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Mischief - Up to Mischief again: Log 65 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Thursday, 26th July 2018 - Hydrographers Passage and arrival Port Mackay

In fact, from 0200 the sea came totally calm with no wind at all, the moon was out so the visibility was excellent making it a perfect time to enter unfamiliar waters. And the sunrise at 0715 was simply amazing: behind the boat (we were headed SW) the dark cloudless horizon initially took on a hint of orange which deepened and widened by the minute before there was any light to see by. Then eventually the sun literally burst into view and reflected off the mirror like water - quite spectacular! Then I looked forward to see a slight mist in the air which the sun had tinted orange too which contrasted with the dark water and the deep blue sky-line - again the colours were very special.

With the light came "Land Ahoy!". Blue Peter Badge for me. It was land anyway not much bigger than the Isle of Wight and I was told that Australia was supposed to be a bit bigger! It transpired to be one of the off-lying islands but I'm claiming the BPB regardless. We also saw some dolphins slowly swimming along although not too interested in playing but it was the first marine mammals we had seen since I can't remember when, certainly nothing on this passage at all.

Then at 8.55 am "Whales!". I spotted a small pod just off the port bow but they soon disappeared not to be seen again, until half an hour later when we spotted some off the starboard beam and these ones meant to be seen. They started leaping out of the water and crashing back in with an enormous bow wave and one was content just to lift its flipper, another it's tail, and smash down into the water a few times, also creating a huge splash. It's a good job they are a little way off as I don't think there would be much room for one landing on deck. Bearing in mind I sailed across the Atlantic, crossed the Pacific to the French Marquesas, sailed across to the Tuamotus, over to Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, then Vanuatu and all the way over to within 40 miles from the Australian coast and these were the first whales to be seen! Worth the wait though!

We motor sailed all day across flat water in brilliant sunshine and arrived at Mackay Marina around 1530. Mackay is a bit industrial looking from seawards with a major port with all the loading slips and sand/cement plants all along the coast. The marina is about five miles of town but there are good facilities here including about four bars and restaurants and a hotel. The marina is very modern and simply huge.

We were directed to the fuel dock where we rafted up against The Farr 50, Madrigal to await the Customs officers. They didn't take long and first on board was a three year old Labrador with its little booties on who went about his work eagerly on the command "Go find it", but didn't find anything. We were then allowed to stoke him, he was absolutely gorgeous and extremely friendly. The rest of the customs team then boarded and went about their business thoroughly in a very friendly and professional manner and decided that we didn't have anything on board, including the morphine and codine meds in sufficient quantities to warrant putting them in bond. So finally, the bio security lady jumped on and went through all the food products we still had left and binned the majority of it, again very friendly and informative. I implored her to allow us to keep a lime for our arrival G&T, but she wasn't able to let even that past. We were then able to move to our berth, have a shower and off to have something to eat with a few beers.

Trevor wanted to treat Dave and Wendy to dinner and very kindly invited me too. Both Trevor and I just had to have the 1 kg steak with both baked potatoe and chips! We were starving, but were surprisingly unable to finish the steak - it was the first time either of us has ever been beaten by a steak, our stomachs must have shrunk on passage? The Aussie beer is really good too and not as expensive as we had been led to believe. Bring it on!!




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