Our Big Break: Dunk to Townsville

We arrived in Townsville Marina yesterday afternoon after a 2 hour drive down from Orpheus Island. Our Chaparral absolutely loved cruising on the plane at about 24-25 knots. We have been "at sea" for 3 weeks and we are loving our endless hot water showers and endless electricity here at the Marina!!

We stayed another few nights anchored off Dunk Island. The weather up here now is awesome! 26-27 everyday and there are NE winds coming up in the afternoon. The SE wind that was blowing for months has calmed down from 30 knots to a nice 15 knots- So things on the water are very comfortable now after a few rocky nights.

After leaving Dunk Island we headed for Goold Island. Here we had a tropical beach all to ourselves for a few days. A Westerly wind came up during the night, we couldn't believe how big the waves can get at 2am in the morning that seemed to be coming from the mainland. We swear someone is on the mainland following us South with a wave making machine!

After Goold Island we were running out of fresh food and running a little low on fuel. Cardwell was the next stop. The Marina here was devastated by Cyclone Yazi and has not re-opened. Mick from "Port of Call" in Cardwell was an awesome help to us. He still had fuel on the water, which was a booming business when the Marina was open. We offered him $50 if he could take us to the IGA in town for food and he let us borrow his ute to drive ourselves into town and back- thanks Mick! Food, fuel, water and we were good to go again for another week!

Next was Hinchinbrook Island, a very big island just off the mainland. We had to decide on going around the island where there would be swimming and beaches, or the inside route where there would be calm water, mosquito's, sand flies and crocodiles. We chose the latter and took the inside route as we heard the scenery is very beautiful. And it did not disappoint. Very big beautiful mountains and lot's of creeks that supposedly has lots of fish- not that we could catch any. And Susan had to get out the antihistamines for the mozzie bites!

Orpheus Island next. Again another beautiful tropical island where we had the beach to ourselves!The reef surrounding Orpheus is very spectacular.

Dunk Island- Gorgeous day!