Sailing in Australia – Page 2 – Sailing with Saphir

We are heading towards Hamilton Island to meet up with Chris and Karen to celebrate Swedish midsummer and Karen’s birthday.

Our stop on the way was Long Island Reef. A small beach in front of an abandoned resort. This is not the first one we have seen on this trip and probably not the last one either. One of many backsides of covid I guess.

On the way to Hamilton island we pass a very lovely tiny beach island. We arrive just before 11 and needs to wait almost an hour before we can moor. Time to start preparing for the midsummer lunch. The day before I made a try to do herring in onion out of the Dutch herring we found at Woolworth. Let see if the taste is good.

Our lunch guests Chris and Karen arrived after they had moored and we had a lovely lunch. They survived our snaps song, although we don’t have the best voice. The taste of the hearing was okay but the fell apart totally. Our lunch consisted of, eggs with caviar,salomon, potatoes, knäckebröd,a very tasty cheeseand Swedish snaps and ended it with lemon muffins, whipped crème and strawberry’s.

The celebration didn’t end here. We took a few hours break before we took the bus to the other side of the island to restaurant BeachClub for Karen’s birthday dinner. Lovely place with a pool in front that looked very tempting to jump in to. The food was very nice and the dessert even better.

After dinner we started to walk to catch the bus back and there on the lawn we saw our first wallaby.

The next day was cloudy and little rainy. Me and Karen went for a hike up to the top and went down to south east head and escape beach. My Fitbit counted in total that day to 22300 steps. The view was astounding and the trails really good. Happy to done this lovely hike and very pleased that it was a cloudy and a few drops.

The next morning Mistral went to Airle Beach to get spares and hope for some help to fix there gas and fingers crossed that our batteries arrives so they can bring them to us.

We went back to sawmill bay for the night and enjoyed a lovely sunset with the moon rise. The moon really lit up like a lamp.

We hear so much nice about Whitehaven beach and decided to go there the next day. The dinghy gets in but the engine will not work properly. It starts but as soon as Edgar accelerates the engine dies. The wind and waves are too strong to row in so no beach for us. We hope for better winds the next day but sadly not and the night was not fun. It started first to rain heavily and after that the thunder. First it was far away and we saw some lightning in the far but it came closer and closer. Did some filming and when it was at its worst we have every 10 second. There came a pampam on the radio. One boat was dragging and lost power on their instruments. They engined work and they arrived safely and anchor not far from us. Luckily it calm down and we could go to bed. In the morning we could see how we have moved around our anchoring

The next place we was recommended to go to was butterfly bay which is just around the corner. Sadly due to weather conditions we didn’t want to go there instead we went in to Nara inlet. A very protected deep bay where we had a really good sleep. A bit spooky with all the clouds hanging over the tops.

Next day we went to meet up with Karen and Chris at Cape Gloucester. We decided to take a tour in to the beach with Mistrals dinghy or that was the plan. It ended with us taking up our anchor and safe Karen and Chris since the wind and the current was too strong to row back to the boat. Now we both need help to fix our engines. Time to get a Marina with chandelier and mechanics.

Hugs Eva

After a few days in Bundaberg relaxing, cleaning(yes always in need and quite boring)and most important stock up food and drinks, we are heading out to slowly sail up to Mackay to meet up with Chris and Karen on Mistral.

We leave early in the morning on the 5th of June and have decided not to do any night sailing which means by 17.30 we have to have reach our destination or it will be dark. First day we failed and anchored at 18.15 in total darkness. It works when it is a calm bay but not ideally. Always interesting to see how it looks when you wake up.

We do two more stops and both are before the sunset. The water temperature is okay around 21-22 degrees but I have heard so much about sharks and crocodiles so I am not tempted to swim. Luckily it is not that hot either. The teak deck was filled with trace of cellulose after our crossing. It is the rope that wear on the deck and it is almost glued on so need a good brush to get it of. The sea was calm so after an hour or two it was done.

There was a lot of tankers on standby that we passed on our way in to Mackay. Well inside the harbour we have our own welcoming committee which is Chris and Karen from Mistral. So great to see them again, and even better from now on we will sail with them all the way to Caribbean.

The start batteries came down to the boat unfortunately it was the wrong ones. New were ordered and hopefully can be here in four five days. Mackay city is 25 minutes away by bike. The bike lane was really good and safe all the way in to town. I went in there to get my Australian sim card at a phone company. By the end of the day it turned out that I could buy it at any grocery shop and registrer my self.

We spent some great days with Chris and Karen having our boat next to each other. Me and Karen went for a bike ride to see what the yarn/fabric store had. Got my self some embroidered yarn to decorate my destroyed hoody. Will be done some rainy day, I Hope.

Some reorganisation in the big storage, stocking up with some wine and beer, baking and we are ready to leave and sail up the coast to explore more places.

Chris and Karen stays for a few more days to get their rig and sail in order and hopefully also get our batteries.

Our plan is to get to Arlie beach to meet up with Mon Ami sailed by Louise and Mats, that we meet in Fiji. We hoist the sail and enjoyed the silence of not having the engine on. Our next goal is to hoist our new sail a blue water runner. It needs wind from behind and not too strong. Soon it will come for sure.

Found some nice stops on the way up. Also got some cute visitors. Still haven’t been ashore yet since we got scared from others that there might be crocodiles. At one anchorage it was a sign not to swim unless we didn’t want to be food. So much lovely water next to us and still so far. Well there will be some places where I can swim and use my paddle board.

Taking up the anchor is normaly easy but when it is clay bottom it is a bit harder specially if it’s dug in and also a lot more messy. Benefit is that we are very safe on the anchor. Won’t pull the boat in the first place.

Getting in to Coral Sea Marina we see this huge yachts. Would be fun to have a look around in one these one day. Feels like they are bigger than my house back home.

We have our berth next to Mon Ami. So know there are two Swedish boat in the Marina.

It was so great to see Louise and Mats. They are waiting to get a new electric furler. A big part of sailing is that things breaks our wears out and sometimes you need an expert to repair it. Quite often you then spend time just waiting for delivery or mechanical. They told us that they are almost a month delayed due to different problems that had happened when they came back to the boat. We have realised that things even break when the boat is on hard.

We spend two nights here and must say this have been the best Marina so far with all the facilities and the location. Just a short walk in to the town with a very nice walk path.