Orpheus to Magnetic Island and Townsville

Well the highlight of the trip so far would have to be for the children having the chance to swim with 2 huge Manta Ray. We delayed our departure from Orpheus until the night of the 1st November, at about 6pm we were told about some Manta ray swimming in the bay, (they looked like shark fins to me!!) anyway off Soph and Finn went, Soph, Maya, Bronnie, and Vialetta all went swimming over to them, finn stayed on the dinghy and got the thrill of his life when they swam under the dinghy. They were huge, the tails were about as long as finn is tall. One swam under soph as she was floating onthe surface. This so far has been the most magical experience for them, they were buzzing about it for days. The rays must have enjoyed it to as they stayed and played with all the kids for ages!

these birds on Sophs arm are at Picnic Bay on Magnetic Island - there were literally hundreds of them.

We left that night at 1am for a sail to Magnetic Island just off Townsville, had the best sail ever with all the sails up for the first time and stonked along at 5 ½ to over 6 knots..just brilliant even Soph said it “was magic and I don’t even feel sick”. That has been a bit of a problem with her but only when we have had to motor into the wind, and hopefully that wont be very often as the winds have started to turn into Northerlies…finally! We dropped anchor at just before 9am in Horseshoe Bay, really neat spot, best on the island in fact and spent 3 nights there. Definitely no jumping over the side there as the sharks will get you!!!!!!!!!!!!! If its not one dangerous life threatening creature … its another, oh and Stinger season has started, these are the jellyfish that can kill you as well. No wonder I am paranoid!

We left Horseshoe bay and motored into Townsville Marina to hopefully get our Fridge fixed, I say hopefully, as after 2 days the one and only fridge man still hadnt turned up. I heard that he was renovating his house and there is a huge shortage of builders here, so casually dropped into the conversation that Brendan was a builder and would he know of anyone looking for a builder??? Wow..that worked wonders, and now Brendan has a job! (I am not sure if he is very happy about that tho!) So we are now staying here until the end of December. The marina here is incredibly hot (between 33 and 36deg), it is sheltered from the sea breeze which is a bit of a bummer at this time of the year, but there is a pool, a water park and a sea water rock pool all nearby, although once again, there are 2 rogue crocs they are trying to catch and they keep closing the beaches and anything to do with saltwater and have set traps but the wily crocs keep evading them….wonder why!!

The other night we saw a turtle laying her eggs on the beach right in the middle of everyone! Its amazing they even come up to such a populated spot. Another awesome experience...hope we are here to see the hatchlings make their way back to the water!