Blog 30. Thurs 20. Little Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island. 18.35.96S 146.29.33E
Alcedo
David Batten
Fri 21 Jun 2019 08:04
The advantage of a marina to us is 5 loads of washing and another shop for fresh food and alcohol, the latter ordered on line from Dan Murphy’s, very good value for money and ready for pick up in the marina “hire car”, a “Ut” very similar to the farm van with only 2 seats. We then walked to the Townsville Yacht Club for lunch with friends Stuart and Ann Letton, who managed to get Time Bandit a berth there thanks to knowing an ex member, followed by a visit to the Aquarium for a preview of the reef fish we were hoping to see snorkelling. We also saw a young salt water crocodile, hopefully the only one we will see and some green frogs that looked as if they were made of plastic until they moved.
Yesterday, Wednesday, we left the marina and motor sailed to Orpheus Island, seeing only one other yacht until we reached the Palm Islands. In Little Pioneer Bay, which provides one of the best anchorages, we found one other yacht on one of the 3 blue buoys placed just outside the buoys that mark the reef and inside of which anchoring is quite rightly forbidden. The blue buoys are good for yachts up to 23 meters in 35 knots of wind and, in theory, have a 4 hour limit for remaining on one until after 3.30pm, which was fine as we arrived at about 4.00pm. The Palm Islands are renowned for magnificent sunsets, so herewith Wednesday night’s.
Today’s walk from the anchorage involved a very small, not much used track to the top, marked only by cairns and tape, left no doubt by other walkers. Making sure we made enough noise to warn any resident snakes of our approach and with Bill and stick to lead, we reached the top for a fine view.
The tape and cairns guiding us up the little used path
The Skipper and Bill at the top.....
However, no chance of continuing to the shore the other side as the drop off was like Corbets Couloir in Jackson Hole.
The Ship’s Boy having a refusal at the sheer drop down, reminiscent of Corbets Couloir
The anchorage from the beach showing the reef buoys that mark the limit of the anchorage and protect the reefs.
We did snorkel after the walk, in wet suits as it is still far from hot and were very disappointed in the lack of fish and the quality of the coral. There were some nice, healthy pieces of coral, but much of it looked as if it had been attacked by Crown of Thorns starfish and the visibility was pretty murky. Once in the water, we agreed to have a go at cleaning the hull below the waterline which, much to our horror, was providing a popular home for barnacles, some weed and other growths that we could not identify. It has never been so dirty and the fact that the new keel and recently antifouled bulb did not look so bad suggests the copper coat is loosing its effect and will need redoing. We are thinking of having the boat lifted to clean it properly or maybe find a diver to clean it as we did somewhat less than half of the port side only before cold and fatigue got the better of us.
After another balmy evening and good sunset, we had a slightly rough night with a south westerly wind kicking up a bit of a chop, so no time was lost in setting sail after breakfast in the company of the three boats that had joined us in the afternoon. Toad is currently on the wheel claiming skill at the helm is the reason for our good progress towards Dunk Island, but in truth, it is more about successful bullying of the Skipper to pole out the Genoa as the wind has swung from the SW to the SE and is now almost dead aft. The Skipper can be a little reluctant to play with the pole these days, as it is pretty heavy, even with Bill’s help on the foredeck and in the flukey trades we have had to date, often doesn’t stay up for long. With increasing age and decreasing lack of agility, speed of reaction and strength, it is the reason why we no longer have a Spinnaker on board. We have been there and done that and are now too old for such shenanigans.
Whoops, The Ship’s Boy has just shouted “fish”, so it is all hands on deck to see if we can land this one, so signing off now.
Alcedo
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