Trouble in Townsville

We had spent nearly a week in Bowen. There is a major film being shot at the moment with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The end of the main street is shut off and has been set up as a military scene. It is meant to be Darwin during the war. We didn't get to see any shooting as they were doing night shoots but it seems that half the town has jobs as extras and all the locals are excited about all the attention.

We were also tipped off that there was good calamari fishing at Horseshoe bay. Within about 10 minutes we had 3 large squid before some swimmers spoiled our fun, not before Michael and I had covered ourselves in ink.

While we were there we sent away for our PNG visas. We have decided to go to the Louisiade Archipelago. They are a group of islands off the eastern tip off the New Guinea mainland. We have spoken to a few of other cruisers who have highly recommended there as well as Wendys dad, Grumps.
Leaving Bowen it was 120 miles to Townsville, which we spread over 3 days, Cape upstart the first night and Cape Bowling Green the second. Shortly after leaving Cape Bowling Green the motor suddenly died. We were able to sail all but the last couple of miles. Our sailing companion, Hayden towed us into the harbor and hasn’t let us forget it since. We sent the injectors and the injector pump to the workshop for a rebuild and are waiting to see if that gets us going again.


At the moment we are still waiting for the parts for the motor and still praying for the rain to stop and all going well we will go out to Magnetic Island to give the motor a run and then either leave for PNG from here or Cairns.