Balding Bay

The walk to Balding Bay takes you over the saddle to a beautiful beach, ringed with huge granite boulders.  The first part is straight up 1000 steps, the saddle is a fairly flat meander, then a clamber over boulders down the other side to the sandy beach.  Interesting to see spinifex right near the beach.

Old and New Friends

Catching up with old friends from Cairns and meeting new friends from all over.

Allied Rock Wallabies at Geoffrey Bay

Finally found some rock wallabies at Geoffrey Bay.  Sadly they have been hand fed for many years and many of them look very mangy and unhealthy.  Despite the NP signs recommending not to feed them, the shops are still selling “wallaby pellets” to tourists.  Not good news for our native animals L

Walking Magnetic Island

The walks on Magnetic Island are brilliant, with so many great vistas.  Two-thirds of the island is National Park with 25 km of tracks.  On our walk to The Forts we couldn’t have been luckier – a koala was propped in a small tree just beside the track.  As we watched her sleeping, as koalas usually do, a tiny head poked out from her pouch, then a couple of tiny claws and the joey looked at us, looking at him/her.  From the Koala Foundation we estimated the joey could be about 7 months old.

“The young Koala only drinks its mother's milk for the first six to seven months and remains in the pouch for that time, slowly growing and developing eyes, ears and fur. At about 22 weeks, its eyes open and it begins to peep out of the pouch. From about 22 to 30 weeks, it begins to feed upon a substance called "pap", which the mother produces in addition to milk. Pap is a specialised form of faeces, or droppings, which forms an important part of the young Koala's diet, allowing it to make the transition from milk to eucalyptus leaves, rather like a human baby is fed "mushy" food when it starts to eat solids. Pap is soft and runny and thought to come from the caecum--a pouch connected to the junction of the small and large intestines. It allows the mother to pass on micro-organisms present in her own digestive system to her joey, which are essential to the digestion of eucalyptus leaves, and is a rich source of protein.”

Up the hill at the first fort, we could see a whale lolling in Florence Bay.  Couldn’t ask for better day, except maybe a rock wallaby hopping by, but they were elusive during the day.  The species here is the allied rock-wallaby (Petrogale assimilis). 

Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island is a blissful paradise with laid-back resorts on the beach, cool cafes, pub with good grub and lots of walks and things to do.  The lagoon walk led us through lovely melaleuca and pandanus forest to the western end of the beach, then the army landing vessels arrived again, doing some exercises on the beach. We found catamaran Zulu anchored in Horseshoe Bay – skipper Rod was our inspiration to try the cruising life when we met him on Great Keppell Island, while we were looking for a block of land or house.  His expression that “a house is just a poorly-designed yacht, run aground” has stayed with us, and here we are enjoying it all.

Herald and Rattlesnake Islands

With light northerlies forecast for a few days we set sail for Herald and Rattlesnake Islands, in the RAAF Halifax Bombing Range, checking that there was no bombing today, it could have been untidy. We were also warned not to look at any planes with our binoculars as their lasers can burn our eyes. It was an easy cruise of five hours.

A few fishing trawlers were resting on Herald Island, with their big nets out, so we rounded the point onto Rattlesnake Island.  Just us and a sea-eagle to share the island – perfect!  Always nice to see a pod of whales leaping, this time near Big Palm Island, just north of us.  Peter caught a mackerel and a large tuna so it was time to try some new recipes. 

Citrus Marinated Tuna Steaks were delicious! 

Ingredients:  Serves: 4 

3 tablespoons (60ml) orange juice,  3 tablespoons (60ml) soy sauce,  1 tablespoon lemon juice,

2 tablespoons olive oil,  1 teaspon sesame oil,

1 clove garlic, crushed,  2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, 

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano  (or ¼ tsp dried),  1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

500g tuna steaks

Method:  In a large non-reactive dish, mix together the orange juice, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, sesame oil, parsley, garlic, oregano and pepper.  Place the tuna steaks in the marinade and turn to coat.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (we left them an hour). 

Cook on hot BBQ plate for 2 – 3 minutes, turn steaks and cook a further 2 -3 minutes, keeping steaks rare (pink on the inside). Serve and eat immediately.  (thanks to Sydney Fish Markets for the recipe)

Watching the forecast for some south winds to take us back to Magnetic Island, Friday looked good with 9 knots S turning E around noon.  We thought the screecher and main would be best fit, so hoisted the main on anchor and left the bay expecting some S wind after clearing the lee of the islands.  Soon it became 15 knots, so we opted for the genoa.  Suddenly it was 25 knots and increasing and we were reaching 8.5 knots under full sail.  We turned upwind into the swell and reefed the main, then set back on course to Horseshoe Bay.  Somehow, during the reefing, the boom bag end became jammed in the reef line and we only noticed it when the bag sides didn’t line up.  Up with the main again and trying all sorts of pulling and releasing, to no avail.  Then Peter realized it was the metal eyelet stuck in the reef roller and stuck fast.  Some lateral thinking and innovation by Peter eventually freed the little blighter.  Another repair job on the list!

The day the whales came people watching

We had enjoyed a great day of Whale watching, with a first sighting early in the morning in the distance.  Later as we sailed towards Dingo Beach, we saw a whale in the channel.  

We decided to anchor here even though it was early as it offered good protection from the coming southerly change.  The Whale then came to watch us, swimming right up to and around our anchored boat.  One even bumped our fishing line.  

Do not miss the video at the end!

Grassy Island, Gloucester Passage and Hideaway Bay

Grassy Island – while the winds were very light we took advantage of a calm anchorage on the north side of Grassy, then in the morning we greeted to a pod of whales breaching and playing just off Little Grassy Island.  

The day got even better when we turned into George Bay and another whale was just cruising up and down beside us.  We stopped the engines and just watched in awe.  By the time we anchored for lunch two more whales had come into the bay and we had good views of them too.  Just after the neighbouring boat left, a pod of whales came right up to us, then circled the boat.  The two adults and a youngster seemed to be checking us out.

Sailing downwind on the genoa through the Gloucester Passage another whale just casually cruised by, so we waved.  The passage is narrow but has channel markers to guide you and we managed to clear it in one tack, passing close to Passage Islet, aka “Shag Islet” the home of Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club.   

At first we thought Bona Bay looked interesting to anchor, with only a stranded trawler sitting high and dry up on the beach, then two working trawlers came along so we opted to go back to Hideaway Bay.  Gloucester Resort provides free moorings and there is a Bar-Bistro looking over the beach which serves the best salt and pepper calamari.  Up the beach is Monte’s Reef Resort, which also has a great al fresco bar-bistro.

With no reasonable wind forecast we decided to try sailing around Gloucester Island at a very leisurely pace.  No sooner were we out of the passage than a Mayday call came over the radio – a jetski had overturned ne Middle Island, 5 nm off.  We were able to contact the guy in the water and Catlypso, who was heading to Bowne, also responded.  At 6 knots we were half an hour away, but a fishing boat was passing so we flagged them down and asked for their help.  They were able to reach the guy and get him on board, then right the jetski to tow it back to Monte’s Resort.   Emergency over, we thanked the fishermen and set sails again, at a blistering 2 knots!

Around the top of Gloucester we saw whales again, then dolphins, but a different species, not sure which.  A zephyr of wind allowed us to tack, but then the “iron sail” had to be deployed as we were becalmed.  A pod of whales near the island began tail-slapping so we moved closer, but they were still a few miles away.  Whales always put a smile on your dial!