We are currently in MacKay, pronounced Mac Kai, we stopped here because we had run out of fresh fruit and veggies. I erroneously made the assumption when we left Bundaberg that there would be towns at most places we stopped along the coast, I was wrong. We left Bundy over a week ago and although we went shopping with Trish and filled here car with stores I had bought very little fresh food. The fridge is now stuffed with yummy fruits, veggies, yogurt and cheeses.

We have had a great time since setting off. The weather has been steadily from a southerly direction so we have had some terrific sails, wind on the quarter, the boat flying along at 7 knots at times. The other day our boat speed was reading steadily over 8 and I was loving it, Barry deemed we did not need to go that fast and pulled in some genoa, spoil sport!!!

We left the same day as our friends on Toketie, David and Linda. We have been keeping in touch with them on HF radio and we have arranged to be in the same anchorages a few times. It is nice to have someone that knows where you are. We stopped at the spot the other night and I took Linda ashored and we went for an hour and a half walk. Along the way we figured we have been walking companions in 6 countries across the Pacific. It was great to do it again with her in Australia. When we got back to their boat she cooked a yummy pizza and good times were shared.

We stopped in at Middle Percy Island, a spot where cruisers have been leaving signs for over fifty years. The island is leased by a family and they along with the cruisers have built an A frame building where you can eat and a wonderful tree house. The tree house had a kitchen and a bed in it, you could comfortably live in there for a week or two. I found an old board up by the treehouse and took it back to the boat. I painted a polar bear on it and put our boat name, our names and the date, as the sign said and screwed it into the one of the posts in the A frame. At another anchorage we were invited ashore for appetizers as soon as we had dropped the hook. There were 6 boats in attendance and there were representatives from 5 different continents, N. America, S. America, Africa, Europe and Australia. It was a lovely evening with the bonfire glowing on the beach.

We are meeting lots of cruisers that are going on the Indonesian rally, this journey has the same feeling as crossing French Polynesia. Everyone is heading in the same direction and you meet people, they leave and then 3 or 4 days later you see them again in another anchorage further north. We are enjoying being out in the islands away from civilization again. There is something rather magical about sitting in your cockpit watching the sun go down and the sky turning gorgeous shades of orange and red, with no one else within sight.

From MacKay we head up in to the Whitsunday Islands where I hope to spend over a week. We plan to stop in at Airlie Beach on the way and then amble on up to Townsville. We have a new computer and I have been having trouble getting our e-mail on it to work so have not been able to send any reports in that way. I will have to work on it, or just use the old computer to keep in touch a little more regularly.