine breakfast from Tal. Kristina suggested that she should enter a cooking competition.

Kristie and the two girls went for a quick scuba dive at Border Island, just in close and shallow.
Lots of fish and coral. They take it in turns, the other one usually in the tender or snorkeling along with me.

Emma had a good dive, and then snorkeled with me while Kristina was diving.

Back to the boat for Kristie to fill the tanks and then lunch.
Tal disappeared for a SUP around the bay.

We packed everything away to motor down to Tongue Bay. Craig and I got in a bit of work while the ladies were in charge up top.

Timing was good, we rocked straight up and got a mooring!

I had a bit more work to do, so Craig was going to take Tal for a tour of the other boats in the bay with us.
He came back a few minutes later saying the tender outboard wasn’t working well. I jumped in to have a look.
Went for a quick drive and as soon as I tried putting a bit of throttle on it just revved and didn’t go anywhere :(
Got back to Lazuli and had a quick google and look at the prop - we could spin the prop without the shaft moving :(

I tried making a few phone calls to see if anyone in Airlie would be able to help.
(one guy eventually returned my call - but he doesn’t work on small outboards)

We set off into the beach to do the walk to the lookout and back down to Hill Inlet. Way less people here than our last stop!

Good views again from the top.

While up there we could hear Pete and Jess from Nauti Kitty chatting on the VHF (we always take our handheld on beach/tender excursions).
They were anchored just down the beach from Hill Inlet and Pete was out fishing.
We radioed to say Hi and let them know we’d be down on the beach if they wanted the boys to join us?
Arje had a busted toe but was still keen to come in.

The girls and I walked off down while Kristie, Craig and Tal took some more photos at the lookout.

Down at the beach we laid out our beach mats and got drinks and nibbles sorted.
The kids enjoyed exploring on the beach, flying kites, and a big round of group Frisbee with adults as well!

The log got a good climb this time as well.

Sniffy’s toe was starting to give him grief, so he sat on the mat with Kristie.

We realised it was getting pretty late and would be dark by the time we got back. We had head torches for the walk.
I ended up having to give Argie a lift (shoulders/piggyback ride) the entire way back across the sand and up/over the hill.

It was fully dark by the time we got back to the beach. Pete called on the radio and flashed a torch at us to let us know where they were.
I dropped the two boys off on their boat, then Kristie and our girls back at Lazuli (leaving Craig and Tal on the beach for the 2nd trip).

We had offered Jess some strapping tape for the damaged toe, so we’d bring that back.
Picked up the others from the beach and went back to Lazuli to grab our full first aid kit (and some extras Tal had).

Tal made her first on-water callout as a nurse!

Pete had one of his Uncles and Aunts on board. They offered a beer as soon as we were onboard - won’t so no to that.
Tal patched up the toe. Turns out one of the cockpit lockers was open, and had fallen closed on his toe. Ouch.
I think Sniffy appreciated having a medical professional attend his wound.

“Payment” for the call-out turned out to be a large glass of red wine for Tal (I got another beer).

Tal and I eventually left to head back to Lazuli. Craig had cooked sausages for the girls.
Time for our own late dinner!
I managed to spill another glass of red wine on the table and couch cushions.

Tuesday 8th

Breakfast.

Motored around to Whitehaven beach. We picked a spot with not too many boats around.
We didn’t have the anchor down long when we heard a call on the VHF - turns out Viv and Russ from Bella had just arrived.

Got ready for a swim at the beach. Tender down, swim mat on. Craig and Tal enjoyed a jump off the boat and then a swim in to the beach.

I had a fun swim on the mat with Emma, while the others walked down the beach. After a bit Emma and I walked down.
Kristie and Kristina were enjoying a swim just where Bella was anchored.

Russ was in the process of lowing their tender. We watched thinking they’d then come in, but they sat down for a drink :)
I swam out to say hi to them both. Got onboard and Russ offered a G&T. Thanks!

