Andromeda - Trouble in Paradise - One week in Airlie Beach, AU [pics] (eng)

Trouble in Paradise - One week in Airlie Beach, AU [pics] (eng)

Andromeda

Michael

Fri 29 Sep 2017 13:42

20:16.128S 148:42.178E

Trouble in Paradise

Airlie Beach, Coral Coast/Whitsundays, Australien

22.-30. September 2017

After my birthday and a few days at Hamilton Island, we had another quite lovely week in various anchorages around Whitsunday Island, and even were lucky to get to do some kiteboarding at the stunning Hill Inlet.

However, Michael kept not feeling too well (I know it’s serious when I have to go alone in the dinghy to the beach, rig up and kite, and Michael just comes by briefly for a little session, or I go on hikes alone) so we decided to go to Airlie Beach on the mainland.

The chiropractor from Hamilton is there most of the weekdays and it seems to help somewhat, and also, we needed a sailmaker for the spinnaker repair.

Not surprisingly, the latter is a much easier matter.

The marina did an amazing job. It must have been horrendous after cyclone Debbie came through, but now, just a few months later, it all looks very beautiful. What you see in the pic is only half of the marina - it’s pretty big! And lots of boats in various anchorages - it seems everyone here sails or has a motor boat.

We prefer to anchor out in the breeze and be able to go for a swim - it’s actually gotten really hot, the air as well as the water, hooray! (Andromeda circled red).

(Pics show views North and South - the middle (i.e. East) is not in the pics…)

I took above pictures when I went on a little hike alone up the hill towards the 27km rainforest circuit. There are some great tracks here. But I just wanted to go to the lookout, when 3 girls asked me for directions. Since we were heading the same way, and it was interesting to exchange our backgrounds - they’re all foreigners, doing a semester in Sydney and using spring break to explore and seemed quite nice and interesting.

So I invited them for sundowners on the boat - I was quite sure Michael wouldn’t mind a bit of a diversion. He was quite surprised when he wasn’t just picking me up at the dock, but 3 more girlies :-)

Unfortunately, we all missed to take some pics.

On Saturday, I went to the local market, a nice mixture of produce, jewelry, food, artists and life didgeridoo music.

Surely a lot have seen great sand art - but I thought this smokey dragon was definitely worth a pic!

Just around the corner from our anchorage is a public boat ramp, and a supermarket just a 10min walk away - quite comfortable way to stock up the galley again quite easily,

And no, that mate behind my trolley is not my friendly supermarket helper, just a fisherman that happened to be there.

The last days we spent catching up on Andromeda’s To Do List: servicing the anchor windlass, rebuilding a part of it’s base with the amazing South African Pratley’s Puttey, changing engine oil and filters (I finally tracked down a good 6l vacuum oil pump which makes the job about 100 times more easy and clean), and - yes, re-sowing the sunbrella that protects the genoa.

For that, I had to spend two rather agonizing days trying to get our sailrite sowing machine into working order again.

It got all messed up 3 years ago when I (rather a novice in that field) tried to work with very durable but very slippery tenara-like thread).

Anyway, in the end, it finally worked well enough for the job - great feeling of accomplishment! :-) :-) :-)

Tomorrow, we want to slowly head towards the outer reef and away from cel phone reception.

All depending on wind and pain situation - we’ll see what the next days/weeks will bring.

So long!

Health and happiness to everyone - be sure to take time every now and then to appreciate all the good in your life.