We have just spent a week at Mackay marina – due to more bad weather.  We had a week of pouring rain and high winds, and hauled out our jeans and sweatshirts, with temperatures hovering below 20deg, which is damn cold for us.  The winds were so strong that the stitching on our bimini cover broke loose – something to be fixed when we next find a sailmaker.

As mentioned before this area is subject to very high tides – tonight the high tide is 6m.  To accommodate this, the pilings holding the floating docks have to be very long – see pic below.

 

 

 

The only highlight of the stay, was socialising with the good people from two Australian catamarans – Gemini Lady and Kirra Kirra.  We had a number of drinks and dinner sessions, which were great fun. We hope to see them again further up in the Whitsundays.   Being bored, I was also taking more notice of boat names – loved the one in the pic below.

 

 

 

 

 

One other thing worth mentioning, was passing the Hay Point Coal terminal, just south of Mackay. We wound our way through the anchorage, where we counted 27 ships on anchor waiting to load and saw 5 on the dock – this picture of the AIS signal, gives you some idea of the extent of the operation. 

 

 

We are now heading up to the Whitsunday islands where we will spend the next few weeks ... we are hoping that the weather improves and we can get back into the water.

 

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