A Chance Meeting With Old Friends and Back to Horseshoe Bay 26th - 30th May

Dunk Island is such a gorgeous island and on discovering we had another perfect day on our hands we decided to walk the Island Circuit Walk, a 9km track which climbs almost to the top of Mt Kootaloo and then heads off towards the eastern end of the island and returns via the southern beaches. This track was not as well maintained as the Kootaloo part of the track, but it was OK. The worst problem was that in several places the 'Wait-a-While' vine had slumped down over the track and getting past that without it attaching it's sharp little hooky spurs into the tee-shirt or skin required the moves of a contortionist. We came across a fresh water tortoise on the track near Coconut Beach, a little way from the creek. It appeared healthy so we thought it might be on it's way to find a place to lay eggs. Maybe??

Fresh water tortoise Coconut Bay Dunk Island

We decided to have lunch at the beach café before going back to Olivia for a well earned rest. A large catamaran steamed into Brammo Bay late in the afternoon and I watched it anchor close by as Peter checked Olivia's engine and did one or two small maintenance jobs below. The 'cat' people waved and I waved back - friendly types. After a while they came over in their dinghy to say hello. We recognised each other as they came alongside. It was Brian and Marie on Urchin from our days in the Mandurah Marina. Their boat was docked on the same pontoon as ours and we developed quite a friendship, discussing plans for the Aussie trips we all dreamed about. They left around the same time us, but spent 18 months in Port Lincoln, Marie working at nursing. We knew they had moved on, but did not expect to catch up with them at Dunk. We all went ashore and had a celebratory drink at the beach café. They are going over the top and back to WA this year and we are heading south, but it was great to catch up with them.

We found a 'washing machine' in the back locker, unfortunately hand operated, but it works quite well.
 Peter had a go too.

Peter checked out the weather forecast and we still had several light wind days before stronger winds were predicted. It seemed best to take advantage of the calm weather to make our way south again with relative ease before I needed to check in with the doctor and physio about the progress of my injuries from the bike accident. My shoulder is going well, but my fingers on both hands are still very sore and I have to be careful not to knock them. Some tasks like unscrewing lids, turning on taps etc I leave to Peter. Too hard!

We motor sailed to the northern end of the Hinchinbrook Channel after an early lunch and anchored for the night at Scraggy Point, almost opposite the Hinchinbrook Marina, just south of Cardwell. The night was absolutely still and the next morning we enjoyed a pleasant motor down the channel admiring the mountains which were almost clear of clouds. From the southern channel exit we sailed over to Orpheous Island, but instead of stopping there thought we might take advantage of the mild weather to anchor at Havana Island for the night as we had not been there yet. Havana Island is at the southern end of the Palm Island group. We anchored for the night with another 'cat', but they were not very friendly so we both kept to ourselves.


Hinchinbrook Channel, early morning

 



Sugar Sheds at Lucinda

A favourable day was forecast for a slow trip to Magnetic Island so we pulled the anchor just after 6am and motored out of the anchorage around the northern side of the island, just as the sun rose over Albino Rock, on the eastern end of Great Palm Island. What a sight! Albino Rock sat right in the middle of the rising blood orange sun providing it with a bright corona. I didn't look for long, just briefly enough to catch the dazzling sight.

Another gorgeous day! We tacked out to the east under sail, so it was slow at 4-5kts. The wind did not reach more that about 8kts all day, so in the end we motor sailed into Horseshoe Bay just after lunch. Now we will stay here for a couple of weeks until I fly back to WA for three weeks and Peter's friend Bob comes to keep him company. After that we intend to venture south eventually ending up at Lake Macquarie or Sydney, with Olivia settled there for the summer.

Relaxing on the way to Magnetic Island