Quarter of a century

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Year One
Date: 3/7/2008 15:00
Weather: Clear and warm, windy
Location: White Haven Beach 20'17 42S, 149'02 99E
Author: Kylie

On Tuesday we celebrated a milestone, I made it to a quarter of a century....getting real old now! he he he. The latter half of the previous sentence was what Peter said when he woke me up, real nice hey. We had breakfast at a cafe in Airlie Beach and a nice stroll along the board walk to and from the marina.

yum

Peter and Eugene

We then dropped the mooring and headed for Cid Harbour (20'17 42S,148'56 43E) to meet Pete and Jess aboard their cat Champagne Blue. We had a slow but pleasant sail in under 10 knots of breeze. Most of the charter boats surrounding us were motoring but we managed to maintain about 4 knot average and they barely beat us into the anchorage. Jess took some photos of us with full rig up so hopefully we will have some pics of our beautiful new main to show you.

We dropped anchor right behind fellow Cronulla-ers Valhalla. We have run into Peter and Paula on a few occasions now, but this was a huge coincidence as it was also Peters birthday. Way toooo many Peters!!!! We had birthday sundowners on Valhalla and dinner and dessert on Champagne Blue. Have to mention the delicious pecan pie Jess made mmmmmmmm. It was a good birthday.
Pete and Jess boat at Woodwark Bay

Peter made me a devils chocolate cake.

The weather over the past few days has been the best we have experienced so far. I think we reached around 25 degrees in the day and it only drops to about 17 at night. Darren you are going to have a major shock to the system when you arrive next month, we noticed its only been reaching 11 degrees in the day down in Tassie!!!! Today is a little cooler as the wind has picked up but its still warm enough to laze around the beach in just a bikini. Eugene is on the boat with us and Pete wouldn't let him go home without having seen the famous White Haven Beach so we motored into White Haven yesterday, we were expecting to be WOWed but to tell the truth it didn't live up to its reputation. It was very crowded (probably cause its Queensland school holidays and there are soooo many charter boats out) and there were alot of day cruise boats that unload a hundred people with sun igloos etc. However the more time we spend here the more we like it. Especially when the day trippers leave! Must say it has nice sand, like caster sugar, so fine and of course whitish. Today we had a bbq on the beach for lunch and played boules (you throw heavy silver balls trying to be the closest to the ping pong sized white ball), Eugene won.
Whitehaven

I have noticed our life now seems to revolve around food and meal times. In the morning we ask each other "whats for breakfast?" before we even get out of bed, then once breakfast is eaten we say "what are we going to have for dinner?", no microwave so we have to be a bit organised and defrost something! Then we get bored so "it must be lunch time". No longer is it just a peanut butter sandwich, we have time and lots of food within reach so we heat up something yummy for lunch. Our favourite is nachos....a can of Stagg chilli beef (remarkably good mexican flavour), dorritos and lots of cheese. Then if we are having a sundowner in the cockpit in the afternoon some snacks to go with it goes down well. Luckily I don't drink alot so this doesn't happen too often. With so much time on our hands we spend alot more on cooking. I make soup or sweet things and Pete makes fancy dinners. You cant say we are eating poorly. Very little comes from a can or is long life. I think I actually put weight on whilst we were in Tassie, I hope I am doing enough beach walking to burn it off now!

Lets back track a little cause we have been very slack with the blog writing. We left Brampton Island and sailed to Goldsmith, we spent 3 nights there I think. We went snorkelling but it wasn't that spectacular (still wearing a wetsuit cause its a little chilly) and we had Peter and Paula over for home cooked pizza. Then we moved onto Thomas Island (20'32 43S, 149'06 60E), covering the 8.7 miles in record time....about 45minutes and thats just with a headsail. Peter and Eugene spent the rest of day trying to find a fault in the electrical wiring as we had 12volts running through the boat. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful and a little worried about the damage it could be doing to the boat, being a Friday afternoon there was little that could be done until Monday. It was cat central at Thomas Island and we were outnumbered 14 to 2. They were all very nice people though and we enjoyed lunch on the beach with them on Saturday. Pete and I also went and visited a few of the cats and had a sticky beak aboard. Jealous, very jealous. They all have large bathrooms with separate showers!

On Sunday we decided to head closer to Airlie Beach so we could arrange for an electrician to have a look asap. We ended up in Nara inlet (20'07 94S, 148'54 80E) on Hook Island and met up with Pete and Jess and their friend Mick. They had just received their cat out of the charter business and had spent a few days doing repairs, modifications and provisioning.
Nara Inlet

Monday morning we arranged for the electrician for that afternoon so we headed off the Airlie Beach (20'15 52S,148'42 35E), Pete and Jess arranged for us to borrow a mooring for free just outside the Able Point marina (apparently the marina charges $90 per night - the highest we have paid anywhere is $40 so it is a complete rip off). Not sure if its a good or bad thing but when the electrician arrived our, problem seemed to have disappeared. It was there in the morning but by the time we arrived at Airlie it had disappeared! He did however say that we wouldn't be doing any damage to the hull so if it does appear again Pete shouldn't be too stressed. So now you are up to date.

The weather is meant to get a little more miserable over the next few days so we are going to hang around in the area and head to Hasslewood Island tomorrow. Have a look on Google Earth at the aerial pictures of the area, our guide has some stunning aerial shots, and you will be able to see where we are too!
Went for a walk upto a lookout at Tongue Bay
Tounge Bay

What doesn't hurt you will kill you!