Sailing to Magnetic Island with Judo and Jim

We had a really fun dinner and catch up with Judo and Jim on the Friday night and swapped stories about the 6 or so weeks since we had seen each other. As always it was wonderful to see them and we planned the next 2 days' sailing, hoping the predicted strong wind warning would wane.

And wane it did, so we met after the road closures associated with the triathlon festival allowed us to drive on the roads, and got under sail, just outside the harbour. At one point there was no wind and we were almost still, then the wind came up quite strongly and it was a little rough as we passed along the eastern side of Magnetic Island. We got some great sailing action with the boat leaning well over. We passed some beautiful beaches and motored in between the coast and a large island of rocks, then sailed again to Radical Bay. Here we had lunch and then Judo and I went over to the island on the dinghy and had a small walk around. I swam back in the lovely warm water and felt fantastic after the swim.

We then motored around to Honeymoon Bay to settle in for the evening. We ended up anchoring away from most of the yachts which meant we had a very peaceful evening. We had a lot of fun cooking dinner on the BBQ and continued catching up on the last few weeks and years. There was a bit of wind but it dropped off significantly during the night so we all had a great sleep.

Next morning Jim cooked us a lovely breakfast, albeit no bacon (I slipped up here). At Radical Bay Judo and I again motored to shore on the dinghy and walked for a km or so to Balding Bay. We didn't know where to look (its one of the local nudist beaches) and so walked back. I again swam back which was delightful. Russ in the meantime had snorkelled around the rocks and had met 2 guys with a big yacht that had grounded and he helped them push it off the sand. We had lunch and sailed back to Townsville Harbour, very grateful that Judo and Jim had so generously taken us on such a wonderful trip. Russ talked to Jim and Judo about yachts so I'm sure this won't be our last sailing adventure.

It was sad saying goodbye, knowing how much we had enjoyed their company, but we're hoping to be up this way again next year on our way to WA, so hopefully we'll catch up again then.

Jim would say this wasn't rough, but it was as rough as I'd enjoy at this stage

NB there has been no touching up of the colour in these photos - the sea was such a beautiful blue and there was no mud in the water at the edge. No wonder Magnetic Island is so popular.

Early morning light at Honeymoon Bay