Our time in Mackay

O.K I have decided I'm never quite going to catch up with this blog with exactly whats happened in the last few weeks! But heres a few things we have had, rain, rain and more rain. Leaks, leaks and more leaks, a king tide and many very very low tides making getting up our jetty ramp a major source of daily exercise for us all.
We are itching to take Nirvana Seafari out at the moment as she has been sitting here too long without movement.

Mackay out and about

From a transient boating perspective.

It's a beautiful day sitting here in the cockpit of the boat with breeze floating gently in the air. The storms have passed and still enough cloud cover to keep the temperature down.

This marina is situated beautifully between a beach and the 480 odd birth marina. The beach offers patrolled swimming with the surf life saving club, two covered playgrounds and at this stage of it's development a small walking/bicycle track and modern new housing development. There is a huge breakwater wall/road that you can drive out on and fish from with a good view out to all the oil containers Mackay has secured just out off her shores.

Facilities here at this marina are good offering small yacht club and further down the picturesque walkway are the Clarion hotel with fine restaurants, takeouts, further down hotel bar with live music every weekend, fish n ships, ice cream confection shop, chandlery and local grocery (although over priced.) We are about 15 min drive from Mackay town centre and local buses do run from the marina, however very limited about every 2 hours.

This really is a cute quant little place to spend some time with 2 major shopping centres, the city area one being the largest, 2 cinema complexes, and small art gallery, local library in which you can purchase a temporary membership for about $30 you get returned to you when you bring back your books. Mackay can be very expensive for a small place due to the money that the mines bring to the area and so businesses feel they can charge more. This makes it very expensive for locals that do not have family working in the mines. I nearly fell over when I asked to get a price for my hair done here, I got quoted $230 for quarter head of foils with toner and wash and blow-dry. Not even a cut was included. I have resorted to doing it myself and retouching my grey at home with a store bought pack. Not my ideal but will do until we sail back up to Cairns where I know I can get it done for quarter the price.

Home schooling

So here we are in Mackay.............
We have been here for about 6 weeks now and have settled into our homeschooling routine finally.
We are all new to home education and have tried both public and private schooling in the past. I have been doing distance education with our 3 girls when we first moved on our boat, it really wasn't suitible for us at all, as we have struggled with the workload eating into our discovery time on the boat and for me it has been juggling the curriculum as a home tutor. I also disliked how my youngest daughter 7yrs, was being judged with not being up to standard in her reading and english. We know she is very bright, just in different avenues not deemed as important, for example she loves music and likes doing maths, so we have decided to progress with eclectic home schooling for all three girls. Much to all their delight! The older two, 14 and 11 have excelled in their schooling but have experienced stress and anxiety with meeting school deadlines in the past. We value their happiness and the developement of their spiritual beings to be free to be who they desire to be. And I have really noticed a burnout and total dislike for school especially last year when they attended catholic school. So I knew things had to change for them all to be happy again and want to continue with their desire for education and learning.

So school looks like this these days - All three girls do Maths, English and unit studies. This month Destiny is doing her unit study on photography and Saraya and Harmony on the Ocean.

Saraya learnt why the ocean is salty.

Harmony has a learning disability to do with visual memory we believe a form of Dyslexia. I am in the process of major research into what is the best avenue to take to try and help her.

New Years Eve on Linderman Island

We left Hamilton Island mid morning after exploring the islands newest landmark their gorgeous new yacht club and taking many pictures within its stunning views and architecture. However we had to leave as we were due at Linderman Island.
After some good winds finally we ended up moving along comfortably 5 -8 knotts but things always seem to take longer than planned (which is what I have read and been told many times) but whens it's happening you, you just think I want to be organised, it's new years eve, it's 5pm, we haven't and are having trouble anchoring, we haven't got dressed yet for dinner, the kids are getting hungry, we haven't got to shore yet and we have to check in with the resort..........
We finally got to dinner about 8ish very hungry and very happy to finally be there.
Happy New Year!!!!