The others all then swam out and Russ made G&T’s all round (coke for the girls!).

Russ dropped us all back into the beach (his nice new 4stroke outboard sounds lovely!).

Pete suggested arvo drinks and nibbiles on their boat with us along with Viv and Russ.

We both moved our boats further down towards where Bella was anchored, just a little more protection from the swell.

We ended up there just after 4pm:

• Jess & Pete and the two boys
• Pete’s Uncle and Aunt
• Kristie & I and the two girls
• Craig & Tal
• Viv & Russ

Lots to eat and drink, lots of laughs.

Viv and Russ went back to their boat for dinner.

I went back to Lazuli to grab our dinner and we ended up eating our dinner back on NK.

Emma was a bit tired and took herself to bed on NK.

Was about 9:30 or so when we all jumped into our tenders and went into the beach for a bit of fun.
NK had their light-up Poi, we had glow sticks, a speaker, also some more drinks.

I dropped Kristie and Emma back to Lazuli as Emma was spent.

Bit more fun on the beach (kids playing tag).

Back to the boat late (10pm ish).. I might have had a bit of a stumble getting back on and woke Kristie up!

Great night.

Wednesday 9th

Hangover.

Earlyish start as we were dropping Craig and Tal off and picking up our next guests.

There was no wind at all, so motoring all the way ~25nm.

I got it a fair bit of work on the trip back while Craig was in charge up top.

Got in to Coral Sea Marina no issues, but the public pontoon was full. We did a drive-by and one of the boats was just finishing up and would be off shortly.

We did a few circles while waiting and getting fenders and lines ready.

Easy dock with all the extra help.

As soon as we were on, Kristie walked off start a load of washing, visit the bottle shop and the Woolies pickup (walk there - Uber/taxi back).

Craig and Tal packed up their gear and helped with the boat jobs:

• Cleaning
• Filling up the water.

Wasn’t long before my sister Jess and her partner Chris turned up.

Said our goodbyes to Craig and Tal.

We really enjoyed having both of them on board. Great company.
Tal’s meals were exceptional, and Craig knows boats and always knew what was needed next and just did it!

Sunday 29th June - Coral Sea Marina

With the Meades onboard, and most of the jobs done there wasn’t too much to do before we set off.
Showers, breakfast, coffee (the essentials), and then a quick boat brief.

We dropped lines ourselves and headed out of the harbour.

There was still a good 15knt SE wind blowing, which made for a fun (for Justin and I) sail across to the top of Hook Island.

We dropped sail around Stonehaven, and motored around the top and picked up a mooring on the eastern side of Butterfly Bay.

The kids were keen for a swim, so we just tied the swim mat off the back for them.

Kristie, Scarlett and I jumped in the tender and went around the middle of Butterfly Bay for a snorkel.
It was ok (Scarlett really loved it) and around that headland in the middle was the best bit.

We had picked up a mooring next to some friends we’d met on Great Keppel Island.
We invited them over for the usual sip’s ‘n dips, but only Ollie and Kiya ended up coming over.
She was super excited to visit and play with 4 kids we had on board!
Good to catch up with Ollie as well,

Monday 30th

Raining this morning.

We were just sitting around when Ollie & Daph came over in their tender to tell us they’d seen Manta’s hanging around their boat.
They were off to go get in the water with them.

Queue the quickest donning of wetsuits on the trip so far. Two tender trips to get our lot across and in the water.
There were 4 mantas at the start, but by the end there were just two swimming around us in circles.
We started on the eastern side of the bay, but ended up well past the middle by the end of it.

Back on Lazuli we stayed in our wetsuits and motored across to grab the mooring at Mantaray Bay.
There used to be 2 public moorings, but now there’s only one mooring for larger boats, and 3 or 4 little tender moorings.

We took our swim mat over and tied it onto one of the tender moorings for the kids to sit on to have a break from swimming.
During our last shop we’d ordered a loaf of cheap white bread just for the fish.
The kids (and I) enjoyed throwing the bread in front of (or onto) those in the water to attract the fish!

