Year 2 -28 June 2025 – Breakwater Marina- Townsville- More Jobs Day
Year 2 -28 June 2025 – Breakwater Marina- Townsville- More Jobs Day
We woke to another grey day but it was quite warm despite this. We hade breakfast of fruit and yoghurt and then set about going through all the provisions on board and to make a list of what we have. We then worked out what we would need to buy and planned meals for the trip to Cairns which will be 11 days for 5 people. This may sound a relatively easy exercise but it takes time and it is surprising how much you need to buy. You do not want to run out otherwise it is down to eating corned beef or something like that and who would want to do that. Food is morale raising and happy crew happy ship.
Take for example fruit – we work on 2 pieces of fruit a day. So, for 5 people that is 110 pieces of fruit – you would never have thought you would need to buy that much unless you think it through. Let’s hope the freezer can be repaired as this is very important for our provisioning – without eat we can only buy meat and fish for a few days and then what? You either catch your own fish or we are on to pastas and rice etc. It is therefore an important logistical exercise and took us a number of hours to plan.
I then had to initiate my electronic card for the chart plotter for the Indian Ocean which includes Indonesia. I wanted to make sure it is working. I therefore had to initiate it and update it and then place it in in the chart plotter. It worked and I now know when I place it in when we get North of Australia it will work. If I had left it until I needed it and there was a problem then I could do nothing about it. It important to have this detail as I do not have the right size paper charts for Indonesia. Paper charts are in fact being phased out or that is the plan which is a shame as more and more electronic navigation takes over.
We had some lunch of fish and prawns with salad and then headed out for a walk. Mark had looked up a good Thai restaurant which had good reviews in town so we thought we would go and find it which we did. It was closed and on the first floor and we agreed we would try it. We then walked along the front from the marina on what is called The Strand. It is very well maintained with proper walkways and lots of swings and play area with water fountains and waterfalls for kids to play in. There are barbecues and seating which the public can use to have picnics and barbecues and this area goes on for some miles. There were also a number of statues and art features which gave it a more upmarket feel. Clearly the town has invested in this and there is no litter or graffiti, things have not been stolen and everyone respects it and leaves it as they found it. This is quite a contrast from the UK – it is sad our country seems to have gone downhill.
We had a dark and stormy on our return, changed and headed out to the Wild Rice restaurant which was full on our arrival at 6.40pm. We should have booked. Luckily they said we only had to wait about 20 minutes and so after a short wait we had a table. We had an excellent Thai meal and it lived up to its reviews.
As we walked back to Stormbird it started to rain. We got back just in time before it started to get heavy.
The picture of the day is the some promotion material in the marina about the marina. To my astonishment the picture includes Paul Hardcastle and John Assael – some of my last crew who must have been photographed at the barbecue when we first arrived at the Breakwater Marina.
Need/Opportunity Year Three
In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com