We departed Greys Bay at 6 am with the jib and both motors running averaging 8 knts. The motors were switched off at 11 when we changed course giving us a better angle to sail. The batteries were charged and water was hot and now we were averaging 7 knts. We are heading to Townsville to pick up Megan and the girls for a week who fly in on Saturday. We are excited to have them on board, I think they are too.

Briefly we thought about stopping at Bowling Green, however it was still early in the day and the wind was pushing us along nicely. I called up the marina at Townsville to see if we could get in a day early and the answer was yes. So we made a mile arriving at Breakwater marina Townsville at 4:00 and berthed in B3 on the closest finger to the Strand.

Off course I wasnt cooking dinner as we had arrived in port with a variety of restuarants so we headed off to Paddys Irish Pub, 400 metres from the marina. Sandra and Doug who had arrived in Townsville 3 days earlier to look after Dougs mum met us at the pub for dinner and beers.

Tonight is the first State of Origin, the guinness pies went down well while we watched the first half on the big screen. John was baracking for NSW and the other two for QLD, I didnt have a preference.

We walked back to the boat in half time and watched QLD defeat NSW while the boys sipped on scotch.

The fountain in the memorial gardens near the marina. Changes colour every few minutes.