Mackay

In the week since we berthed at Mackay Marina, it has been blowing around 25-30 knots and looks set to continue for another day or so, except it is also going to rain. We’ve had the chance to catch up with friends, John and Madeline (“Soul Provider”) and their amazing menagerie (Ricky, Digby and Gypsy) and several of their friends and crew (Chris, Anne, Tanya and Steve). For those of you who know John and Madeline they are now very much a part of the local sailing / racing scene in MacKay. We’ve also spent with fellow cruisers Neville and Gwenda (“Chagall”).

The marina comes alive at weekends and as Mackay is hosting an 8-day arts festival, last weekend was no different. We enjoyed lunch at The Clarion*, the new international hotel located at the marina and were entertained by any number of jazz, rock and calypso bands performing along the foreshore and at the Yacht Club as well as the ‘odd’ wandering minstrel (note the photograph of the Johnny Depp impersonator). Our next destination is Port Newry and a lazy sail around some of the Whitsunday islands and bays that are less popular (with charter yachts)
*note how I am dressed for the tropics!

Did I mention the whales? Lots of them near Curlew Island en route to Mackay. Whale tails everywhere! As much as I fear them, I was still pretty impressed by their spectacle.