Captain’s Log: Kathy’s Birthday, Mackerel Bay

June 2-7

Hi All,

We have been without internet the past 3 days so just getting a chance to update the blog!! We are leaving the Whitsunday’s today making a 75nm passage to Cape Upstart on our way to Magnetic Island outside of Townsville. We got an early start….around 6:20am and hope to be at our anchorage around 4:30pmish!!! So far it is a beautiful day, winds <10kts WSW…..a little forward of the beam with <1′ chop…..a pretty good ride, except for some salt spray on Mystics clean bow. The winds are forecasted to calm even more and go light and variable…..sweet as!!!

Kathy’s BD: Well, we did it justice. We came back to Stonehaven beach and caught up with Bella Vita and Exit Strategy. In Kathy’s words…..”While the big 6-0 was indeed painful, the alternatives are certainly lacking! So, we decided to make the best of it and carry on. And then a friend of mine reminded me that 60 is the new 40. ”

And, I think the addition of some good wine, great food and good friends made the evening a rousing success!!

John declares a Snow day. I think in all our cruising days this is a first. Kathy usually declares these and I almost always go along:))))))……but this time, the day after her BD, it was my time. Not sure why as everyone else at the BD party all got up and had energy…….both BV and ES moved to new anchorages……but not Mystic…..I just parked my butt on the settee and had a blissful day napping and reading….sweet as….and TG for tums & advil!!!!

I had my mojo back the next day and we headed for Mackerel Bay on the east side of Hook Island……about 8nm away…..oh, what a treat……this Bay is normally inaccessible due to the prevailing SE tradewinds, but for the next 3-4 days the winds were out of the west and calming……oh, what a delight. Just another drop dead gorgeous Bay/anchorage. So, once again we had 3 perfect cruising days…….sleep in, coffee, emails, read, more coffee/tea, read, breakfast, read, go diving, clean gear, beer, lunch, read, nap, read, cocktails, good tunes, sunset, great dinners with great wine……LIG for sure!!!!

We did finish Game of Thrones….season 5……whoa…….a few changes from the books but we are now in GOT withdrawal…..can’t wait to get season 6…….we wonder if they will wrap up all these stories in one more season????

We did 2 more dives. The first one we tried was called Woodpile….but, we got there supposedly at slack tide……well, let’s just say I put the safety line out and it went straight back…..hmmm, dear, think we still have a current…..ugh….and, I can’t see more than 5′ down….ok, plan B…..let’s go do Manta Ray Bay again……so we did and this time only had to surface once to find the dinghy and then after 45 minutes came up right on it…..luv it when we don’t get lost:)))))) But, the dive was just ok……visibility was way down….maybe 10-20’……ugh.

On our way back to Mystic we stopped to talk to a local dive operator…..and he said the water is murky from the huge spring tides we have been having as well as the recent rain. The waters have cooled a little…..we agree……down to 75 deg F…..and he thinks that got rid of the algae bloom. They rarely have access to Mackerel Bay due to the SE winds so they said this is a rare treat…..they normally go to Hayman Is. He said the waters here @ Mackerel Bay are a bit murky but should be better than all the rest. He then showed us how to do the local dive which we planned to do the next day!!

The Mackerel Bay dive was a good one….lot’s of amazing soft coral but not much fish life…..and the visibility was poor again…..arghhhhhh!!!!

Weather: Wow……2 weeks ago we were in 85 deg F and 85% humidity……not much clothing or bed covers in that heat. For the last 3 days it has been in the high 60’s at night, mid-70’s during the day and <50% humidity…..we were putting sweats on during the day and had 3 layers for bed covers…….brrrrrrr…….and then diving where the water temp was 75 deg F, we got cold and had a hard time warming up……I took naps with a blanky:)))) And the 2 days before all this cool weather we had lot’s of rain……with thunder and lightning….oh my!!!!

Mackerel Bay was also home of a pair of white bellied sea eagles and ospreys…..we sure enjoyed the show they put on and even one catching a fish…..but, no good pics:((((

Boat Stuff:
Watermaker still behaving……pressures staying <220psi. I have not heard back from Spectra for the past week after sending several emails with the result of the tests…..ugh!!!

GEN: we have been having an intermittent problem with our Northern Lights 12KW GEN. For the past week or so, the GEN has been unexpectedly shutting down. It might be running for a minute or an hour, there is no consistency and it just shuts down. Usually I can restart it although sometimes it takes a couple of tries. It does not sound like it is running out of fuel. I have looked at the stop solenoid connection….it looked fine, although I did crimp it just a little and it is now a more solid connection. The ground bolt was also just a little bit loose and I tightened it. We are underway this am and the GEN just shutdown again on its own.

I have emailed Bob Senter at Northern Lights and he thinks we have a bad HI coolant temp sensor. This has happened to us before. I’ll look at this tonight once we get in to the anchorage!!

Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!!!

Silver Gull on Ross Inlet….cute guy!!

Sunset glow off Sawmill Bay in Cid Harbor

Goanna…..4′ monitor lizard

Goanna…..4′ monitor lizard

Up the tree it went!!

Kathy shelling on Dugong Beach off Cid Harbor

Panoramic view out of Cid Harbor

Selfie of Stacy, Kalle, Kathy and John on Dugong Beach

Rainbow at Butterfly Bay

Butterfly Bay

Looking out from our mooring in Butterfly Bay

A near perfect wine……gave it a 9.9…..look at that cork…..had this bottle for Kathy’s pre-birthday dinner

Bella Vita and Exit Strategy on moorings in Stonehaven Bay

John and Tom welcoming Kathy to the “Club”!!

Stacey holding court:))))

The birthday girl!!!

That is the Woodpile where tried a dive but current was too strong. On the right is Manta Ray Bay where we did 2 dives

Sunset at Mackerel Bay with a beautiful ship coming in

Mackerel Bay at low tide

Sunset at Mackerel Bay

Mackerel Bay……the hills reminded us of Yosemite…..but much smaller hills!!

Panoramic view of Mackerel Bay….look how calm!!!!

Leaving the Whitsunday’s…..a sad moment!!