Hamilton Island

We headed off motoring towards Hamilton Island and managed to get the head sail up for some help from the 10 – 15 knot wind. After radioing ahead to find out and being the busiest time of the year there, we were told they had no births left at all and so could not stay our planned couple of nights there including New Years eve. All very disappointed we decided on plan B, being to head to Linderman Island for a couple of days instead. That was all fine and we were booked into there instead only one problem it looked as if we would need to refuel somewhere. And no where else did this except Hamilton so we were set for there for fuel.
Once under way we all enjoyed a turn at the helm driving and the girls enjoyed it very much. There were squeals from the girls of turtle spotting and the worry we might hit one in the boat if it came up to close but all seemed to go well. Except for the right hand motor that kept stopping and konking out. This was very worrisome especially for Mark as we had just had both motors serviced looked at and repaired.
As we approached Hamilton Island it was mid morning and very hot and humid. With stunning views and a busy holiday atmosphere Hamilton Island was buzzing with activity. We had travelled with one motor most of the way and Mark was concerned with getting someone to look at it as well as moving our large cat amongst these very expensive boats with only limited steering so he had called ahead for help as we came into the marina fuel stand. Mark got hold of a boat mechanic which is a feet being the Christmas New Year holiday break but he could see it the next morning.
Us girls being so hot with the heat decided we were going to jump ship and get in a quick swim in the resort pool (keeping in mind you cannot swim in the ocean at this time of year for fear of stingers) so off we jumped with excitement.
Mark called us girls some time later with the news we don’t have to come back to the boat and leave as they have given us a birth after since we were having work done on our boat. So we ended up staying two nights and enjoying all the beautiful Island had to offer.

Sailing underway

We were on our way to Sid harbour for the night..........We didn't actually leave Shute harbour till the afternoon as there seemed to be one more job to be done.
Our friends had told us Sid harbour is a good and easy access anchorage so we went with that being our first attempt on this our new boat.
The trip took a leisurely 4 hours and we were all just so excited to be underway. Sitting up on the front deck was gorgeous and we are just so blessed to be doing this. Arriving into Sid Harbour was just stunning; the tide was in so it left a tiny patch of beach to be seen and a stunning vista of rainforest with huge mountainous green everywhere to be seen.
Downing the anchor proved very stressful the first time as Mark had been warned that it had some problems and extra caution needed always in Whitsunday Islands for coral bommies, so Mark of course was over cautious and we really didn’t know exactly who was best suited for what job. I initially drove the boat whilst following Mark’s instructions of forward or reverse and then there’s the tide that carries you whether you like it or not. Really not as easy as you think!
We woke the next morning early to the beautiful view of Sid Harbour and turtle spotting was so exciting for all of us. These amazing creatures where everywhere and glided so elegantly in the water.

Merry Christmas 2009

O.K the big Santa day arrived; we moved on the boat the day before and were still living out of our luggage, with not everything having a place yet. Now that may sound miner but everything needs a place on a boat especially if theirs a few of you living on it.
We the parents were exhausted with all the renos and pre chrissy running around add to that the stress of finally getting the fridge delivered but it arrived damaged. Somewhere in transit it had been dropped on its bottom and so was making horrid noises but we just had to go with it as the tiny 12 volt fridge in the boat had already been unwired and removed to make room for the new one, as well as all that food that had to fit in it. Then the heat of a north Queensland summer was also getting the better of us as the portable air conditioner did not do its job so we needed to go out and get the box type and get that installed in a window quick smart to get relief from the heat. All of this certainly was a testing time and it took all my strength to remind myself I have chosen this, this is what I wanted and it’s going to be alright.
The kids loved Xmas morning and it was a huge success and Xmas lunch turned into dinner as we just couldn’t figure out cooking with the new solar dome oven.
I must say it did turn out absolutely delicious. The girls 7, 11 and 14 ate and enjoyed every thing the same as we did. No special or separate food in our house/boat…
We had turkey with cranberries and camembert cheese
Warm salad of baby spinach, rocket, and roast pumpkin and red onion with pine nuts. Salmon in garlic butter sauce was the hit by all and of course some garlic butter prawns thrown in for Mark and Destiny.
We topped it all off about 2 hours later with an Australian classic, Pavlova with mango and blueberries……..Yum! Yum! Yum! We shared this with our new neighbours on our finger next to us Shaz and Julian. Shaz was pregnant at the time and hulled up at Abel point marina waiting their very important delivery.
They shared their monohull with there two Burmese cats whom took a liking to wandering aboard our boat and stealing Lulu’s food. Lulu of course to silly to be bothered if cats steal her food, let them while she spied on them excitedly while they hissed at her.