SUNDAY 30 SEPT. 2012.
Capt Barry woke early and put through two loads of washing , and did some ironing.
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| safer sometimes to just DO , rather than delegate |
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| it is not true that Capt Barry may be a little anal retentive , it is pure coincidence that the clothes have matching hangers |
We were expecting David and Rhyannon today. They were flying into Townsville , so Julie and I decided to catch the ferry over to Townsville to meet them.
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| taken from the ferry going up Ross Creek , looking back over the breakwater wall, into the breakwater wall for the Townsville Breakwater Marina , with Magnetic Island in the background. |
The ferry runs every hour and tickets are about $29 return per passenger and takes about 15 mins to do the 7 NM between the mainland and Magnetic Island, plus about 15 mins to slowly navigate up Ross Creek and dock at Townsville.
On arrival at Townsville, rear admiral Julie and Capt Barry walked through the ferry terminal and across the lovely park ( with enormous very OLD fig trees ) to the adjoining Breakwater marina, and inspected the facilities at Breakwater to determine if we wanted to berth there instead of Nelly Bay on our return trip from Hinchinbrook Island.
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| fantastic old fig trees. Spot Capt Barry |
At the marina we caught up with John on his 57 foot catamaran " Defino ", and had a drink (coffee and water ) and swapped some stories of where to go and fishing etc.
The marina ( first impressions - but the rear admiral and Capt Barry both agreed ) seemed a bit sad ie run down and lifeless , but was big , and has a bit of a community block where they have some BBQs and a large TV for special events.
After drinks with John, we hot footed it back to the ferry terminal , excited to meet David and Rhy.
After a short greet and hug all round, we hoped on the ferry and were under way for Magnetic Island in less than 5 mins.
David and Capt Barry went up to the Ferry skippers helm and chatted with him and received some expert tuition on how to park a ferry.
After a light lunch ( and re-laxer beer for David ) , we discussed what the options were for the next several days , as all weather reports indicated that the wind and seas were building up over the next 24 to 48 hours.
We decided to suck it and see by staying close to Nelly Bay marina , until the weather pattern became clearer. So we cast off the berth and headed for Horseshoe Bay on the northern tip of Magnetic Island, just over an hours run at 9 kts.
Rear admiral Julie did the skippering this trip, while Capt Barry watched .
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| just out side Nelly Bay marina |
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| rocks just outside Horseshoe Bay |
We gave the shark net a wide berth and anchored ( along with many other boats - obviously a popular spot ), in about 5 m of water , about half way along the north eastern shore.
Upon arrival , the girls commenced preparation of our chicken pasta dinner later that evening, while David and Capt Barry tried their luck fishing , and had another beer. After about an hour we launched the small tender ( with the 3 hp motor since there was 4 of us and no room to row ) and all went ashore to the Marlin Bar & Bistro.
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| looking ashore from LAST WORD towards the bar & bistro |
After lifting the tender a fair way up the beach we discovered that David had no shoes, so back to LAST WORD Capt Barry and David went for his thongs , while the girls organised a table at the bar/bistro.
When David and Capt Barry returned, they discovered it was happy hour , and the girls had ordered a jug of some potent jungle juice, but only two glasses (ie for them ) , so......David ordered his own JUG of whatever, and Capt Barry ( seeing how this evening was going to end up ) ordered a soft drink.
We enjoyed the party atmosphere of the pub and watched snippets of the beginning of the NRL grand final . but after the girls had ordered and polished off their second jug, so Capt Barry ordered an evacuation of the bar/bistro , as dinner was in serious jeopardy of not happening.
As we made our way back to LAST WORD, about 5.15 pm and jast as we approached LAST WORD under threatening skies, the 57 foot Nordhaven " Myrtle " appeared and anchored just off from LAST WORD.
On the way back to LAST WORD , we saw two fish feeding frenzies and decided to get out the fishing gear once more.
As Capt Barry was readying the rods he and David heard another commotion on the water about 30 m away from LAST WORD , and when we looked up we both saw a mackerel ( about 1 m plus ) launch itself out of the water, vertically, easily 6 m plus ( higher than LAST WORD which is 6.3 m ).
Capt Barry ordered the relaunch of the small tender , and David and Capt Barry jumped in and took one trolling rod and immediately did one big circle of the feeding fish in trolling mode, but no strike. The result was probably a good thing, as we were both a little concerned what we would do if we had a strike, as we both thought there was a good chance we would stab the inflatable with either the lure or the gaff, if not the fish.
David solved this problem by deciding we would just drag any fish we caught , back to LAST WORD, and deal with it there.
We enjoyed a fabulous chicken pasta dinner, set off by another fabulous sunset ( and some wine of course ).
After dinner David caught one fish ( a throw back ), and Capt Barry promised him something more substantial the next day.
After dinner we watched a remake of the movie " 21 Jump Street", then turned in for the night, which promised to be a calm affair as there was almost no breeze.
TRIP : 8 NM 1 hour , 36 L .
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