The Start Of Whitsundays

We motor into Mackay Marina after a fairly easy, but bumpy trip as there were a few white caps in the seas and do a total fill up with fuel so we have enough to get us around the Whitsunday islands when we do leave.  This is the most expensive fuel stop so far at $800 –ouch to our hip pockets.

One of the many ships waiting to come into Mackay Marina as we are heading in.

Book into the marina pen for two nights and have a bit of trouble getting into the pen as the wind is blowing the back of Mingo out.  Third time lucky and we get her in and all tied up.    We used to worry about trying to get into these pens as they always seem so tight, but nowadays we think that this is the easy part, and when leaving Andrew motors out backwards quite comfortably.  With the other unexpected things that have happened during this trip, motoring in and out of a marina now is pretty much done with our eyes closed.

We are quite impressed with this marina, although the staff not as friendly as others we have come across.  The marina and facilities are big.  There are about 5 restaurants, a bottle shop, decent Laundromat, couple of coffee shops etc. We get in and first thing we do is go and have a shower.  Its been 10 days now since we have had a proper hot shower, we have been low on fresh water too so have been having cool salt water showers, not too bad as we did bye some special sea soap before we left which takes the salt feeling off your body.  Anyway was nice to sit on a proper toilet and have a hot shower at Mackay.    We had a look around, Christie bought her first cappuccino and Andrew his first Ice Break in 10 days. Oh jeez we have been deprived haven’t we?  Funny the things we miss when they are not in reach.    We then get four loads of washing done and go and have a chat to the boat sales guy just to see what boats are for sale in Mackay.  We have been thinking about possibly in the future getting something a bit bigger, so just wanted to have a chat.  The prices of boats in Mackay seem to be a good few thousand dollars cheaper than any other marina we have been to. Whilst there Kerry checks in to the marina and pops in to say a quick hi and bye as they are heading home to Mooloolaba for a week, we should meet up with them again somewhere in the Whitsundays.  We then go and have a café dinner and make a few calls to family as we haven’t spoken to them in a while.   Oh and we finally have TV reception too, so get to see the news (not much else really worthy of watching).

Up in the morning and head to the cafe for a coffee each and then Christie spends most of the morning trying to write these blogs. We have been having a fair bit of trouble with the Internet stick, dropping out, so a blog that usually takes a couple of hours to put on, ends up taking all day – Very very 

frustrating.

Andrew spends the morning putting in a fuel flow meter, so that we can finally properly work out how much fuel we are using.  Andrew also changed the anchor light to an LED as we think that has been draining the batteries over night.

 At 1200 hours we have hired a car from the marina for four hours.  We pick the car up and have a drive around Mackay.  First port of call is of course Bunning’s, as Christie thinks that Andrew is having withdrawal symptoms.  We then head to BCF and into the shopping centre to do a big fresh food shop again.  Its nice to have the use of a car and at only $40, was not to bad for 4 hours use.    We then head back to the marina to collect our mail, that Pete kindly has been collecting for us and sent on.  Bills of course – what else do you ever get in the mail. 

Its funny the things you think about when you come back to town, Christie asked Andrew what he was missing most since we have been away, and we both agreed that a hot shower, proper toilet and transport when on land. Neither of us enjoyed being in a shopping centre or the traffic and its funny the noise you notice.  When anchored at the islands or ports we have been to its so quiet, no noise from the hustle and bustle of daily life.  I love the silence…

Hard to see with the fog so thick

Motoring out of the marina in thick fog

Up early the next morning, being Thursday 23^rd August 2012 and there is really thick fog lying about.  We forgot to speak to the marina yesterday about handing our swipe cards back, so now have to wait until 0830 hours till they open, so we head out for another coffee and make sure Mingo is filled with water, oils again checked and we are waiting to go.  We were hoping that the fog would have lifted before we left, but it was still very thick that you could not see out of the marina as we motored through.  Are we taking too big a risk leaving in this fog???.  Its only 5 knots this morning and the thought of having to motor in calm seas, is good enough for us to carry on.

Andrew on Brampton Island

We finally head out at around 0900 hours and really cant see more than 100 meters in front of us.  Once again it’s a very airy feeling and we thought the fog would have lifted within the hour but no it stayed the whole trip.  As we are pretty heavy with fuel and water again, its another slow trip anyway, so we are not too worried about visibility.  We motor towards the start of the Whitsunday Islands and our first being Brampton Island.

Brampton Island  - closed down resort

Brampton Island is one of the southernmost of the Cumberland Islands, more well known as The Whitsunday Islands.  Brampton was originally used as a coconut plantation, growing coconut palms from seeds imported from Indonesia. Most of the coconuts along the Qld Coast, originated from here.  Then cavalry horses were raised for the Indian Army on the island for a short time before  a small resort was started in 1933, this was then bought and sold by a number of people and unfortunately in January 2011 was closed down due to not enough tourists visiting.

Brampton Island

 We motor into bay of Brampton Island and anchor just by Pelican Islet.  It is still very foggy and we were about 500 meters from the island before we actually saw it, good thing we were only going at 17km an hour instead of our usual 43km. 

Yum Coconut flesh and milk

Andrews collection of coconuts

We anchor up and have a run in the tinny to explore our home for the night.   We pull up on the beach and Andrew sees a number of coconut trees, so now its time to collect a few.  He clambers up a smallish tree and brings down 4 coconuts.  On this trip there were a few must’s for him, one was visiting the Percy Islands – Now ticked off the list, one was to climb a coconut tree and collect coconuts – now ticked off the list, the next is to catch some crayfish – not quite yet ticked off the list.  

Andrew cracking the coconuts - Note the tools used!!

Christie enjoying some coconut milk

 We have a walk around the island beach.  The resort is closed down and the caretaker here is not to willing to show us around, so we satisfy ourselves with the beach walk.  Have a quick chat to the caretaker who tells us someone has bought the island and is planning on putting a exclusive resort on it with only about three cabins.  It sounds as though it will be great but also very exy.  Once again, it is sad to see such a beautiful island with a lovely resort closed.  The rooms are all still fully furnished, there are small catamarans and Jet Ski’s that used to be hired out, there is also an airstrip on the island (which is apparently still in use).  There is only one person who lives on the island, being the caretaker.   -  What a waste.     We head back to Mingo and Andrew gets into the task of opening the coconuts, so out come the drill and grinder and a few knives.  He finally manages to drill a hole and empty the milk out of each of them, ohh that’s nice and refreshing.  He then removes the husk and only manages to get one with proper coconut flesh, as the others are all to green.  But we have a good 2 liters of milk from them all.  Of course Andrew then Makes Christie a nice set of coconuts to wear…

Christie and her new coconut bikini, doing the hula dance.

Fog Rainbow.

Back into the tinny and the fog seems to be getting thicker again.  We head over to Carlisle Island which is only a 5 minute tinny ride from Brampton and have a bit of a walk around here, not much here as it has been left to ruins now, we then go for a tinny ride around the island.  The fog is now so thick, that as we are tinning around we have this light film of fresh water on our skin, its warm out of the fog but we motor into it and we really are in a cloud.  We have to take our sunglasses off as they are now covered in water.  There is also a cloud rainbow in front of us; this is a first to see.

 Back to the big boat and relax out the back, wondering what fun tomorrow will bring!!!!