Land based activities - Tiare taporo III still at Airlie Beach

Today we had a bit of a change. We had been becoming so fed up with the weather that we decided to hire a car for the day and drive the 70-80 kms to Bowen to check out the marina there. There is something lurking in the back of our minds that if it all gets too hard to get past Cairns on time that Bowen could be a fall back position for us for the summer. If a cyclone rears its ugly head then we would hightail it for the Hinchinbrook Channel which is supposed to offer safe haven. Still, this is very much Plan C; Plan B would be the Louisiades (PNG) and north from there and this is more and more looking like an option. The weather here at the moment is very trying with SE winds and rain in the marina of over 20 knots and it's now 2300 on Wed. It's supposed to ease in a couple of days which should enable us to at least make Magnetic Is. before the next bout of bad weather. We've said it before and we say it again - this coast is not often friendly - it's nothing like the travel brochures!!!
The other imperative is the cost of staying here. This marina (Abel Point) and Airlie Beach in general (which is really just an overblown Paihia in the Bay of Islands, NZ) is very expensive and the marina is actually in receivership. You would think that the sensible thing would be to reduce their charges and get more custom but it's now run by the accountants and they are not renowned for their business acumen. This in spite of the fact that Jim has been an accountant in a previous life!! So we'll probably anchor off tomorrow and hopefully will then be able to leave at 3 or 4 in the morning on Friday to enable us to make our first anchorage (Upstart Bay which is 75 miles north of here) in daylight.
Anyway, back to today. We drove to Bowen across mainly alluvial flats with endless sugarcane and met Andrew who is a co-owner of the marina. There are some vacant berths so we could hole up there for a while if we were still in Australia then. We then looked around Bowen whose main claim to fame was the filming of the film "Australia" which was released in 2008 and was the 2nd highest grossing Australian film of all time. We had pies for lunch at the famous Bowen pie shop and were treated to a blow by blow account of the filming from the proprietor's wife which was actually very interesting. The film was set in the early stages of WWII and depicted the Japanese bombing of Darwin - all set and filmed in Bowen. It also involved a 1500 mile cattle drive and the cattle were run through Bowen's streets. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were the main stars in the film.
Another interesting historical fact is that 2 squadrons of Catalina flying boats of the RAAF were withdrawn from Port Morseby in PNG when the Japanese were overrunning that island and relocated to Bowen. It's possible to still see the concrete apron where the hangars were as well as the ramp into the sea where the aircraft were launched. Jim's uncle Euan flew Catalinas during WWII but with the RNZAF. The RAAF had 168 Catalinas at one stage and over 60 were lost in action. Of course in those desperate days there was real concern that the Japanese Army would invade Australia and it was the naval Battle of the Coral Sea off the Australian coast (not far from Bowen) that finally stopped their advance. In NZ as well there were invasion fears and Jim recalls his first mother in law Con Tomkinson recounting how she and her two eldest daughters lived on Takapuna Beach on Auckland's North Shore then. Mary and Gillian were only toddlers at the time and when they wanted to go for a swim they had to be taken between the rows of barbed wire and tank traps to the water. The beach was mined as well so a firm hand with the children would have needed to be exercised!! Hard to believe when one looks at Takapuna Beach today with its multi million dollar properties.
We drove back to Airlie in pouring rain and stopped at Cannonvale to get some more provisions while we had the car to carry them in. Now back on board and about to get some shut eye. Tomorrow we'll anchor off and then on Friday de bonne heure we will leave for points north. Upstart Bay, Bowling Green Bay, Magnetic Is., the Hinchinbrook Channel, Dunk Is., Mission Bay and then Cairns 350 miles on.
Watch this space - www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com
Love from us...........

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com