Bye bye crew

Our three weeks with Leigh and Rob on board flew by and, thank goodness, we managed to snare a mackerel the day before we tied up back in Townsville.
Our sail from Bowen to Cape Bowling Green ended up as a motor-sail as the wind dropped out almost completely (so different from the previous day's super sailing) but the weather was glorious and we soaked up the colours of the sky and the sea, the odd dolphin and one sea snake as we made our way north.
It must have been cruisers' migration week as we saw several other yachts on this stretch whereas we saw not one as we came south three weeks prior.
Cutting out Cape Upstart from our usual anchorages proved a good move as we saved at least 10 nautical miles and easily reached the sandspit of Bowling Green before sunset - mind you we started out at 4.30 am as that's when both Royden and I woke up.
The mackerel patch outside Bowen yielded no fish however one unlucky mackerel found our lure in the deep water off Bowling Green and was relegated to the barbecue that night.
It was delicious.

At last, a mackerel for dinner. Perfect size too.

Bowling Green once again provided a delightful overnight anchorage with dead calm conditions and a beautiful sunset.
Hot showers all round and a fish dinner equalled a pretty good last night at sea!
Again, lots of yachts on the move as six others came into anchor after us, all heading south.
No whales performing breaches or flipper slaps this time though.

A car carrier cruises by in the deep water the other side of the Cape Bowling Green sandspit.

Another beautiful Bowling Green sunset.

With Thursday's total lack of wind we didn't even bother to put the main sail up. With tide and a slight swell rolling us forward, we motored around Cape Cleveland and into Townsville by mid-afternoon to be greeted by the Double Vision crew to assist with the customary bottle of champagne to toast the end of another excellent adventure.  

A becalmed catamaran is dwarfed by a warship doing manoeuvres off Cape Cleveland. There's a helicopter in there somewhere as well

 

Great weather for little fishing boats around the reefs off Cape Cleveland.