So many fish around, as well as a few large GT’s and a Maori Wrass.

The kids ended up enticing a fish onto the mat with bread and catching it in the bucket - lots of shouting and laughter ensued!

Here’s a quick video from our swim there (Thanks J)

Olli and Daf were on the way over with their boat and were just about to turn around as there wasn’t a mooring.
We got on the radio and let them know we were off and they could have our mooring.

Grabbed a mooring at Maureen’s.

Went to go for a dive, but realised after getting the tanks set up that we had never filled up after our last dive at Musgrave.

We filled tanks, but by the time we were done it was 4:30 and too late for a dive.

Sip’s ‘n dips instead.

The kids spotted a bunch of wild goats on the beach.

Tuesday 1st July

Was good to wake up to blue skies.

Tested the tanks, and one was at 6ppm, so Kristie dumped the air out of that and then had to refill it.
Tested after at 1ppm.

After two days of dealing with different device time restrictions we’d agreed on 2hr limit. Managed to encourage the kids to do something without them.
They did a joint drawing game where each person got to nominate something different to add to the drawing!

I then took the other 3 adults for a dive. Poor little tender was a bit low in the water with 4 adults and 3 sets of dive gear :(

They dived along the eastern side of the bay. Wasn’t that great, but they did see a Manta Ray (and the accompanying cobia!)
The best bit was right on the point where the coral was nicer.

Back (slowly) to Lazuli and filled the tanks back up.

We were planning to set off to Border Island, so poked our head out past the point and motored to get clear of the rocks before hoisting the sails.
We had 2nd reef and #2 jib out and only been sailing for a minute before we noticed a cat doing odd stuff.
A whole lot of smoke then bellowed from the front - I immediately thought it was on fire, but it dissipated quite quickly.
They’d let off a flare! We had radio contact with another large tourist/sailing yacht that had followed us out around the corner.

We got close to them and then “hove to” in order to talk to them and see what was happening: they had lost steering and had no radio.
They were obviously quite worried, especially in the 1-2m sea close to the rock!

We dropped sails and let them know we’d follow them in and provide any assistance we could offer.
I got on the VHF and ended up talking to Hay Point VTS, and they were starting to talk to VMR Whitsundays.

The skipper eventually got manual steering working and they were making their way around the top of the island.
They let us know that Cumberland Yacht Charters was sending someone out, and I let VTS know the same.

They were obviously keen to pick up a mooring, so we went into Luncheon Bay to see if one was available.
There weren’t any free, so we asked one of the tourist snorkel boats if they could move; however they had 20+ ppl in the water so couldn’t.
They did send one of their tenders over to another cat on a different mooring and asked if they would jump off theirs (and take the snorkeling boats mooring not long after).
The cat was more than happy and quickly jumped off. Kristie played the middle-woman on VHF and coordinated both parties.

With the broken down cat now on a mooring our job was done. The whole saga had taken a bit of time, which meant it was now too late to get back out to Border Island.

We motored around the corner to Stonehaven and grabbed one of the many (there’s more than 20) moorings there.

We got one right up in the corner, quite protected. The kids were keen to have a swim, so tied the mat off and they had a great time.

Kristie and I headed off for a snorkel, but via another boat we’d met at Middle Percy. We’d been keeping an eye on where they were.
We were chatting with them when we noticed a Manta ray on the surface 20m away! Chat done, off for a snorkel :)

This one wasn’t as friendly and did not really want to hang around with us too much.

Once it left us we went back and had a quick snorkel on the finger of reef that extends out near where our mooring was.

Was ok, but nothing special.

Sip’s ‘n dips.

We’ve been enjoying the nights with the top off: dinner and drinks under the stars.

Wednesday 2nd

Motored over to grab a mooring at Black Island (about 1.5nm from where we’d spent the night).

