TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

The weather was getting worse at Picnic Bay, raining so heavily that you were stuck in the boat for hours at a time.  We didn’t see this as being much fun and “cabin fever” was starting to set in.

The forecast was for more of this weather and so we made the decision to head for the Breakwater Marina in Townsville, where we could at least get out and about on the strand or visit the museums and local attractions in the area.

We settled in quickly and after school was over each day, we filled the afternoons with visits to the Big Bucket, Rock Pool and just hanging out on the strand where there was always something to do. 

Managed to catch up with local friends Wendy and her gorgeous boys Bailey, Oli and Joshie, Russ the chopper pilot who came to our aid on that fatefull day and his wife Di and another cruising family David, Alison, Natasha and Matthew from “Kalida”.

We have to wait another 5 weeks before Bj can get his cast off and we can continue on our journey.  So after nearly 2 weeks of rain in Townsville and with no end in sight, we are having a break from cruising life and will spend 3 weeks at the Sunny Coast to catch up with family and friends and maybe visit a theme park or two.

Signing off from this blog until the end of March….

The Northerlies arrived the night of the 14th which meant no protection from them in Horseshoe Bay.  There were also wild electrical storms and 4m tides , so it was a pretty rough night.

We ended up in 1m of water on the bottom of the low tide. Auspray was bucking like a bronco in the shallows, the boat in front of us was dragging and so Brett spent most of the night sitting out in the rain surrounded by sheets of lightening and explosive thunder, on standby to alert the boat in front of us if it continued to drag towards us.

Finally morning came and we pulled up the anchor and left Horseshoe Bay while the boys were still in bed.

As soon as we rounded the corner near Radical Bay on the Eastern side of the island, the seas calmed and we once again were in peaceful setting with many bays to choose from for safe anchorage.

We ended up at Picnic Bay, which was directly oppossite Townsville.  We anchored 30m off the beach in 2-3m of water, just near the jetty.

Picnic Bay had once been the point where the ferry from Townsville had accessed Magnetic Island, but now Nelly Bay, with it’s brand new marina and terminal was the entry point for Magnetic Island and so Picnic Bay was nothing but a shell of infrastructure, with empty shops, picnic tables and a long timber jetty that had the occasional visit from a lone daytripper who ventured away from the toursit strip of Nelly Bay.

We spent our days, fishing off the jetty, climbing boulders, exploring the bay and wandering around the deserted mall and picnic areas, hardly making any contact with another person. 

There was a shipwreck at one end of the beach, that was exposed in the low tide but not safe to explore as the corrosion and decay was well in the advanced state.

It rained most of the time, but that didn’t deter us from getting out and amongst it.  The Bureau was forecasting a nasty change towards the end of the week and so we knew our time here would be limited.

We left Townsville around lunch time and headed for Magnetic Island which was about an hour away.  We decided to go around to the north eastern corner to avoid to the south easterly winds.

It took another hour to get to Horseshoe Bay and we think we found paradise!!!  A very calm and safe cresent shaped bay surrounded by boulder mountains with a mixed vegetation of beach almond trees, casuarina and ghost gums.

There was a little strip of shops on the beachfront with all the necessary needs such as a tavern, bottleshop, post office, foodworks, a variety of restaurants and the local bus which comes by every half hour and can take you to all the other settlements on the island.

The black cockatoos vist this beach everyday and dine on beach almonds in the trees above you and then throw the husk down on you.  They are full of self confidence and bad manners and give you a mouthful if you go too close to them.

There is a stinger net here and so we can swim safely.  We spent our days having school under the shady trees and then choosing between, beachcombing, swimming, kayaking, pumping yabbies, fishing, spearfishing or just exploring the endless possibilities that Horseshoe has to offer.

It would be easy to fall into a content existence here which many of the local people have done.

We spent e few days the Breakwater Marina in Townsville just to settle Bj back into the boat and give him pain relief until the swelling went down.

By the third day after his ordeal his had stopped complaining about the pain and was getting back into life on a boat and so we decided to leave the hustle and bustle of Townsville and head over to Magnetic Island and find a quiet spot to wind down from the ordeal.

We took the tender over to the beach at Mulligans and were walking along it trying to locate a track that would lead us to the waterfall.

There was a large tree that was lying on it’s side, it would have been driftwood that was probably been washed up in the recent 3m tides.

Toby and Bj climbed along the trunk and jumped off to the soft sand which was only about 1-2m off the ground.  Bj lost his footing and fell arms first.

As Bj stood up he lifted up his right arm which was completely snapped at right angles to the rest of his arm.

At that moment the reality of what was ahead of us and we had the feeling of utter hopelessness.  The closest town would take a few hours to get to by boat and then we were hours away from any hospital.  The closest major town with propper medical treatment was 10-11hrs away by boat.  Phone and radio signal were weak and patchy.

