Excitement, sadness, a sense of freedom, in the most uncertain times of our lives together, we left Beechmountain, our home community, family and friends to continue our sailing journey along the Far North Queensland coast.
Planning or making decisions in these uncertain times requires a degree of flexibility, having a positive outlook, being grateful, accepting and understanding change but most importantly having HOPE.
We decided to take a couple of detours on our way back to Townsville and travel through Qld Country to places we had not visited on a road trip, by-passing the M1 until Rockhampton.
Kindly offered an overnight-er by Will and Fiona at their Olive Farm "Grassy Hill" at Moondooner near Murgon . 
The warm and welcoming Hospitality of Fi and Will, was just what we needed . They must have sensed I was a little fragile after departure from my home.
The ultimate comfort food of homemade chicken Pie and the "Be Still my Heart" Tim Tam Cheesecake was lovingly prepared for us. Lively conversations in beautiful surroundings with great company. Thank you Will and Fiona.
It was wonderful to have a tour of the property, witness the results of hard work, planning and building that these friends have done over the past several years whilst balancing work, business and family commitments back on the Gold Coast. Hard work and a leap of faith to make their dreams of a country lifestyle a reality.
I may have arrived a little fragile, but I left restored and renewed in mind visioning of our Sailing lifestyle adventure with hope and faith.
Have the courage to pursue your dreams, turn your can'ts into cans. Determination, hardwork and with planing it can happen.
Visioning is a powerful mindfulness practice for well being of your heart soul and mind.
Visioning (dreaming) is the creative thought processes that we sometimes ignore as the busy reality of everyday life takes over Just managing everyday leaves little time to vision a goal let alone make plans to make the goal achievable.
Just A little way on the road we stopped into Goomeri to purchase lunch "on the go" at the French Bakery. The best display of beautiful crafted breads and patisserie I have seen since travelling provincial France. I would do this trip again and again just to go to the Bakery.
We traveled through the back roads discovering the beauty of country Queensland and arrived in Rocky to stay at the historic old Railway administration building now restored and renovated for accommodation. It was a restful night despite being on the Rail Line, a little gem at $130 including breakfast and a big comfy bed.
The next hop was to a place that is a fishing camping and Caravan site called the " Crab and Barra" at Clairview. The promise of Crabs being on the menu of the semi outdoor shed cafe I was willing to experience the "fisherman haven" just for the catch of the day. Interesting place with very interesting people but alas no Crabs on Menu and No accommodation. Terry has promised to returned if only for the locals fishing stories. A lot of these stories are tattooed on the leathery flesh of the fisherman bodies which makes for easy conversation starters.
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| View from the Crab and Barra Caravan Park |
No overnight stop so a long drive back to Breakwater Marina Townsville .
Returning to the boat we were greeted warmly back to the Marina
with a Mud Crab and a catch up with members of Cruising Queensland and
WWSA(Women who sail Australia).
Sens de la Vie was in good working order , no issues except for the red dust that was soon washed away.
Bits of fluffy Floss was still onboard in the oddest of places,it seemed a bit strange Floss not to be with us she becomes a Marina favorite dog with the boaties. We are happy Floss is with kind and caring friends for the next couple of months.
Packing up home our 40th Wedding
anniversary came and went without to much celebration or time out to recognize
this significant milestone.
Capt Teza surprised me with a little detour before we set sail again as a belated anniversary celebration. Since the weather patterns were not good for the next week we took the opportunity to take
car up to Cairns via Paraonella Park and also detour to Port Douglas for a
romantic escape and meet up with Terry’s School Mate Ian and his wife
Sophie.
Paronella Park
One Mans Dream - A Place of Love and Passion
Extraordinary story , a must do for everyone’s travel exploring in Queensland. The gardens and buildings are amazing. Not because they are fully restored and not because the gardens are the best botanical species but because this place was built from love. You can feel it everywhere as you weave your way through the gardens, and built follies for contemplation and reflection.
The custodians of this
special place for the past 27 years, have with sensitive restoration, warm and welcoming tourism approach to activities in the park to ensured the story continues to be told.
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| I am so short to take selvies , arm is not long enough |
Port Douglas
Love this coastal tourist town. It was very quiet and so many tourist operators and shops closed.
The Daintree and great Barrier Reef back drop from land and sea makes for wonderful vistas, adventures and nature experiences in this area. As predicted the weather was not great but the tropical rain and flowers blooming gave off a heady sweet scent that I will never forget. Just magic. Suffering from yet another cold my time relaxing at Port Douglas was restorative and romantic.
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| Sophie and I enjoying Cocktails |
The trip entailed stopping into BlueWater marina outside of Cairns tucked way up in the Mangroves. This is our marina of choice for berthing the boat in cyclone season and we inspected the marina and made arrangements. Another Marina Laundry next to a Bar.
Also
visited where our Car will be stored on our return trip back to boat via a Bus.
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| Cairns Marina |
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| Cairns on a wet day |
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| Cairns Harbour |
The coast trip to Port Douglas is very scenic and I love this area where rain-forest meets the waters edge. It was very rainy, not much opportunity to take photos along the scenic ocean road.
Port Douglas has a real lay back resort feel, great restaurants ,warm and welcoming locals and retailers so pleased to see tourism patronage. Out of all the towns we had traveled Port Douglas take their Covid Safe plans very seriously, everything is cleaned and wiped down all the time everywhere in both commercial and public spaces. They understand the impact of not adhering to safe practices.
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| Ian and Terry Mates for over 45 years Cheeky old Buggers |
Return to Boat via a Bus was memorable.
Terry's track record for
travelling on communal transport did not fail to have a failure. For those who know Terry it is rare that he travels on Trains or buses and when he does they break down.
The bus was broken before we left the bus terminal so an hour delay with the mechanic under the bus did nothing to improve my expectations that this travel trip with Terry will be long, unremarkable and uncomfortable.
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| This is going to be long and uncomfortable |
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| Townsville Beach Front The Strand where crocs are known to take small dogs |
We arrived in Townsville hours latter than the Bus company schedule timetable, tired and exhausted from an uncomfortable road trip, but very happy to be back on board Sens de la Vie. Next morning we Provisioned, got a few spare parts and voted in state elections.
Boat prepared we headed back to Magnetic Island, Picnic Bay for a couple of nights just to ensure after a long time with boat systems closed down that everything was in working order before we went to more remote areas.
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| Picnic Bay Magnetic Island |
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| Picnic Bay |
Our Sailing adventures continue.
Some 6 years ago, whilst working for O'Reilly's, I was recommended a sailing blog to learn more about sailing life as a live aboard.
Dreamtime Sailing.
Rob and Karen's journal blog and Vblogs have been inspirational over the years in giving me understanding of life on board a yacht.
I made contact with them personally via text messaging and over the last 6 months in particular to assist us in our planning in Covid restrictions.
Karen has written a Cookbook and our common interest in managing provisions and cooking in a small galley is a great connection.
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Rob and Karen Dreamtime Sailing |
A rare opportunity of our vessels being in the same harbor at Picnic Bay,
The opportunity to meet them in person, ask lots of questions and enjoy their company at the local pub for an afternoon of lively conversation was very special
The next day we sailed around to Horsehoe Bay Magnetic Island for an overnight stay before heading off to Hinchinbrook. I needed to have a Medical Tele conference and I was unsure of telco range further north. 
We set sail to Orpheus Island, Hinchinbrook and Dunk Island
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