Matey's musings: July 2013

Magnetic Island is extraordinarily beautiful. It contains 'dry', 'wet' and rainforest vegetation. We were also very excited to see solar panels in numerous locations, showing that the abundance of sun here can be used effectively for power generation. On the boat we already know this, as we source most of our energy from our solar panels. Many other countries, with less sunlight than Australia — Germany, China, Denmark(!!) to name a few — already know this too. India and Spain are examples of countries with relatively high levels of sunshine that are making good use of it or are planning to do so.

Solar panel on light post. A refreshing sight!

Skate park with solar panels for a roof/shading

Power generation at that moment in time from the solar panels on the skate park. This rate for an hour would be enough to heat four average domestic hot water services for a day, according to the boat's electrician.

View to the mainland

Wetlands

Lovely 'paperbark'

Magpie geese

The 'corkscrew' or spiral pandanus, presumably

Osprey nest

Finally, we broke away from our base at Airlie Beach and turned left. Moderate to strong south-easterly winds made the travelling relatively fast. Matey now believes she has found the cure for seasickness: one silicone earplug! If balance is managed by the inner ear and seasickness is caused by confusion from conflicting information, then when perception in one ear is blocked there is only one source of information and therefore theoretically no confusion. This seems to explain the relatively enjoyable time Matey has had on several occasions when the going has been rough.

Hooray! Matey salutes Dale the Diver from My Leeway in delirious gratitude for this tip!

The first night on the run was spent opposite Gloucester Island and we celebrated Captain’s birthday (belatedly) at Monte’s, which lived up to memories of the delicious and very reasonably priced fare, and cheerful service. The backdrop of Gloucester Island will always be hard to beat.

*Rant alert*

Next day we continued to Cape Upstart, passing the controversial Abbott Point en route. Matey is saddened to think that dredging is planned for this once-beautiful location, so that even bigger ships can get in to load even more of the polluting and climate-changing coal, so that a few already wealthy people can become even richer, (oh, and the incentive to develop sustainable and renewable sources of energy is reduced). Hmmm … and who will pay for all this infrastructure? The mining companies? The state of Qld? (Doesn’t that at least partly explain its financial woes?) Perhaps taxpayers generally?
Quick! Get it out of the ground before the opportunity for plunder is lost!

The recent experience of fish, dolphin and dugong disease and death at Gladstone Harbour following dredging, as well as fishermen’s health problems could tell us something, one might think. More information.

Sadly this is just one of several proposed new coal terminals. For more info. and a previous Matey-rant about this go here.

(Cheerful aside)

Helpless as we sometimes feel in the face of powerful mining interests and mega-greed, we had a feel-good day when we participated in Reef Walk, an awareness-raising campaign by a very inspiring grandmother to try to draw public attention to what’s at stake if we continue to allow our beautiful natural places to be destroyed by mining, dredging and the infrastructure to enable it. Consequences like ships running aground, oil spills, introduction of pests from dumped ballast water etc. are likely, not to mention the impact on the tourism and fishing industries (worthy of note for those focused on the dollars). Our international reputation as a nation of bogans is perhaps well-deserved ...
Anyway, it was delightful to meet some like minds!

Cape Upstart to Magnetic Island

We met up with Alan, Natalia, Verena and Alex on Steelin’ Time, who are making their way to Cairns but at a faster pace than TC. We managed to waylay them for a day, however, after a local told us about a gorge. It didn’t take much arm-twisting to convince them to join us exploring. Thanks, Bert, for 'introducing' us :)

Next day we made our way to Cape Bowling Green. Strongish winds and low turf meant there was little shelter and a rough, sloppy night meant light sleeping. We were happy to be on our way again next morning. Another day’s sailing landed us at Magnetic Island, off Townesville. Apparently it acquired that name when Captain Cook thought it caused weird behaviour by his compass. You could be forgiven, though, for suspecting there is another explanation for the name …