Mapoon

Day 3: the adventure begins....

6:00  Daybreak saw us trying to figure out the anchor winch and after a little fiddling we were motoring up the creek to head up the coast. The conditions were great, good weather and light winds, looks good so far..


8:00 Greg thought we should try and put up the mps, or spinnaker in old school. Bad idea, we struggled for a coupla hours and nearly died a few times. All suggestions for spinnaker use in the future will not be well received.

10:00 The winds have picked up and we were scooting up the coast at 7 knots heading for Mapoon, our first overnight stop. I was sailing!! Unfortunately as the day progressed the winds swung round to the North and we had to motor sail for the last 4 hours or so. The life of a seafarer is not always straightforward unfortunately.

18:00 Anchored in the mouth of the Wenlock and had a comfortable and bug free sleep.Saw lights on the beach, obviously a car, kinda wierd.

 

Weipa Day 2

8:00 Shopping for groceries and fishing bits, we also need some rum for the trip so a stop to the bottlo is planned.

10:00 Off to the goverment agent to transfer rego for my boat. We get to wait for some time while some old bugger and his missus socialize with the agent under the guise of getting some paperwork authenticated. I didn't catch the gent's name but I do know that he's moving soon, and that although his hair is grey, everything else still works perfectly...eeeewwww!!
Was surprised to see Terry Garlick at the fishing shop there, apparently he's sold up in Townsville and is based in Weipa now. Better fishing I guess.

12:00 Lunch at Tony's

14:30 Pick up Greg from the airport and Tony drops us off at the boat ramp. Into the tender and we set off for Nysa, the beginning of our journey home.

16:00 Arrive at Nysa, Greg and I have a rum to celebrate life, the universe, and everything.

19:00 Bed, mossies and all. :(

Weipa

Wednesday 23 November 2011:

8:00 Final packing and panic attacking getting ready to go to the airport. 2 months of negotiation, lawyers and miracles are finally concluded, I'm off to get the boat.

11:00 Take off for Cairns. Lucky me, I get to sit next a guy that should really have two or three seats to himself. Never mind, nothing like sharing.

12.50 Land in Cairns and spend a quality hour observing Japanese flights arrive. Hmm...

13.20 Take off to Weipa at last, sitting next to a young fella that is well dressed and sporting dreaddies.... Ew. He pretends to be asleep for the whole flight and I try to avoid anything trying to escape the hairy ecosystem sitting next to me. ...Ew.

14.50 Tony, former owner of Nysa and truly helpful gentleman, picks me up from the airport and we go out to the boat. I'm such a happy boy right now. She's a beauty and she belongs to me. :)

18:00 Boat inspections and introductory systems tutorial finished, we go to dinner at the bowls club. The food was poor and the service worse.

20:00 Tony goes through the navigation charts with me, I'm so tired by now that little sinks in.

22:00 Bed