Wetsuits on (except for J who had some time with his book) and took the swim mat over and tied it onto one of the 3 tender moorings.
We had to do two trips, but with us all there we had a drift snorkel along the wall.
Didn’t see any turtles, but lots of fish and coral (the eastern side of Blacks is our favourite snorkeling spot in the Whitsundays).

Once we were all nice and warm it was time to head down to Tongue Bay, on the eastern side of Whitsunday Island.
Motored all the way, with a quick stop/circle for lunch just before we got out through the passage between the islands.

Tongue Bay was pretty full when we got there, and no free moorings. One of the large tourist sailing boats was ferrying their passengers back on so we had a chat with them and they would be off in 15-20min.
We did circles around the other boats while waiting for them.

Once moored up we got ready to head into the beach to walk up to the lookout, and then we planned to head down to Hill Inlet and have some time on the beach there.

The beach was full of people; thankfully they were mostly getting back on their boats!

We did the walk to the lookout, and took the required photos. Wasn’t too busy.

Walked back down to the beach and set up our picnic mats away from everyone else.
Drinks and nibbles, and a good place to launch the drone.

We had perfect weather!

There’s a big shallow section full of stingrays, which we enjoyed walking through and spotting them.

There’s also a big tree for posing on.

DJ Bacon made a quick appearance on the decks on the way off the beach.

Was nearly dark by the time we got back to Lazuli.

Dinner and a long game of Uno after. Kristina won!

Netflix had released The Old Guard #2 today, and J and I were keen to watch it.
Starting at 9:30 after a few drinks probably wasn’t the smartest, but I was up for it.
J got about 1/4 of the way in before taking a quick nap… waking up just in time for the end credits ;)
I enjoyed it.

Thursday 3rd

Breakfast then motored down to Whitehaven Beach, dropped anchor in just over 4m of water.

Early lunch and then geared up for beach time.

We were on the beach for close to 3 hours: cricket, swimming on the mat, walking, snacks etc.

The drone came out again for some good footage of us and Lazuli.

Kristie got our boat name written out in the sand, then time for some photos :)

We’d been keeping an eye on Chalkies, and one or two boats had left. By our count there should have been a free mooring or two.

So back on Lazuli at around 3pm to motor across. There ended up being about 3 or 4 free moorings. We grabbed one close to the reef.
J and I got the fishing rods out, but it wasn’t long before the friendly resident turtle turned up at the back of our boat.
(we had the same thing when we were here 2 years ago!)

I had a bunch of squid offcuts from the monster I’d pulled in at Fitzroy Reef, and had been using that for bait.
Turns out turtles like squid ;)

I had kept all the tentacles, which made a convenient hand feeding option for the turtle. Everyone on board got a chance to feed it.
Once we ran out of that we gave it some of the frozen shop squid bait.. it didn’t seem to mind that either!

With that excitement done it was time to head into the beach. We took in drinks and nibbles, and warm cloths and glow sticks.

Had a great time chilling on the beach.

Once the sun went down the temperature dropped, and out came the glow sticks.

We had a good game of “Frisbee” with a glow stick ring, before it was dance party time!
I’d brought in our bluetooth speaker, and our starlink wifi reached us on the beach :)

Back to the boat for a late (8pm ish) dinner. The highlight being me knocking the table and sending J’s full glass of red wine over the table, the seat cushion, and Jo :(

Friday 4th

6:30am wake up so we could get back to Airlie in time. Quick breakfast, Jo got some more packing done.

We were off by about 7:30. We’d just go out through the bottom of Whitsunday Island when I spotted some whales up ahead.

We stopped the boat and waited to see what they’d do; a little extra bonus for our guests on their trip with us!

Good sail until we got to Hammo, where the wind dropped once we got behind the island.

The wind dropped even more once we got past South Mole. With the wind right behind us, Justin and I got the pole out for the very first time since we’ve had Lazuli.

Didn’t do much for our speed. Eventually had to drop sails and motor the rest of the way.

