Firstly thanks so much to all the positive reactions to my last post. Im still sailing and exploring the Capricorn Coast of Queensland though today is the final day of the trip and I have returned to Mackay (the redneck crap hole I mentioned in the last post). We just docked the boat in the Mackay marina and I have sequestered myself in the Marina bar with a cold Corona and some solid internet. The trip was fantastic. We spent a total of 5 days at sea island hopping and exploring. We fished, sailed, hiked, snorkeled, slept and repeated every day.
The islands up here are kind of too good to be true - the water is crystal clear. They have multiple sandy sheltered bays where you can anchor and hide from the strong North easterly winds that blow continually at this time of year. So our standard "MO" would be to have a little sail in the morning to relocate then anchor up in one of the bays and pack up the dingy with the following essentials....
water
mask/snorkel/fins
speargun
phone(for photos)
gopro - to snorkel with
shoes to hike - the islands often dont have paths and you defo need good shoes or trainers to explore the hills.
reef shoes to walk in the sand with as stonefish and stingrays are a real concern.
Normally we would drag the dingy up on the beach then my sister, her hubby and I would try to climb to the top of the island - every island has a hill but often there was no path, so we didnt always make it to the top.
After a hike then we would come back to the beach and normally go for a snorkel. Or rather my sis would snorkel, Chris (her husband) would fish from the dingy, and I would try my luck with the spear gun to see if we could dine on fresh reef fish. All these islands are designated fishing zones providing you abide by minimum size limits and maximum allowable catch. So for us it was perfect - all we wanted was enough to eat for dinner that night.
So this leads me to the title of the post. You cant spear anywhere in these islands and to be honest most of Australia without attracting sharks. It's simply part of the game. Within 2 minutes I had shot a fish but he shook off the spear and made his escape leaking blood from the wound. They always swim straight under the nearest rock or coral ledge so as to hide and recover. Immediately there was a large white tip reef shark there. When they smell blood they get very agitated and it can become a little uncomfortable to be in the water when they start behaving like this. I told my sister time to go back to the dingy and we made our retreat. Its important to keep an eye on the shark and be ready to see it off with the spear tip if it gets too close....
On that day I managed to get three good size fish. Two Emperorfish and one Rock Cod. On spearing them its a good idea to immediately raise the fish out of the water to keep the blood and struggling fish out from the sharks keen senses. I would swim them back to the dingy each time.
After dinner was caught we would head back to the boat for cold beers and BBQ fish. Look at these two beauties. There is nothing quite like eating what you caught after avoiding a pissed off shark!
Today the wind dropped and we had beautiful sailing conditions for the journey back to port. A gentle 10 knots right on our beam so easy sailing, no tacking, no heeling and no spray. A perfect end to an awesome week.
On reflection I'm just so proud of my sister for embracing this awesome life. She has never sailed before buying the boat and really had no clue about life at sea. But she is just killing it. In July I will return to Australia and help them sail from the north of Australia to Indonesia.
Im Jobiker and I love that my sister has a sailing boat! Peace!
