cruise a one way trip and bring the boat home
on the trailer.
The whole convoluted process went like this:
- launch in Townsville, tie the boat up at the
yacht club - drive the car and trailer through to Lucinda
where they were stored - catch the Greyhound bus back to Townsville
- sail over to Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island
for the first night
The haul out at Lucinda was uneventful and
the ensuing 1½ hour drive home was preferable
to the alternative of sailing back to Townsville
against the 20 knot south-easter.
To make the Small Hotel more user friendly in
the tropics, I recently installed 200 watts of solar
panels, a MPPT regulator and 170 amp hours of
deep cycle batteries. This has meant we could
place a large 12 volt fridge on the port bunk
doing away with both the food and drinks
Eskys. No more cheese sloshing about
in that milky watery solution that used
to appear at the end the first day. More
importantly, the beer is always cold.
We have also installed a macerator
toilet, I will not bang on about the evils
of the Porta Potty it replaced but I am
sure you get the picture.
We can now stay out for up to twelve
days in relative comfort, except for the
previous comment about no shower.
The next long cruise was nine
days around the Whitsundays. We
drove the 3½ hours down from
Townsville, launched and spent the first night
at Nara Inlet.
Some of the highlights were visiting
Butterf ly Bay, Whitehaven, then pulling up the
keel and spending a great night with friends up
in Hill Inlet. Some of the lesser moments was
having to reef every day as it was windy every
day, plus accidently surfing the boat through
Solway Passage.The guide ‘100 magic miles’ was invaluable,
we should have read the bit about travelling
through Solway Passage at slack water rather
than when the tide is running f lat out, but we
know for next time.
Earlier this year we towed the boat down
to Hervey Bay and spent a week sailing along
the western beaches of Fraser Island. We were
able to lift the keel and get into Coongul and
Wathu mba Creek s.
On this trip we took another couple with us,
our friends slept ashore in a small tent. The
weather was perfect and stayed south east all
trip. In summary we intend to head back during
whale season as it was well worth the 2400
kilometre road trip.
Cath and I share all roles on the boat. This
works for us and has been very handy as“TAKE THEM OUT SAILING ON PORT PHILLIP BAY
AND KEEP THE DRINKS COMING UNTIL THEY
DECIDED TO PULL OUT THE CHEQUE BOOK.”
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