We managed to get Bj back to Auspray and try and make him comfortable and while we desperately tried to get help using the radio.  After about 25min we managed to convey our situation to the VMR Coastguard in Townsville and they put us onto the water police.

Bj was amazing and was coping with the situation as long as he didn’t look at his arm.  He must have an incredible pain threshhold as I could only give him paracetamol for fear of him loosing consciousness.

After an excruciating wait, which was only minutes but seemed like hours, we got the call that a helicopter from Emergency Medical Queensland in Townsville would be coming and that we had an eta of 5.50pm.

Brett and Toby went ashore and found the hardest bit of sand and drew a big square on it for the chopper to land as the sand on the beach was very soft. We were lucky that it was low tide.  Dylan stayed with me on Auspray and stood guard at the radio, while I continued to comfort Bj.  Once he heard that a chopper was coming to rescue him, he was able relax a little and the situation became more under control.

We heard the chopper coming and it was the most welcoming sight I can ever remember.  They landed safely on the beach and Brett bought 2 Paramedics over to Auspray, while Toby stayed on the beach with the pilot and co-pilot.

The Paramedics gave Bj a shot of morphine and then stablised him.  They tried to splint the arm but the angle of the break made that an impossible task, they wrapped his arm securely in a small pillow of his.

The chopper crew were intending to winch Bj off our boat into the helicopter, but the boat was rocking with the swell and incoming tide so it was decided to to take him back to the beach in the tender.

I quickly packed a bag and we set off to shore where the helicopter was waiting to take us to Townsville hospital about 45min away.  Bj was feeling no pain now and managed to smile a little through the ordeal.

Finally we were strapped in and ready to go, Bj in a stretcher on the floor is front of me and I was inbetween Mick and Garth the paramedics, who had came over to stabalise Bj.

Brett and the boys were going to spend the night in Mulligans Bay and then steam to Townsville the next day which would take around 10-11 hours.

We took off just before sunset and my heart was torn as I looked out of the window to see the boys and Brett waving goodbye and Auspray still rocking with the incoming tide, hoping that she would get them safely to Townsville the next day.

Once in Townsville Bj was whisked into the emergency department where the medical teamwere able to, under sedation pull his arm into almost perfect position.  The next morning he went into the operating theartre where the surgeons would try to manually line up his arm once again, but if that failed then they would have to operate.

Luck was on our side and Bj didn’t require an operation and so after one more night in hospital, we were able to leave and make our way to Breakwater Marina in Townsville where Brett and the boys were waiting for us.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this oportunity to thank Mick, Garth, Russ and Gary from EMQ Emergency Medical Queensland who came to Bj’s rescue and gave us hope in a truly desperate situation. 

To VMR Townsville who were able to contact the Townsville Waterpolice (Mat) who arranged the EMQ helicopter.

Jan the producer and Cam the camerman, who were the media involved in Bj’s rescue and supplied the photos that are attached to this blog. Bj’s story can be viewed on a series on the ABC in March 2011, called “Chopper Rescue” This first series starts in March 2010 and it is about the amazing job the EMQ peple do with very little recognition.

Also the surgeons, doctors and nurses and many other support staff, too many to mention at Townsville Hospital who cared for Bj in the most professional way.

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise, on  beautiful day, in a beautiflul location.  What more could you ask for? Our friends from Port Hinchinbrook had left the night before, had to get back for work and so we had this stunning location to ourselves.

Only setback was that we had absolutely no signal for phone or internet and so we knew we couldn’t stay here too long as it was important to keep in contact with family and authorities in case of any emergency as we were quite isolated.

We started school about 6.45am as we were all keen to get out and enjoy the day.  By 9.30 it was all over with and we got organised for some lure fishing in the northern creek at Zoe Bay.

The conditions were perfect for hooking a juicey mangrove jack or barra but unfortunately it was not going to happen for us.  So after a few hours we admitted defeat and put our rods away.

Another trip to the falls would lift our spirits and so I took the boys up the track while Brett stayed on the beach and kept an eye on Auspray.

Once again the falls were refreshing after a steamy walk through the jungle and we wallowed in the chrystal clear mountain water for hours.  The boys also hand fed the jungle perch with dried apricots which added to the adventure, some of them were half a metre long.  They would just look up at your through the water waiting for an offering.  We also caught some march flies to feed them and the perch fought over them like they were some sort of delicacy. Yuk!!

We had to drag ourselves away from the falls as Brett was waiting on the beach for us in the heat and so it was about 2pm by the time we got back to Auspray.

