Bye bye Mackay

Our new Parasailor finally arrived yesterday so at last we are getting ready to depart for our cruise up to Thursday Island via Cairns. The delay was caused by us not wanting to pay the tax but in order to speed things up we had to part with A$1,800 which is about 1,300 GBP. Hopefully we can claim most of this back when we leave Darwin under the Australian Tourist Tax Refund Scheme but it is likely we will be short by about A$500. Oh well at least we have the new sail now and can try it out before the next leg! Whilst here in Mackay we thought it would be prudent to get another rig check done and the rigger found a cap shroud which was not safe so that is being replaced today. Good job we got the rig checked here!! Our insurance company will pay for a free rig check when we get to South Africa but that is another few months away and there is some challenging sailing to be done between now and then! Whilst in Mackay we have visited the Canelands Shopping Centre and had enough retail therapy to last another few months. It was a good place to reprovision though as two large supermarkets were well stocked with all the items required. I even managed to find a portable ipod docking station so now we can have music even if the generator is not running. Peter has aquired a bluetooth gps so now he is downloading charts onto my ipad to give us another navigation system apart from seapro on the laptop. Getting used to the cooler weather here which reaches 20 degrees C during the day but is much cooler at night dropping to 12 or 13 degrees C. Looking forward to sailing north again as Cairns is a little warmer at max 23 during the day. We are booked into Marlin Marina in Cairns for 3 nights from 12 August. Expect to leave early tomorrow morning and sail overnight to our first anchorage on Magnetic Island which is some 200 miles so will take us about 30 hours sailing depending on the wind. The plan is to be near Cairns by Saturday so we can go into the Marina Sunday morning. Had a farewell dinner for Dimitry and Natalia last night as they leave the rally here. We have had an invite to Moscow where they live although they also have a place in the country a few hours drive from Moscow. August is the best time to go we are advised and it should be hot at that time of year! So who knows what the options are but we want to finish the rally first before making any firm plans. The rally is getting smaller as another boat has pulled out of the rally here (Eva) as the owner has been diagnosed with lung cancer so his boat is for sale and he has flown back to Germany for treatment. Another boat (Samsara) has structural problems and will not be continuing as there is a lot of work to be done to make her seaworthy again.So with two new boats joining us in Darwin and Bali that makes 20 in total.