Townsville and Magnetic Island with Maree

8th to 17th August, 2021

John and I normally try to avoid having different groups depart and arrive on the same day as there is a fair bit of cleaning, washing and replacing to do however family are different. They get to share in the work. This time my sister Maree was coming aboard for the passage to Airlie Beach. We would stay in the region for a week or so then sail south.

After a weekend away on Summer Breeze Chappy and Ang dropped me off at Breakwater Casino whilst I left John to do the usual marina activities – walk the dog, fill the water, wash the boat, the clothes, the engines, himself. I hadn’t seen my sister since Dad’s passing the

year prior so it was going to be wonderful to have some happier time together. We moved Maree out of the casino and onto the boat. It was a bit of a struggle to drag her away from the pokies.

As the wind was still quite strong, we stayed an extra day at the marina and were shocked to see a fire on a big production boat tied up not far from the fuel wharf at the marina. There was a bit of collateral damage to boats on either side and apparently that jetty was without services for quite a while as it was repaired.

Not much wind around we motored across to Magnetic Island. Poor Maree, in her excitement to see us, had gashed her shin jumping over a chain fence at the casino. She, also, is an athlete like me. The wound was reasonably deep and very tender. Ex-nurse me was thinking tetanus, septicaemia, amputation (it was an ugly wound). That didn’t eventuate but Maree was a bit off-chops for a few days.

We spent the next few days doing the usual – Tallis toilet visits to the beach a few times a day and some half-hearted fishing attempts. The weather was also a bit on and off with some rain. We caught up with Jo and Michael from Chara and mt a couple off Wizard of the Wind.

Another day we did the island tour on the local bus. We had lunch at Paradise Point pub again and coffee at Nellie Bay

One evening John, Maree and I went to the little community of Arcadia where there is a small theatre restaurant, the Stage Door Theatre. We had booked in for the Time Warp show. Well, what a surprise! We had an absolutely fabulous night. The place was packed - the show coordinates with the bus and ferry from Townsville and lots of people come dressed in theme.

The evening started with some pre-dinner drinks in the garden, followed by nibbles, dinner, dessert and an amazing show put on by the owner, Bernadette Smith and co-stars. By the end of the night everyone (except John) was up singing and dancing. We took the bus back to Horseshoe Bay and stumbled round in the sand trying to find our tender and then out to the boat in the ink black night.

As planned, we returned to Townsville to spend a couple of days reprovisioning and checking out the town. We hired a car for 2 days as the marina courtesy car 2-hour blocks were just too short to do it all. We did all the usual, which was a little easier with the now fairly healthy Maree. It must be noted that we clearly articulated to Maree, the school teacher, how to calculate the amount of alcohol to be purchased for the number of days we would be away from any shops. See next chapter for outcome.

We did the food and other shopping and went to Spotlight to look at some kitchen gear. We ran into Tammy and Marco, friends from Alice Springs who were just passing through on their way from Cairns. It was such a strange place to accidently run into someone but really lovely to see them. Tammy is a bit of a legend.

Captain John and crew ate out a few times (The Brewery and Dalrymple Hotel), we did some sightseeing around town in the car and drove up to Castle Hill – a great view but a terrifying drive up. Interesting to note all the crazy people running UP the hill. We did a lot of walking and Maree sustained a thong injury (of the foot). A little

nervous at the accident rate we wondered whether we need to put Maree on OHS supervision once underway.

Back on the boat we had to negotiate with some people who wanted to move into our spot on the marina and caught up with Kikki the bird again. Tallis had lots of walks. We were finally ready for the big passage south.

Next: Passage Magnetic Island to Airlie Beach with Maree