Whales on the Port Bow

Wednesday 3rd August 

When I last wrote we were making our final approach quietly towards Mackay .

On our passage up inside the reef I had been somewhat jealous of the chat on the SSB call that lots of people were getting some great whale sightings particularly Yolo However that evening  we were greatly rewarded by the most amazing breaching of a mother and calf hump backed whale not more than about 50 metres off our Port bow .Liam grabbed the wheel and altered course it was really spectacular  ,if not a tiny bit scary.

Unfortunately  I can't share the whole video thatJames managed to take but will have it available for multiple showing when we get home !! Our four days in Mackay were really enjoyable and provided a great insight into life in Queeensland . Mackay is  a modern mining town with a big history of sugar cane production .We hired a car ,swam in a beautiful 50 m out pool, toured Eugenella National Park ,hiked in Finch Hatton Gorge and swam in the waterfalls  ,a great start to Williams tour of Australia . Most of the fleet have now gathered and today we are sailing to Hamilton Island  hopefully in time for our Welcome drinks a warm up event before our halfway party on Friday !  The passage up is sprint right through the whitsundays which we hope to explore properly over the next few days as the last time I was here was in 1987 when Liam and I sailed for a week  and the memory is hazy !!

The  photos below include our magnificent Whale sighting , a great view of a ladies rowing team training in Mackay and a selfie at our favourite 50 m pool in Mackay .