28th July Newcastle to Mackay by plane.

This time the flight was very uneventful with everything going to schedule. I arrived back on board Billabong at 7.30pm and was greeted by Steve and Maureen off Boomeroo. Maureen cooked a great Pad Thai noodles with prawns and it was just great to be back on the yacht. Peter Russell arrived at the marina at 9.30pm just in time to have a glass of red. Peter flew to Hamilton Island, caught the ferry to Airlie and the bus to Mackay and a taxi to the marina. It was a long day for him. Our original plan was for me to pick him up at Hamilton Island but Tamara’s operation had priority status so we had to make do with what was already booked. The next day we headed to town in the marina hire car and completed the grocery shopping. The wind was blowing above 20 knots so decided to stay one more night as the forecast was for better conditions the next day. That proved to be wrong as they forecast 20 to 25 knots again.