Bundaberg to Cairns

Only hours from leaving the dock in Bundaberg, our inverter started acting up.  The inverter changes the 12 volt battery voltage into 120 volt A/C power at our “household” outlets.  Some A/C lights were flickering and the multimeter showed that I was getting low and variable voltages from the inverter.  As we motored north stopping at Pancake Creek and Great Keppel Island, we used our SSB radio to send and receive e-mails with the manufacturer in the USA.  We had put in the Magnum Inverter in Curacao based on glowing reports about their reliability and great service support.  

It did not take much troubleshooting to determine that it was a circuit board that needed replacing.  We found a service center in Australia, but Magnum was unwilling to allow them to send me the part.  We moved north stopping at Curlew and Hexham Islands and ultimately hung out at Scawfell Island waiting for the part to arrive in Mackay from the USA.  Most of these islands were pretty, but all uninhabited and we saw few other boats at most of the anchorages.  We did a few boat projects and homeschooling but were anxious to get the part and keep moving.  We finally went into the Mackay marina, cleaned up the boat and did some food provisioning.  The part came and was quickly installed by Tom and we headed north the next day.  The inverter has been working fine since and seems to be working better (using less amps) than before.  Magnum refunded all costs including shipping from the states and other than the time delay, it was a successful repair.  We now have unlimited ice again aboard Emily Grace and Kim can run her new cooling fan in the galley.

We were surprised by numerous sightings of humpback whales as we motored through the offshore islands.  Many had calves and we saw quite a few full broaches throwing up huge splashes of white water. 

 

 One day we saw a bird standing on the water and the captain almost had a heart attack.  I was thinking that I had made a navigational error (like Captain Cook) or had found an uncharted reef.  It turned out to be a gull catching a free ride on the back of a turtle!  We later discovered (from the volunteer marine rescue folks), that some turtles have been getting an ailment that makes them more and more buoyant and eventually they cannot submerge to feed and die.  Another lesson in the circle of life.

The tidal range here is enormous (20 feet), so we have been using the kayaks to get to shore.  Kim and Emily normally go and spend hours on the beach collecting shells and building sand castles and I go every so often to make sure that I’m not missing anything exciting.

 

  We saw numerous shrimp boats dragging large nets and broke our losing streak trolling by landing two spotted mackerel.  These fish are nothing like the fishier Spanish mackerel and their white flesh tastes even better than Mahi Mahi.  Each fish produced 3 meals of fillets and the freezer is full.

 

We had some unusual north winds and decided to stay inside the Nara Inlet at Hook Island as we went through the Whitsundays.  There we explored caves used by Ngaro people over 9000 years ago.  We saw paintings that they had made almost 3000 years ago with their fingers or brushes made by chewing the ends of sticks into bristles.

We did an overnight passage to Magnetic Island where Emily got to hold a Koala bear, a salt water crocodile, snake and several birds. 

 

We did another overnight into the Moreby River where we looked (unsuccessfully) for crocodiles and did our last big provisioning stop (before Darwin) in Cairns (pronounced cans).

 

Tom