J skippered us in through the marina entrance and then I took over.

By coincidence we’d pulled into the marina just behind Nauti Kitty. The kids came up and we gave them all a wave.
We knew they were coming in on the 4th, but good timing :)

There is a public pontoon with two berths, but they were both occupied, and another cat was waiting to take the next spot.

We turned around and went back out to anchor in the bay. Tender in and I took Jo and Kristie in with all our rubbish and washing.
The ladies took the rubbish up and put on the load of washing then headed off to grab our shopping from Woolies in their ute.

On the way back I had a chat with one of the boats on the pontoon. They were going to be off in about 20min, so I asked if they could radio us before hand.

I got back to Lazuli, got the tender up and fenders and lines set for the pontoon. J raised the anchor and we headed in.
We got the call from Phoenix that they were 5min away from leaving just as we were coming through the channel outside.

Kristie was waiting for us on the pontoon, and with a light blow-on breeze it was a pretty easy tie up.

Kristie then left us to sort out the boat. The kids helped us unload all the Meade belongings onto the wharf.
J took the kids up to put our washing in the dryer and then onto the lagoon for a swim (all in their cloths) and an icecream!
Thanks J!

I filled up water and did a bit of cleaning before the ladies got back with the shopping.

Stowed that on board.

Craig and Tal (our next guests) turned up around 2:30pm. Quick unload and then they walked off to get a bite to eat.

The Meade’s said their goodbyes and left to make their way back home.

It was great to have them on board Lazuli for the week! Lots of good times.

Tuesday 17th June - Mackay Marina

We had a full day of shopping ahead of us.

Kristie had booked the “Rent a wreck” from the marina, hire car for the day.

We both went up to do the paperwork, and Kristie went off shopping and jobs while I did school with the girls and got in some work.

Kristie went to:

• pick up a new wireless anchor remote
• get her dive prescription lens put in her new mask
• hair
• bottleshop
• Woolies pickup
• Coles (for eggs & sourdough that Woolies was unable to supply)

Back up for lunch - hot chook (seems to be our regular lunch when ever we stop in a marina for shopping).

Once lunch was done, my turn to head off. I had a reasonable list to get through, and Pete from Nauti Kitty needed to visit most of the same places so he tagged along.

• Yamaha yard - I picked up some spectra to replace the furling line on our smaller jib.
• BBQ Galore to pickup a wok.
• BCF - new fish rod and squid light
• Anaconda - picked up some new sailing jackets - mine is probably 15yrs old and in need of replacement.

Got back to the marina after 4:30 or so - dropped the car keys into the box.

Back on the boat to put the shopping away and vacuum seal the meat/ham/salami.

The week ahead:

Dinner onboard.

Wednesday 18th

We had to check out today, but there wasn’t a rush - technically we didn’t have to be out until midnight ;)

Did the usual boat jobs, water, engine checks.

We only had a quick sail across to Keswick, so we didn’t have to leave too early.

I removed the old wireless anchor remote (the buttons on the remote were no longer working).
New remote was easy enough to install. It’s a generic remote (~$100, vs the Lofrans $800 version!). It works!

With the boat ready, we motored over to the fuel dock to top up.
Tied up and put in about 90L of diesel, for 27hrs of motoring since we left Gladstone.

Not the smoothest exit off the fuel dock, and then out into the main harbour to do a few laps while we pulled up fenders and lines and get ready to sail.
We put the mainsail up while in the protection of the harbour (much nicer than doing it in 1-2m swell!).

Our the marina and over to Keswick Island. It was a good 15-20kt SE. One of the crew from a pilot boat that was fueling up at the same time mentioned it was a bit messy out there!
With 2nd reef in, but full head sail out we were making quite good time, 8-10knts.

The seas started to pick up a bit, along with the wind. We had a good 2-3m swell.
It was starting to get a bit wild so pulled in the head sail, and that made things much easier.
Still going along at 7knts or so.

