This morning we left Thomas Island early as we had very little reception. Two hours later we found enough reception at Shaw Island to join in on the Zoom call to Aunty Jean and Uncle Doug’s 70th wedding anniversary party. It was good to see everyone.
After the call we took uncle Doug’s advice and started fishing.
We landed a nice Mangrove Jack for tea. We did hook something large enough to run the line out about 100m before cutting through the trace. We also hooked something that bent the rod then snapped the 50lb line. The third time I had put a steel trace on the heaviest line we have. This time I pulled in a 1m shark (baby shark do do do do)
Now Sue has banned me from swimming off the back of the boat.
Author Archives: Captain & First Mate
Record broken
As the two ladies that were looking at joining us for the next 2 weeks both backed out and went sailing on other boats, Sue and I headed off on our own.
While heading for Thomas Island we broke a record! Going into 33knot winds and 1m waves we reached 10knots boat speed for a while. Pretty good as the boat is designed to do only 8knots, but we do regularly run at 9knots.
Goodbye to Karla
Yesterday we said goodbye to Karla, an old friend from Sue’s days in travel industry. We had a great couple of weeks despite the weather not always playing the ball. Will catch up with Karla and her family when we get back to Brisbane.
No fish were harmed in the making of her holiday (all catch and release!!).
Turtle Soup Anyone
GPS: 20 32.652s 149 06.046e
Run: 33.2nm (60.1km)
We have a new crew member. Karla flew into Airlie Beach on Tuesday afternoon. Sue and I went ashore to pick her up. It was an extra low tide and the sailing club marina was almost high and dry. We had to get out of the dinghy and wade it though the mud to the no longer floating pontoon. We were able to wash most of the mud off before heading into town to meet Karla. The first stop after meeting Karla was the booze shop. Sue and Karla had lots to talk about as they haven’t seen each other for 20 years. That evening there was a bit of swell coming in the bay which made Karla sea sick.
Wednesday morning we hauled anchor and sailed south to the southern side of Shaw Island. We found an unpopulated bay that was nice and sheltered. As Karla had taken sea sick pills in the morning she had felt good all day and was eager to partake in sundowners.
Thursday Karla was up early and watched the sunrise. After breakfast we went ashore and swam. In the afternoon we took the dinghy out and fished for a couple of hours. Sue caught two small Rock Cod and Karla caught a Damselfish and a baby Reef Shark. All were returned to the sea. Back on Imagine sun downers started earlier than usual. Everyone got a good night sleep.
This morning we left Shaw and headed across to Thomas Island and Naked Lady Bay. But it was too busy for us, so we went around the point to our own private bay. Eager to catch fish for dinner the rods were deployed . There was nothing biting then Karla called out my rod has got very heavy. Looking over the side of the boat, at first it looked like she had caught a fish big enough to eat. Then the turtle surfaced. It had swam passed the fishing line and the hook caught its shell. Before we could do anything the line broke and the turtle swam off. Isn’t that called tag and release? Upon winding the line in we discovered that it had broken close to the hook so the turtle should survive its ordeal. With fishing out of the question for a while we had lunch then headed ashore to explore, a quick swim and sunbathe. Back on Imagine and it wasn’t long before the rods came out again. Even fishing while having sundowners still resulted in nachos for dinner. One day we will have fish, so Im told.
Airlie Beach Race Week
Friday was the first race in the Airlie Beach Race Week. The first photo is as the start gun went, the second was taken 20 minutes later. It was not a fast race ! Yesterday the second race was not much better.
This morning we left Airlie before the race was due to start with zero knots of wind. We motored most of the way to Blue Pearl Bay where we are spending the night and maybe the next few days. Once again the large butterfly fish are swimming around our boat.
They Lied!!!
We met new crew in Airlie, the lady that had contacted us that was so eager to learn to sail and push her boundaries and her friend. We told them what we are doing and quizzed them on what they had been doing, their travels, clubbing etc. All was fine.
Wednesday 5th August
We sailed out to Blue Pearl Bay. Through chatting on the way we discovered that they had been to several large parties and clubbing. Also that her girlfriend was someone she met the night before that had travelled up from NSW. Another conversation went “1000s of people die in the wars in the world and no one cares, but a virus that kills old people and people that are already sick and the world is in a panic.” The lady that was pushing her boundaries was too busy on her phone to help sail. There were other things that Sue won’t let me say.
Thursday 6th August
The weather isn’t the best over the next few days so we set sail and returned them to Airlie Beach and said goodbye. They are now heading off to a party somewhere. We wanted to give them a 12 day sailing experience they said they were looking for but we have to look after ourselves and our friends.
We are self isolating (again) for 11 days until a friend hopefully still joins us!
On a positive note, we saw quite a few whales travelling past Blue Pearl Bay and we again had the wonderful big fish surrounding our boat and letting us swim with them (Toni Cunningham – not THAT big fish!!!).
Full Power
Our crew departed
Cleaning the spreaders
GPS: 20 06.090s 148 54.112eRun: 4.6nm (8.3km)
Avg: 46knts
24hr: 1104nm
Again we went snorkelling and then Sam went up the main mast and cleaned the spreaders (Alan – you will be pleased to see!). In the afternoon as the wind was getting up and the bay was getting a bit choppy, we moved to the next bay for an overnighter at Butterfly Bay.
Friday 31st July After lunch we were going to move to Stonehaven Bay but we were interrupted! A couple of amorous whales were blocking the entrance to the bay frolicking around. For over an hour we were entertained by their breaching and laying on their backs, splashing the water with their fins. We arrived in Stonehaven late afternoon and fed the fishes some more before having Roo for dinner!
A large Manta Ray
GPS: 20 03.072s 148 56.947e
Run: 13.1nm (23.7km)
Avg: 262knts
24hr: 6288nm
Luncheon Bay is a nice bay sheltered from the SE winds. After a nice night we woke to having large fish swimming around the boat so we had to swim with them! We then noticed a large manta ray swimming back and forth across the bay so Julien had to go take a closer look and swam with it for a short time.
After lunch we hopped in the dinghy and went around to the next bay (Manta Ray Bay) and snorkelled with large Maori Wrasse, tuna, parrot fish, Pinnate Batfish and many, many more that were used to humans and came right up close enough to touch.
