Wind SE 10 – 15 knts   24 nm

Time to leave Mackay and head north.

We motored over to the fuel wharf to fill up with diesel  although we only put a 100 litres in each tank. The tanks still had 150 litres in each  and they hold 440 . We later realised we forgot to get unleaded for the dinghy outboard. It could spell disaster for Johns fishing trips.

Departed the marina at  approx.10:30 and headed north for the Newry islands. This little group of islands lie 24 nm NW of Mackay quite close to the coast and are zoned National Park.

We didn’t appear to have much wind plus it was behind us most of  the way so we only averaged 4.2 knts. Quite a come down from previous days. The sail was very uneventful, John got bored and had a sleep on the trampoline but got sunburnt whilst Jenny sat at the helm and crocheted. We had both rods out and caught nothing except a chunk of weed, saw no boats, whales or dolphins.

Arrived in the anchorage at 4:15 and anchored amongst 6 other boats including Back Friday and Bojangles.

John , Morgan and I put the dinghy down and motored ashore past Bojangeles to see if they wanted a lift. They didn’t have a dinghy at all now since they damaged it as they sent it from Mackay to Airlie beach for repair. They will pick it up in Airlie. It turned out they had plenty of outboard fuel so we topped up our tank. Nothing like bartering on the water.

We took the dinghy round to a shelly beach on the SE side of Newry Island and wandered through the picnic and camping area. A resort had been started in 1935 and ran successfully until it was closed by National Parks in 2001.Remnants of some of the original buildings were still there including the  old concrete bar. The buildings had been ingeniously built from local resources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thai green chicken curry for dinner with full TV reception much to Johns delight.