Once we got past the headland of St Bees it calmed down a lot. We dropped the sails and motored around to find somewhere to stop.
The moorings at the bottom of St Bees were bobbing around too much, so went around the corner.
The area just north of the runway was ok. Wind chop but no swell.

Settled in for the night.

Thursday 19th

School and Work.

Eventually we had to get off the boat. The girls were happy onboard so just Kristie and I jumped in the tender.
Tried landing just at the end of the runway, but a “no access / keep out” sign suggested we landed elsewhere.

Went down the end of the bay there the walk across to Connie Bay starts.
Tender up on the beach and walked up and over the headland.
Steep walk up a dirt/grass road.
Kristie scared off a snake with her scream after nearly stepping on it.
It was 600m up the top of the hill, then another 600m down to the beach.

Not much on the beach, but it was nice and calm.
On the way back we spotted Nauti Kitty arriving. Their first impressions of our chosen anchorage wasn’t the best, so they went to check out the other two options off the top of St Bees & Keswick.

Back to the tender, then went across to check out Turtle Beach. Also calm there when your standing on the beach out of the wind, but too much swell coming around from both sides out on the water.
It wasn’t long before Nauti Kitty circled back and dropped anchor where we were.

Back to the boat, we got the girls and went straight across to the beach on St Bees.

We’d told the other boats we’d be heading over, so it wasn’t long until the crew from Margot and Nauti Kitty were on the beach.
Drinks and nibbles and good fun.

Dinner onboard.

Friday 20th

School and Work for the morning.

Dropped Kristie into the beach at the airport. I went back to the boat.

Not long after Kristie stepped foot on the sand, she was approached by airport security.
The were a couple of trainee pilots practicing landings and take offs and the runway (only access to the island) was closed.
About 1/2 an hour later, they were finished with their training and Kristie was able to set off and walk every track on the island - steep tracks, some good views and not too sociable residents.

Late arvo I got a call over the VHF. The caller was checking in just to see if anyone had been trying to contact her.
I let Jess know that it was possibly Kristie as she was off wandering the island.
After some confusion, the caller identified herself as Kristie.
This gave our boat friends (who were listening on VHF) a good chuckle.

James jumped on the VHF call and invited everyone around to Connie Beach for a quick fire.
Kristie had a quick walk down from Horseshoe Bay Lookout to join them.
I couldn’t convince Emma to make the effort for 1/2 an hour, but Kristina was keen to head over for a quick play on the beach with the boys.
Marshmallows on the fire, a 0 beer from James, then back to Lazuli before the sun set.
Kristie got a ride back with James & family so Kristina and I could get back quicker in the rough conditions.
It was a wet tender ride home!

Saturday 21st

Very wet/windy day.

School and work.

Didn’t get off the boat.

Sunday 22nd

Another wet day.

School and work.

Put on the wetsuits and got to Turtle Beach for some shell collecting. Made a quick dash to the trees a couple of times, to hide from squalls coming through.

Got the call late afternoon from Nauti Kitty that the boys were going to watch A Minecraft Movie and invited us to come over.
Got the girls geared up for the tender ride across.

Jess was cooking popcorn - salted and caramel.

Movie was enjoyable - the kids really enjoyed it. Our girls had watch lots of previews and other Youtubes about it and gave a good running commentary!

Monday 23rd

Time to move on today. The wind has been howling the last few days and was supposed to be dropping off today.

We were pulling up anchor the same time as Nauti Kitty. They were off to Scawfell, we were heading north.

We got to Brampton but it was too rolly there, so we kept heading up to Goldsmith. It was much better up there.
We ended up picking up a mooring at the northern end of the bay.
We had occasional small swell wrapping around the top, but manageable.

We were the only boat when we go there, but ended up with 4 other boats in the bay by the time we left.

Tuesday 24th

After a bit of a rolly night I dropped Kristie into the beach for the morning.
Blue skies, warm sand and 2 40cm reef sharks cruising through the bait fish in knee deep water.
Back on the boat I helped the girls with their schooling, then got busy with work.

