Melbourne Cup at Maggie

Sunday, 3 November to Sunday 10 November 2013
We caught a cab to the airport to drop off Ben for the flight to Melbourne and pickup a hire car for the day. We wanted to catch up with friends Marie and Rob at Forrest Beach (near Ingham) and see their new home. Last year we were there for the wetting of the roof and we wanted to see the final result.

It looks great - right on the waterfront, it has views across Halifax Bay to Great Palm Island. Beautiful lunch including an impressive upside down potato salad.

On Monday, Barry from Navcom came and installed the new AIS, a Raymarine 650. All good until we realised after he had left that it did not have the latest software installed. Tip of the week - if you have a 650 and your vessel appears in the AIS list then you need to update the software. Of course this is not an easy task so the rest of the day was sorting this out.

Tuesday was Melbourne Cup so we left the marina before 1000 to get to Horseshoe Bay for the BBQ lunch on the beach with Wirraway, Thalassa and New Horizons. The outlook was as beautiful as ever and I got second in the sweep.

With south-easters for the rest of the week, we enjoyed another stay here. Warren caught 3 crabs and nearly lost a toe while practising his crab tying skills. Boules and a BBQ lunch on Thursday with everyone was a fun way to fill in the day. The ladies had a win 13-11 in a close fought and very competitive match.

Saturday, we headed south in company with Thalassa with a forecast of ENE that stayed in the east most of the day (which of course was where we were headed). 10 hours to cover the 30nm to Cape Bowling Green tells the story. Luckily the breeze went NE after that and we had a good reach to Cape Upstart where we dropped anchor at 2030.

Thalassa

On Sunday, we sailed to Bona Bay in light winds. Final sundowners on board Phase2 with Gary and Bev of Wirraway as they are staying in Airlie for a while, and Kate, Graham and Rob (Thalassa). Fresh fish for dinner.

Wirraway at Bona Bay

Print this post