Living it up in Townsville

We arrived in Townsville halfway through the first week of the winter school holidays, minus two key crew members who were still in NSW enjoying shore leave.

Townsville icon Castle Rock from the tropical lushness of Queen's Gardens.

For a few wonderful days, Townsville was transformed into a northern outpost of our old suburb in Brisbane. Jane G. (Dog Whisperer Extraordinaire) and her girls had travelled up to visit Nick, Jane L. and family who had somehow found themselves in Townsville as part of their own east coast odyssey. Meanwhile Amy T. and her family were also holidaying out at Magnetic Island.

A veritable kid festival after a drought - the Third Mate couldn't wait to spend down time with some of his own species.



10 year olds recover from a gruelling school term.

On the way into Townsville, we anchored off Cape Cleveland overnight. This was an uncomfortable anchorage even in light wind and swell, compensated for by the interesting walk up to the 1879 lighthouse. 

 

Cape Cleveland Lighthouse - same design as Pine Islets and Dent Island.

A small patch of land atop the Cape is jam packed with architectural relics. There are two empty 1950s lighthouse keepers' cottages with the bones of a classic retro 1950s style garden. Also a WWII radar station and bunker, a helicopter pad and the (now automated) lighthouse. Tramlines head off over the ocean facing cliff.  Supplies were winched up here, but watching the surf break on the rocks below on what was a relatively calm day, it is hard to imagine how.

Cape Cleveland

We negotiated our way through the extremely shallow entrance to Breakwater Marina  (0.5-0.7m LW), which is plonked very conveniently right in the cultural heart of Townsville. This is the first marina we have visited with its own herb garden and barber - thoughtful touches guaranteed to rate highly on the marina amenity scale. The Red Baron sea plane put on a daily aerobatics display over the moored boats.

The Red Baron

We soon discovered the crew of Dilligaf ensconced at the Heritage Bar. Mustang Sally were enjoying the delights of Townsville as well.  

Townsville - food paradise.

Heritage architecture - Customs House built 1904 from Magnetic Island granite in Federation "free style" - anyone who has seen The Lego Movie can relate.

Classic 1950s mosaic - Centenary Fountain 1959 commemorating 100 years since the foundation of Queensland.

We spent many hours at the extensive memorial in Anzac Park climbing the fig trees, eating gelato and learning all sorts of things about Australia's military history.

Townsville was a key military base in WWII, as the fighting moved into Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. It was bombed in 1942. There continues to be a strong military presence here, and we watched the Black Hawks and fighter jets taking off from the airport as the Second Mate and Ship's Monkey finally flew back in.

We borrowed some extra crew members and went on an expedition to the excellent Maritime Museum. Here we learnt about the mysterious disappearance of luxury cruise liner Yongala in a cyclone in 1911 - Australia's Titanic equivalent maritime disaster. Salty tales abounded here to shock the socks off the crew including the 1790 Pandora shipwreck and the tragic story of the Bay Rock lighthouse keeper and his wife. It raised a great deal of discussion and thoughtful observations from the crew about the development of our modern day nautical safety equipment and communications. 

But the favourite exhibits? Far and away the best were the old cannons which the crew pretended to load and fire on innocent passers by. And a large bollard set up for practice lassooing with a mooring line that kept everyone entertained for hours. Simple joys.


Fiyah!!!

The First Mate's top pick was this olde time maritime fire extinguisher: add it to the Important List of Life Lessons.

Wise philosopher Stephen Seagal had something similar to say in Under Siege II.



Rockclimbing at the Strand night markets, followed by tasty market food.

Other highlights of Townsville CBD included oyster and wine night at the Heritage Bar, the thriving food precincts down Flinders and Gregory Streets and the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery.

Pandora - Museum Tropical Queensland

At The Museum of Tropical Queensland, we learnt even more about the 1790 Pandora wreck. The Second Mate was invited to participate in firing the cannon and earned his Gunner's Certificate. We met the live creepy crawlies including a giant burrowing cockroach. 

"Insects of unusual size? I don't think they exist."

Unfazed by extremely large insects, the Captain was far more unsettled to discover an exhibit dedicated entirely to mangroves.

Chamber of horrors

Meanwhile back at the old marina it was action stations. A new mainsail was ordered and the old one taped up enough to hopefully get us through to Cairns. The Captain delved further into the electrical mysteries of the boat, finally locating the source of the burning electrical smell from the Solway Passage some weeks earlier. We were relieved to find it was not related to the recent wiring work in Mackay.

The house batteries are located in 2 banks in the port and starboard aft cabins. Probably when the batteries were last replaced, these 2 banks had been connected with cables that had been run beneath the propeller shaft. The propeller shaft had been gradually eating through them.

Just in case you missed it the first time.

The swell and movement in Solway Passage must have been the final straw and the cables had been completely transected. This explained why despite a bank of six beautiful new batteries we were struggling to maintain voltage overnight running only the fridge and the mooring light.

No trip ashore these days is complete without a visit to Ye olde Chandlery

The Captain hooned off in Nick and Jane's car for plywood and cables so he could rebuild the battery housing and reseat all the batteries in the portside cabin. He also serviced the outboard engine, which remains hale and hearty after its undignified dunking at Shaw Island, and tinkered some more with the bilge pumps. The new solar regulator blew so this was also replaced. All in all it was a very busy and productive couple of weeks. Fortunately the excellent  Townsville Brewery was only a short stroll away for a well earned Townsville Bitter.

Captain's Mugshot

The walk home to the marina