Its hard to believe that its August, gosh , time is flying by, and at home in Ireland, its the Augaust bank holiday, Margaret How has gone to Crookhaven for a few weeks and our son Stefan has gone there for the weekend with his doll, Caroline, We hope the weather is good.
Back here in Australia, the wind is blowing hard as we get out of the bunks this morning, and we have lots of birds singing away in the background. The weather is good, clear bright skies, but the grib files show a deteriation in the weather , so we decided to hop the 30 miles over to " Hamilton Island " Would you believe this, we could not get the generator to start, It just turned over, but not a gug. God ! I should have become a mechanical engineer, and not an architect. Although, with the engines these days, its an electronic engineer that's required.
10.30hrs We hauled the anchor , passed by this beautifull schooner, and nibbled our way out of the bay through the reefs. once clear, we rolled out the two headsails, one on each side , and goosewinged our way NW towards Hamilton Island, The sea was a crisp green colour, with little white horses everywhere as the wind was very strong from the SE.
It was a cool 23 degrees.
The sailing was wonderfull, we were moving along at a steady 6.5 knots, through all the different Islands, all part of the Whitsunday Islands. The scenery was picture perfect. And, We saw at least 6 whales, one who obliged by leaping completly out of the water, about 1/2 a mile away from the boat.
This was certainly one of our more relaxing sails, and when we arrived at Hamilton Isl. the wind died off completly and this made life very easy for berthing the boat on the marina.
We checked into the marina office, and of course this was located almost at the complete opposite side of the harbour,
We hired a buggy, a 4 man buggy, this is the normal transport for the Island, and comes complete with indicators & lights.
We had to visit the yacht club, located very close to us, and was a spectacular bit of modern architecture. The whole Island is very posh, and that comes with a big price tag... but its beautiful.
16.00hrs We had a visit from Jan Mortan Ruud, and Lars, ( Ronja ) , we enjoyed an hour or so, chatting and recounting the trip ............... All done with the help of a fine bottle of red wine.
Lots of yachting visitors came to say " hello" to the Irish Boat,, it was good to get such a warm welcome. We booked dinner in the steak house with the " Ronja " crew. for 20.00hrs.
We all had cold showers on board before heading off to the restaurant in the buggy, ( Same as a Golf buggy ) except it carries 4 people. The food was great, and was certainly the best steaks we have had for a long time,
We were the last to leave the restaurant, ( Of course, we being Irish, never leave a premises that sells drink, untill we are asked to leave.) We must have been flying, because I dont remember any night caps being served when we returned to the boat. Just straight to the scratchers,
Thats it for now,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde, ( Skipper )