For many Blue Water crews our stay here has involved a lot of work at the excellent Marina Shipyard.  As I write Zipadedoda, Neva, Baccus and Kaimin are on the hard in various stages of work.  Paramour was lifted back in this morning.  As reported earlier, several of our participants are visiting Sydney and three owners have gone back to Europe for various reasons, but are due to return some time next week.

A Welcome to our New Arrivals
Over the last few days we have seen the arrival of two of our Oz-Med Rally yachts which will be joining the Blue Water Rally for the voyage to the Mediterranean.  We have been very pleased to welcome Jupiter (les freres, Pascal and Patrice Boissy) and, in the last 2 days, Ed and Kay de Tray on Liahona.  We are expecting our third and final arrival here, Prew of Holland (Ed and Pauline Busselaar), any time now.

A Spot of Tourism
Sydney and other major Australian tourist centres apart, Mackay and the local region have much to offer.  The town is still an attractive, low-rise frontier town, but things are changing with the boom in the local economy.  The major industries around here are farming (beef and sugar) and the boom which is driving the local economy of this part of Queensland is from the enormous resources of coal.  Several participants have visited the huge coaling terminal, which has continuous lines of trucks emptying into hoppers and onto coaling ships, which we can see on the horizon by day and their lights by night.  Cattle- farming is important but everywhere you go out of Mackay you see the cane fields stretching to the horizon. 

Local to Mackay Marina are some magnificent beaches - bathing sadly restricted because of the crocodile and stinger (jellyfish) threats.  Nonetheless a great trip for a few hours has been a visit to Hillsborough National Park - a headland covered in rainforest with beaches either side and a resident family of wallabies.  So, we have included a photograph to prove that we really are in Australia!

A Tour to Eungella National Park
Certainly, the main highlight of our local tours has been the day trip to the Eungella National Park.  We set off early from Mackay Marina and en route had a chance to see something of the sugarcane harvest, which is going on at the present time.  The 3 sugarmills are working flat out over the next few weeks, with narrow-gauge trainloads of cane brought in 24/7 from the canefields.  Our Aussie guide and driver gave us a colourful commentary as we headed up to a rainforest bush camp, where we had a billy tea and damper breakfast.  Then it was on up a steep mountain road to the Sky Window viewpoint looking back for tens of miles over the valley floor to Mackay, some 50 miles away.

It’s an interesting climate here.  We are in an equatorial region and there is a huge variety of flora and fauna.  Up at the viewpoint we found ourselves picking mandarin oranges from trees around the carpark.  The rum and raisin icecreams were also very tasty!

The final highlight, after a further drive up the mountain road, was a visit to the wildlife viewing area.  We had been promised a sight of platypi in the wild and they didn’t let us down!  We missed the best shots as we arrived just too late to see them close to but we got a glimpse, which we have saved for you to see.  Around us in the trees was a huge variety of birdlife and, of course, we had to take photos of kookaburras!

Descending again to the bush camp we were treated to an excellent BBQ lunch before heading back to town.  However, there was one further highlight - a visit to a farm working on eco principles, where our guide gave us a expose on the way it was being managed and developed. 

A Time to Say Farewell and a Big Thank You
We have already seen one or two early departures for the long trip round to Darwin.  Miss Styx, Canopus and Happy Wanderer have already headed towards Cairns via the Whitsunday Islands, which we can see to the north of us - more fabulous cruising grounds to visit.

Most of the Rally will be on the move next week and will be cruising independently over the 1600 miles and 6 weeks left before the official Darwin stopover.  We had a briefing last night, followed by drinks outside on the hotel patio.  I mentioned that Blue Water Ralliers have been feeling the cold here and have included a photograph to prove it!

This will be my last report and I am sure I shall be sharing in the sadness at our leaving this very friendly stopover.  Our stay here has been a great success and our thanks go out to everyone at Mackay Marina and in the locality who have made us so welcome.  We look forward to returning to renew friendships and associations in 2 years’ time.