Day 27 & 28 - Airlie Beach to Hamilton Island Marina

Provisioning completed, we decided to sail across to Hamo in preparation for the arrival of eldest son, Ben, his wife Nikki and our two grand daughters - Hayley (2 1/2 y.o.) and Tamara (15/12 old). They are planning a 10 day holiday with us on the boat if both parties can survive the challenges that this might pose.

We learned a valuable lesson on the trip across to Hamo. The experts are not kidding when they say that picking the tide is a vital bit of navigation planning in the Whitsundays! We had very little wind and what we had was on the nose for the whole trip. This, coupled with up to 2 kts of tidal flow against us, made for a frustratingly slow trip. To cap off the day I had the pleasure of dismantling the Jabsco electric toilet and fitting the service kit. Like most repair jobs on a boat it seemed a bit daunting at first but turned out to be pretty straight forward and the repair worked fine.

The less unsavoury innards of the toilet.

Hamilton Island Marina is efficient and functional but did lack that more personal touch that we so much appreciated at Abell Point. The fees were also double the SICYC discounted rate at Abell but you do get full access to all the island's facilities such as resort swimming pools etc.

The family arrived on schedule and we spent the afternoon at one of the resort pools. While there we ran into an old Army doctor friend and his wife who were attending a conference. It was great to catch up for a quick chat.