TOWNSVILLE AND MAGNETIC ISLAND

Townsville 

As the Marina guy tied off our mooring lines, grinned up at us and said “beeeeyoooooddifool’  we knew we had arrived in Australia.

It is so good to be here! 

The milk run

Approximately 400 boats, like us, doing what we are doing, from all over the world, cross the Pacific each year from East to West via the many Pacific Islands to arrive in Australia around this time of year. 

It is called the milk run because it follows the route where the palm trees grow and coconut milk reigns supreme! What is not to love about that. 

There are known seasons for when to sail and when not to sail in most parts of the world  - if you stick to these known times, and follow the trade winds, honouring the weather patterns, you are more likely to keep yourself as safe, and as comfortable as possible. (Fingers crossed obviously) 

Most cruising boats would probably head a bit further south towards Bundaberg or Brisbane, but we came to Townsville because i had lived here when I was young, and had been itching to get back, for like- ever. 

Townsville is essentially an industrial town on the North Queensland Coast, with a big military influence  - the town played a large part in the defence of Australia against the Japanese in the second world war. 

It's not classically a touristy town but its position on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef, gives it access to some amazing places and in itself, I think the town is so cool....it's a lovely place. If you come to Australia, do not miss Northern Queensland. 

The heart of the town is "The Strand"  - a huge long walkway alongside a beauyoodddifull white sandy beach. 

Lots of trees with shaded picnic areas, free barbecues, open air pools, netted off swimming areas on the beaches ( its jellyfish season here at the moment) and kids water parks dotted about (All free with free parking)  - as well as some really nice bars and restaurants.

It's just such a nice quality of life for everyone - we saw the Strand alive with Yogi's and runners early morning, then the Yummy mummies with new babies in prams, walking groups, people out lunching/coffeeeing/drinking in the many bars and restaurants. Mid afternoon, school is obviously out, and we saw groups of teenagers arrive on the local bus (50c from anywhere in the city) to dive into the sea with their friends, and younger children being brought to the free water park by their parents in the car (free parking) Later on, the free barbecues are lit, and families gather here for picnics, the beach is the place for volleyball, and football and as the kids, and youngsters went home, the evening crowd appeared to mingle and party in the many bars and restaurants along the Strand.

Of course the weather is a contributing factor for this lifestyle, but I love the way the Australian Government have made this lifestyle easy for young families to enjoy the place. 

We spent a few weeks here and my poor husband was dragged around memory lane with me looking at our old house, our old schools, my dad’s old work, the swimming  pools we used to go, the places we used to buy our fish and chips, the place I once found $10 in the street etc etc etc - poor Crawford!

He did get me back however-  In turn, I got dragged around the numerous tool shops, anchor chain shops, battery shops etc etc etc- the highlight, (obviously) being the "Seal shop"

There has been a lot of seal chat on our boat recently and unfortunately we are not talking about the cute aquatic animal... 

The autopilot works by use of a hydraulic ram (that is another whole story getting that thing repaired in a workshop in Geordie land, then bringing it back to the boat in Mexico in our hand luggage!) which uses hydraulic fluid to keep the piston fluid/stop it sticking together/keep it moving.

Unfortunately we have not been able to get exactly the right size seal to stop the hydraulic fluid leaking out of the ram - this then renders the autopilot non useable.

So Mexico, Tahiti, then Vanuatu we have done a lot of traipsing around trying to find this replacement seal - the exact size and composition

Plenty of sailors probably manage without using autopilot, but it makes our life easy and when there are only two of us, if one person is steering all the time, our sailing life would be quite different.

We had eventually managed to have the seal shipped in from France when we were in Vanuatu, but Crawford was keen to buy a couple of spares so we didn't find ourselves in that position again. 

So Townsville - the Seal shop (who knew there was such a thing! It was massive too!)

It only sells seals - of all sizes, materials and configurations.....This is where we met Hamish - the Seal expert. He had a special tool around his neck to measure seals to the millionth of a mm and I think my husband fell in love! What Hamish doesn't know about seals isn't worth knowing. 