After lunch we decided to move around to Mulligans Bay, about an hour away to try and find another waterfall that we had been told about and hopefully be in signal range so we could maintain contact with the outside world. The journey was spent relaxing under the shade of the boat covers, reading and just chilling out.

We arrived at Mulligans Bay around 3.30 pm.  What transpired here in the next few hours needs its own seperate entry in the blog, so if you read on you will understand why.

Finally we were able to continue on our journey.  We left around 9am for Zoe Bay which was on the southern side of hinchinbrook Island approximately 5 hours travel.  We chose to take the longer route around the island rather than through the channel as there was a gentle northerly blowing 

We passed through Missionary Bay, Gould and Garden Islands and rounded the point at Cape Richards where the resort lies and also where the childrens film Nim’s Island was filmed.  Bj Said he could still see Nim’s treehouse hidden in amongst the vegetation, so I left him in his imaginery world while we continued on, past Shepard Bay and Eva Rock.

The water was teaming with bird and bait fish activity at Eva Rock and so we began some trolling for some mackeral.  Some butterflies joined us here and stayed with us for the next couple of hours, fluttering around the boat always just out of reach. 

We had another boat Tarataruga from Port Hinchinbrook not far behind us .  Staff Rob and Alex thought they would join us at Zoe for a night, on their days off.

We arrived at about 3.30pm into a beautiful calm bay and quickley set off in the tender to the southern end of the beach where a 1km walk through the rainforest took us to Zoe Falls.

It was a steamy walk through the forest and we were glad to think about insect repellant before we left as there was the constant ping of mosquitoes in your ear, hungry for a blood feast.

The falls were well worth the walk and the chrystal clear water was refreshing after the steamy forest.  I was happy to kick around in my inflatble ring, while the rest of them were more adventurous climbing around the rocks and in and under the falls.  The jungle perch were abundant and inquisitive and swam around your legs, but always avoiding and outstretched hand.

The end of the day was not far away and so we reluctantly left this hidden paradise to return to our boats before darknesss the sun was setting behind the mountains.  It was a very peacful setting apart from the frequent burst of air as a loggerhead turle broke the surface for a gasp.

. We finsihed the perfect day with fresh cooked barramundi compliments of Toby

We had to spend another week at Port Hinchinbrook because of the unpredictable weather and the gail force wind warning out at sea.

So we made the most of it in between showers.  The boys took their scooters to the local skate park, played cricket, went sailing on a catamaran with a local dad and fished.

We put some crab pots around our boat with the hope that all the rain and the 3m tides would bring the crabs out.  The result was huge amount of mud and sand crab that we feasted on with champagne one afternoon.

The water was alive with activity and we could see many lazy barramundi hiding in the shadows.  The barra season was due to start in a few days and so we were all keen to try for a good catch.

Toby lucked out with a 70cm barra that put up a good fight, but was landed with the help of a net.

This was a nice way to finish our unplanned stay at Port Hinchinbrook as the weather has finally cleared and we planned to leave early next morning on the next leg of our journey.

Have been hear for a week now, laying low to see what was going to happen with the two cyclones hovering around FNQ.

We have filled the days using the resort activities, fishing and visiting town which is about a half hour walk. 

The weather is still very unsettled and there is a low pressure building up to the east of us out at sea and so we will wait just a little longer to see if anything is going to eventurate before we leave the safety of the marina.

We started school this week as we had lots of rainy weather and time on our side.  All going well so far.

Woke early after a very calm and peaceful night.  The winds had changed direction and were coming from the SE as forcasted.  So we had to make the decision whether to stay around Dunk Island for another day and risk battling the intensifying SE winds to get to Cardwell or go now and get in safely to Port Hinchinbrook Marina before conditions got worse.

We decided to head for the Marina which was about a 4 hour journey, through the Family Group, passing Bedarra Island and heading onto Hinchinbrook Island which was a dominant dark shape in the distance, with Mt Bowen being the main landmark of the island as it is the 4th highest mountain in QLD.

The journey was uneventful and we called ahead to book a mooring at the marina.  There were a few locals there to help with the ropes and we had settled in, in no time.

There was much talk about the prospect of a cylcone forming in the north and we were given the advice of where to go in the event of it heading our way.  The locals that helped us tie up said that they would take us up one of the rivers on Hinchinbrook under Mt Bowen.

So now we will sit it out here in Cardwell at least until after the weekend and see what the outcome will be.  We have plenty of fuel, water and supplies. Also signal for both phones and wireless broadband and so consider ourselves to be in a good predicament under the circumstances.

To all of you who have been adding comments to our blog, it’s nice to have you along with us.  To all of you in FNQ stay safe with the cyclone that may be heading your way and don’t worry about us, we will be fine.

Will not make any more entries for a while, signing off for now…