Mahjong in Mackay

Mid February saw us sailing out of Airlie Beach and starting the slow journey south. The main problem we faced was most days the wind would be blowing from the direction we were wanting to go which meant we could only sail short distances each day with a lot of tacking involved. The upside was there were plenty of gorgeous anchorages in the southern whitsundays and we could easily choose the next place to head to.

My favourite anchorage we found was off Goldsmith Island. A very sheltered bay with a public mooring ball, lovely beach, heaps of sea life and absolutely no one else around. We spent an idyllic few days there enjoying ourselves, kayaking, snorkelling, shell collecting and just watching the marine life. There were lots of fish in the bay as well as turtles and I was over the moon when I discovered there was even a manatee happily swimming around. I spent many hours sitting outside watching life go by.

From there we continued down south and spent a few more days sheltered off Brampton Island with a storm raging around us. So much wind and rain, however we had seen it coming so were able to put three anchors out in preparation meaning we were not going anywhere. We then continued south finally sailing into Mackay Marina (the same marina we arrived at 2.5 years ago). The plan was to restock then continue southwards however the next day the weather apps showed that another big storm was heading up the Australian coast towards us so we decided to stay in the area. We sailed out to a nearby island for a couple of nights then made it back in and tied up before the storm hit. We had two weeks of wild winds during which we met everyday with a couple of other boaties close by and learned how to play Mahjong (which is awesome by the way). Once the winds had passed us by we decided to try and leave. Unfortunately even though the winds weren’t as bad there was still a big swell and we were thrown around so made the best decision we could and turned REAO around and headed back into the marina to wait a couple more days (or so we thought).

We started hearing more and more reports of a virus hitting the world and while we sat there countries started shutting their boarders. Not knowing how long it was going to last we decided to stay put and wait for a week, then another week. We have now been sitting in the marina for six weeks costing us $1800 in fees. We have come to the realisation that this event may continue for longer than we originally anticipated and that most likely we will be unable to sail out to any pacific islands this year. Islands while relying on the tourist dollar do need to look after the health of their communities and we are guessing that it wont be until next year before cruisers are welcome again. Even if they do reopen boarders within the next six months that would mean we would be sailing into cyclone season which is not the best idea.

After a lot of discussion and weighing up the pros and cons of different scenarios we have decided to turn around and sail north, heading back towards Townsville. We will take our time and explore those islands we missed on the way down. The wind will be behind us which does mean an easier sail for us and as we will be away from people that means no chance of catching the virus plus the extra bonus of not spending money.

We know there is a safe anchorage in the duckpond at Townsville so once there we will look for work (hopefully in the motel industry). We realise that there are a lot of people unemployed at the moment however we have to at least try and find work and start to rebuild our bank account. We will work until the world is ‘back to normal’ however that looks and then restart our sailing plans. While we are disappointed we realise the situation is out of our hands so we may as well make the best of it. So tomorrow we start backtracking and head back up north.

At the beginning of the year we had our plans in place and knew exactly when and where we were leaving Australia (Bundaberg and early May). Cut to three and a half months later and all plans have been scraped and reworked. Its funny how life works out.

Here is to our new adventure……….whatever that turns out to be!