I sound flippant, I don't mean to - obviously this is our life - it's probably the most important part of our life - making sure the boat is fully functional and we are safe.

I should take it all much more seriously, but you know when you have one of those moments where you look around, and find yourself in a Seal shop, talking to the Seal expert, in a small suburb on the outskirts of a coastal town in Australia ?...... hmmm. 

Anyway, we are all catered up with said spare seals - time to party! 

Townsville was great - we really could have stayed on -everything was so easy, and the Aussies are great. Plus we got to see these.... They were Amazing!! 

This was our Army house we lived in 51 years ago - I'm not sure it will be obvious from this photo, but all the houses round here are on stilts with the space under the house usually empty. 

This is a fairly tropical part of Australia, and as a result, there are lots of floods - by being on stilts, the houses are not affected by the floodwater. 

Australians (obviously as a term of endearment) call us English people Pommies/ POM's/ Pommy barstewards/ filthy dirty Poms -the list goes on.

I always understood Pom to mean "prisoner of mother England"  but I have also read "prisoner of Millbank"  which was the prison in Westminster where English convicts were sent before being transported to Australia.

There are other suggestions, for instance, one article likened the red cheeks of an newly arrived English convict in the Australian sun to a pomegranite. Who knows? 

Anyway, I was well used to being called a Pommy and it never offended.

When we were here, people were really interested in us, they wanted to know, and it was usually one of the first questions

"Have you met the queen?" followed by "Do you know my cousin Jimmy?  He lives in Liverpool"

I'm not sure where the "filthy dirty pom" inference came from, but I think it may have stemmed from when English people (back in the day) only had one bath a week on a Sunday....  Enough said

One Christmas, I was young (8 or 9 I think) my mum and dad had all their friends to the house for an English Christmas dinner.

I think steak was involved however (Steak was involved in everything we did in Australia) 

As the day progressed and the adults got more raucous, my mum and dads friend discovered a stash of soap in the bathroom cupboard ( Obviously soap was on special that week at the cash and carry)

We were all in the pool and we saw this bar of soap come flying out of the bathroom window into the pool, with..

"Here you filthy Poms, this is soap, you are meant to use this..... " All in jest, obviously

I remember it being a very funny moment and one as a family we often reminisce about.

There is not as much pommie bashing now, it would seem. Maybe we haven't been familiar enough yet, or maybe the Aussies have all been on their diversity training. Who knows? 

From the boat locker...... 

The whole reason, originally, that we decided to come to Australia was to buy some anchor chain 

Can you imagine the abuse our anchor and anchor chain goes through?

Imagine being an 80 metre chain, sitting, in a tiny metal cupboard, all hooked up together in a messy pile - then for probably, 80% of the year, being expelled from the boat to sit on the sea bed.

As the boat gets shunted around in the wind, the anchor digs in nice and deep, keeping us safe, but the chain just sits there, hitting rocks, sand, being pulled about here there and everywhere.

Every time we have lifted the anchor for the last year Crawford has said - "we need to replace that anchor chain soon"

It gets rusty and dirty - that's an inconvenience at best, but if the rust worsens, to corrode through the chain, and the chain snaps in the middle of the night when we are fast asleep......Hmmmmm - if I want to give myself a panic attack, I will just carry on.

However, it makes sense to buy new anchor chain every few years, depending on its condition and how often you use it. 

We last replaced the anchor chain around 8 years ago in Lanzarote - Rubicon Marina, Playa Blanca, to be precise. I do love that place! 

It lasted well, throughout the Canaries, the Balearics, Southern Spain, the Caribbean and Panama 

By the time we got to Colombia, it was looking a bit dodgy so so we decided to get it galvanised - this means painting the chain with new silver stuff - that was such a bargain if anyone is thinking they need to do a repair job on their anchor chain. 

