The Changeover, Airlie Beach

4th to 6th September, 2021
After travelling from Townsville, we would stop at Airlie Beach so my sister Maree could return home. In the end she would have to stop in the NT for a period to comply with WA Covid border requirements. One and a half days later Kath and Dave Brummit would come aboard and we would head south for Mackay. The logistics were a little difficult due to the tight turnaround timeframe but nothing is impossible with a good job list.

We sailed from Long Island and got into the Port of Airlie Marina late

morning. Maree moved into Airlie Beach Hotel (a great location) and picked up a hire car as she was staying for a few days after we left. We had a very energetic afternoon cleaning the boat, cleaning ourselves, and cleaning our clothes and sheets. We walked the dog and did some of the food provisioning. John and I like the Sailing Club, great view and reasonable prices, so we had dinner there and later walked Maree back to her hotel.

Of course, we had to stay for a few drinks as there was a band playing. Airlie Beach is always great for people watching – locals, backpackers, Aussies behaving badly on holidays and a few extremely rich and eccentric individuals thrown into the mix. This night there was (I am not an ageist) a very old lady in extremely revealing clothes doing dirty dancing with a 20-something boy, a bride participating in a dance off competition and Sallyanne a very social

lady who appeared everywhere we went.

Kath and Dave were expected at midday the next day. I had an appointment for a suspicious skin spot so I would leave John with the final cleaning and I would pick up a few things on the way back to the boat.

That’s when the s..t hit the fan. The marine macerator toilet failed at the worst possible moment and I had to leave John to fix the problem. He’d never make a nurse! The uncontrolled gagging was quite funny but I couldn’t say that at the time. I returned home to do the final bleaching of the room.

Anyway, all was ready by the time Kath and Dave arrived. We did a bit more shopping, found Maree and had lunch at the Airlie Beach

Hotel where who did we meet up with but Sallyanne and her friends having refreshing looking cocktails. She claimed she never usually drinks this early.

After another busy afternoon we all regrouped for sunset drinks at the sailing club where we found out that Dave didn’t like loud places for dinner… whoops the dinner restaurant choice was very loud and has live music. John and I really like KCs for its good service, good steaks and live music. The cocktails aren’t that good.

We were all a bit tired from our late nights and red eye plane flights. The lively atmosphere did invigorate us a little. Of course, we ran into Sallyanne again but the funniest event of the evening was when we were ordering our meal – the waitress not only sat down to take our order but made sure she was really comfortable before she started!

Finally, it was time to go. Kath and Dave moved on board, Maree came to say goodbye and we sailed out into the windy bay.

Next: Passage: Airlie Beach to Mackay with the Brummits