Keeping ourselves entertained

There was also baking to be done. Yum, fresh bread!

Our stay in Macona came to an end yesterday as the wind began to ease. We headed out in the early morning and ducked into beautiful Nara Inlet (next to Macona) for a look before heading up to the northern reaches of Hook Island and Butterfly Bay.

Entertaining ourselves in Macona with Barry, the pineapple top - This is livin' Barry

Pandanus fruit In Macona Inlet

There were sails out on the water everywhere in the light breezes and low swells.
It was delightful.
Much to our surprise there were moorings available in Butterfly Bay (there's no anchoring in this part of the islands) and so snorkels and goggles were donned to explore the fringing reef and bommies.

Luckily Rob doesn't have to move around far on the boat with his injured ankle.

 An angel fish must have fallen in love with our ladder as it remained within a metre of it for the whole time it was in the water.
Luckily we were back on board before a thunderstorm hit and sent a chilling set of bullet winds through the bay.


Snorkelling a bommie in Butterfly Bay.

The angel fish and the ladder - a love story?

This bay is renowned for its bullet winds and we reckon the tourism industry probably had the bay renamed from Bullet to Butterfly to make it less threatening.

Setting a mackerel line this morning.

This morning we farewelled the Whitsundays and headed north towards Bowen expecting winds of around 10 to 15 knots. Instead they were 15 to 20kts with a following sea so we were flying along hitting over 9 knots at one point. Fortunately we'd started out with a reduced mainsail and just a little head sail which turned out to be perfect for the conditions.
We've dropped anchor in Queens Bay off Bowen and plan to set off at daybreak tomorrow for either Cape Upstart or Cape Bowling Green depending on the wind, tide and our sailing speed.



Rob has found new and innovative ways to get his bait.