Picked up Kristie for lunch.

Bit of time on the boat then took the tender ride to check out the snorkeling options and the bay.
Water was cloudy, and not too much of interest to entice us into the water.
Saw a couple of reef sharks swimming around in the shallows.

Got the squid light out, but no squid came along.

Wednesday 25th

School and then motored across to Thomas Island.

It was still really foggy, cloud down to sea level.

Generator on as our batteries were a bit low after a few days or rain and bad weather.
Into the beach to go exploring.

Collected shells, explored the rocks, went for a swim.
Kristie had a quick snorkel. Cloudy water, lots of weed, little bit of coral and a few fish.

First time in a few weeks that we’ve had no wind, calm water & blue skies. So Kristie set off for a SUP.

Thursday 26th

Woke up to blue skies for the first time in a while.
There is a walking track from our side of the beach across to the other side.
The girls geared up for the short trip across to the beach.
On the beach we had to walk up and down a bit to find the start of the track.
The boating app said follow a dry creek bed.. The only creek was quite wet!

I didn’t go quite far enough the first time, and after pushing a little bit further found signs of the track.
Plastic (thongs, oil bottles) etc as trail markers.

Quite a bit of the track was overgrown and had to carry the girls a little bit.

We got to the other side and it was super windy. The girls both declared it wasn’t worth the walk!

Back to the boat and got Lazuli ready to sail across to Shaw.
Given it was still blowing 20knts+, we sailed across on just our #2 jib. Easy downwind sailing at 6-7knts speed.
Got to the end of Shaw and gybed to sail back across into the bay.
There were already half a dozen boats there hiding from the wind.

We motored up to “The Neck” to see if was any better there but turned out worse, a much longer fetch and more swell coming into the bay.
Back down the other end to drop anchor with everyone else.

Lunch.

Very very windy.

Didn’t leave the boat.

Friday 27th

School, no work today (already done this week and next weeks as well!).

With guests coming onboard tomorrow I needed some time to clean up the boat and make room for guests.

I had bought a bunch of down lights when we were at Gladstone and hadn’t had time (or inclination) to install them.
I got them all installed. They are also push button on/off, which will be helpful.

With the wind gusting up to 30knts I ended up with a few straps around the mainsail to lash it down for the night.

Saturday 28th

No particular rush this morning as we don’t have too far to go, and we can’t get into our berth until 12.

It was still windy and overcast.

Breakfast and then getting ready to sail.

Anchor up and got going by 8:45. It didn’t seem as windy or swelly as we expected.

Went with our #2 jib only, the main will still lashed down from the day before. Still going along at 6knts or so.

Until we hit the main Whitsunday passage, and we started fighting the flooding tide heading south :(

Once we dropped to about 4knts it was time to fire up the engine and start motor sailing.

A bit rolly at times, but I called in at around 12:30 to get our assigned berth.
Half an hour later I called on the VHF to give them the 30min heads up, and again called in when we got to the channel markers just outside the marina wall.

We had someone to catch our lines. My first attempt I got the angle wrong, but 2nd time nailed it.

All tied up and secure.

We had a bunch of jobs to do before our first guests turned up:

• Cleaning both bathrooms (and emptying the composting toilet)
• Filling up the water
• Two loads of washing+drying
• Offloading all the rubbish
• Charging batteries (for my squid light!)
• Showering!

Justin, Jo and the kids turned up just after 4pm, and once unloaded Justin took Kristie to collect our Woolies order (and more drinks!).

Back on board was a bit of chaos, bags of cloths, gear, shopping everywhere.

Got it mostly stowed away, and then we walked up to Hogs Breath for dinner. Curley fries FTW.

Kids needed a quick run around in the park to burn off the ice cream.

Tomorrow we’re off exploring the Whitsundays.

We’ll be around here for at least the next month and a half!