It’s been a little while since the last entry and Ariel has been in Bowen for that time. We have really enjoyed the time in Bowen and it has lots of things going for it as well as having a mate there. It has given me the opportunity to go and see Ryan (my son) in Tully Heads a couple of times which has been excellent, although it is still a 5 hour drive it is well worth it.
John has been filling in his time in Bowen chatting to the locals and doing maintenance of Ariel, there is always that. We decided to go south again back to the Gold Coast it will take awhile depending on the weather. Saturday the 4th September we left Bowen with Airlie Beach our destination to meet up with friends. We arrived at Airlie about 2pm, anchored knowing that the anchorage is very rolly but those are the things one does for friends and filled the afternoon in watching a movie. Unfortunately at the last moment our friends rang to cancel, a little annoyed we up anchored and headed south. We reached Long Island which was a very calm anchorage and had a pleasant night. Sunday morning very early before 6am we took off again for a marathon day of motoring 16 hours. We came into Middle Percy Island around 10pm after deciding not to do an overnight trip. I was happy not to do the overnighter as I’m not keen at all to travel and not being able to see where you’re going makes seasickness worse and it would seem that I’m not getting any better in that department.
In my defence we also had a small issue with the chart plotter, so travelling without seeing wasn’t doing anything for my confidence. I intend investigating any forums on google.
Monday morning Ariel departed Middle Percy with Pearl Bay or Island Head Creek in mind for the night. We made it to Pearl Bay and took what we thought was going to be a good anchorage only to find that as night approached so did the wind and the swell. Very uncomfortable and was glad to see the morning. Ariel will not travel too far today as the weather report is 15 – 20knots and a 2 metre swell which was spot on. The trip was uncomfortable but we made it OK. The boat is always good, it’s the crew that let the side down! John motored down to Port Clinton as quickly as possible to get us out of the weather and we are now hold up deep inside the south passage of Port Clinton near the army boat ramp. The water is calm and no rocking at all. The wind is still fairly strong but not worrying us so we will stay here until the weather improves. At least we have internet and phone contact but no TV, but that’s OK we have plenty of things to do.
One of the locals in Tully Heads - this one was 3 minutes from the boat ramp