Sailing with Capt'n Willi Cinque: May 2013

Nelly Bay. Magnetic Island

View of Dreamagic in her berth from Peppers Hotel

On the last day of the cyclone season, Cyclone Zane has formed off the North Queensland coast. Our choices are to hang here for a few days, or take our chances and go north hoping it won’t affect us. Not that cost would be a consideration over safety but at $47 per night here, this is the cheapest, and one of the nicest marinas to get caught in.

Since that decision we have been here 4 days. During that time we have had a fish and chip dinner at the Horseshoe Bay Yacht Club, also known as the bus shelter, we have had dinner at Man Fridays and organised for them to open on the 27^th August so that I can have my birthday party there, and Rona has booked herself into the Day Spa for a pedicure, seen a special offer for massages and spent a while having one of those. Not all wasted then.

Today we hired a car to visit the Island. We drove from one end to the other in 33 minutes, and then back again. We have visited every coffee shop that is open, (most are not) and the three pubs. We have had remarkably bad service at virtually all of them, while listening to the proprietors moaning about the lack of business, and been grossly overcharged at most. It is quite amazing to witness the sense of entitlement that these people have towards their businesses and tourists. Good luck with that. That said we have also met some really nice

Horseshoe Bay

people and had some great experiences. The pub at Horseshoe Bay has great food at really good prices and a seafood plate which is amazing. We found a coffee shop and gourmet grocer we could have spent all day in, and a co operative art gallery at Picnic Bay where Rona bought a picture for out Trinity Beach home. We saw plenty of signs saying “No Hire Vehicles Past this Point” and by ignoring those found Cockle Bay which was just delightful, and we visited X Base which is a purpose built Backpackers resort about 3 kms by road and 1.5 kms by beach from the marina. X Base is absolute beachfront, has a great deck on the beach itself, a pool, and would be a terrific place to watch the on water activities during Race Week. The bar is plentiful and affordable, the food is good and cheap, so take note those reading this who are coming up in August!

Having had the car for the rented 24 hours we filled the tank with fuel, at a cost of $11.20 (I said it was a small island) and gave it back unscathed.