True Story
We ventured off from Airlie Beach and motored across to Butterfly Bay which is on Whitsunday Island and a lovely spot protected from the bad weather. However it is still subjected to bullets of gusty wind that channel between the islands. We were all tucked up and had picked up a mooring which we thought was great no worrying about the anchor dragging. During the night the wind gusts were around maybe 30knots but at 4am a bullet came though and the boat went one way against the mooring rope and our bow spit came off second best. John was already up reading and I was semi asleep as one does in such weather. He called out to get up and that we needed to prepare to leave immediately. The dinghy was half up so that we needed to either hoist it up or let it down This not an easy task when the boat is being rocked around by strong winds. The mooring lines needed to be separated from our boat which is not easy either. The boat is 23 tonnes with wind up to 50 knots pushing it and keeping the rope tight. John was on the helm driving the boat up carefully – me ditching the mooring ropes and off we go. We needed to go back to a marina for repairs as the anchor was now not operational. The weather got worse coming across the Whitsunday passage with the wind around 30 knots and the swells up to 2.5 to 3 metres. Keep saying to yourself “I love boating, I love boating”. We pulled into Abel Point marina and I said thanks to god, I was so pleased to stop.
Now the almost impossible job of finding a person to repair the boat. Earlier this year the whitsundays
WOT
had a cyclone go through and most of the tradespeople are already busy. We eventually contacted a girl “Kelly” who came down and gave us a quote and she did a great job. The weather has not improved but we can not afford to stay in this marina any more at $85 per night, it cuts into the sailing kitty. We have moved the good ship Ariel around to Woodward Bay to wait until April and Michael arrive for a visit. (Teresa’s daughter and friend).
Our friend Warren and Laureen are still with us and another yachty from Southport Marina joined us last night for a beach BBQ and fire. Plenty of oysters here free if you want to collect them. Neville from the sailing boat, True Story, cooked up some last night and even I ate one.