It was from St Marta in Colombia (beautiful place btw!) and someone came on a tug boat from Cartagena, picked up the chain, took it back to the workshop, delivered it back to us all shiny and new for around £200

We were really very pleased. That extended its life by another 3 or 4 years, and then I think the constant anchoring and moving around in the Pacific has been the final nail in its (luckily not ours) coffin!!

So once the customs people ( who were also boat owners) had finished their interrogation when we arrived in Australia, we interrogated them for the best place to buy anchor chain, the best place to buy seals, bla bla bla....

The anchor chain came from a place called All Rig - they were great. www.allrig.com.au 

Obviously delivering 230 kg of anchor chain is not an easy task and from the shop to the anchor locker on the boat, it has to be carefully thought out. Unfortunately I knew I was going to have to be involved. 

Trying to organise deliveries to the boat can be a bit of a challenge - not in Australia, however. We were so impressed! 

The guy from All Rigs told us "I'll be there around 09.00" 

And at 09.05 he was there, anchor chain in hand (well almost!)

After Fiji, Tahiti, Mexico, Colombia, Panama - where the manana attitude rules - this was such a treat!!! 

Crawford had taken the tender to a wharf where he could meet the delivery van, because, loading the anchor chain onto a trolley, then bringing it down a jetty to where we were moored was not possible - the chain is too heavy for the jetty and too dangerous. Can you imagine falling in with 230kg of anchor chain around you....? (Where is the propranolol?) 

So, anchor chain safely onto tender with the help of All Rig anchor chain delivery staff 

Tender safely to the boat where I am waiting to start my shift 

Anchor chain unloaded from the tender onto the jetty (ovni bicep muscle 💪 comes into play...) 

Anchor chain all neatly lined up and anchor chain markers fitted -so we know how many meters of anchor chain we have deployed - attached to the anchor, and then lifted with the windlass into the anchor locker -

Wehey.... now we just need to christen it.... lets get out of this Marina....

Magnetic Island 

This is a smallish island around 5 miles from Townsville or around 20 minutes on the ferry.

Being only a short distance from Townsville I visited the island a lot when we lived here and I was anxious to know if the island lived up to my childhood memories -  I was not disappointed. 

Named by Captain James Cook (of Middlesbrough, no less! ) in 1770 because he believed the granite rocks on the island played havoc with his compass and caused him to lose his course (AKA-  he got lost and needed to blame something!)

We had a similar problem with our compass one time when I left my weights in the back cabin where our compass is - the metal in the weights completely knocked the compass off its course.

We were just leaving an anchorage, and luckily still had land in sight so noticed we were going in completely the opposite direction to the one we had plotted (eg heading back towards land) - Woops!! 

Magnetic Island played a strategic role in the protection of Australia in the second world war serving as a lookout for invading warships - particularly in the context of the fight against Japanese forces in the Pacific. 

There is still an awful lot of Military history on the island - it has been preserved really well and is available to visit. 

We walked the breadth and depth of the island and absolutely loved it.

It has 23 beautiful beaches, miles of national park and walking routes, some fantastic bars and restaurants and loads of Australian wildlife just hanging about.... Really, if you are in Australia, do not miss this place. 

We anchored initially in Picnic Bay on the South side of the island, and explored the beaches and walks - when the wind changed we sailed round to the Northern side of the island - Horseshoe Bay - a big wide sandy bay with a great beach vibe and lots of bars/restaurants. 

On the Forts walk - which takes in all the beaches on the Eastern side of the island - and some ball breaking hills - the military presence on the island has been preserved and can be viewed - its a great walk. We loved it. You can follow our trails on Wikilok outdoor navigation app -  The Sneds. 

Sporting activity 

After all that walking we were on the hunt for a cheeky beer - where better than the Magnetic Island Bowls club??

Who knew ? - allegedly the cheapest beer on the island and we met these lovely peeps from NSW on their annual two monthly holiday on the island - Thank You Nicola and John for teaching us to play bowls - I was so bad, but the Sned has the bug and I get the feeling we will be back - Sheila's vs Blokes 🤣❤️