The next day, on our way through Hinchinbrook channel, we came across a couple of tourists & a child, who had run out of fuel in their speed boat, & spent the night tied to a mangrove against the shore.

They had used their towels & shirts to protect the child, & were smothered with sand fly bites. She reckoned they had even bitten her through her bikini.

If they had just known enough to drift out 50/60 yards into the channel & anchor, they would have been free of the things.

I assume you were doing your nude thing in daylight, at night I doubt you would survive.

Banjo I love chooks, bloke next door does not!
We clashed over treated sewage being piped in to my place.
So for the time being? not stretching the point.
Have composting heap and use it all.
Madness in my method gentle men, yes tank water feeding the little darlings.
Nothing more to add.

<< Would that be at Scagary point, on the western side, in site of Cardwell old mate? >>

No Haz. Blacksand Beach is on the east coast. It is the first little beach south of Ramsay Bay – the big sweeping northern beach of Hinchinbrook Island.

If you zoom right in with Google Maps in satellite image mode, you will see that the whole beach is dark, as opposed to the white sand of Ramsay Bay.

I’ve been to that little cleared area on the Cardwell side of the island. Macushla I think it is called.

I did the vegetation mapping of the whole island in the early 90s. Lots of hard-slog bushwalking all over the island including up to Mt Bowen and Mt Diamantina.

Yeah I was doing the nude thing in broad daylight. There’s no problem with that sort of thing over there.

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Myna birds, chooks and Hinchinbrook Island! Not a condiment comment to be seen!!

Isn’t it interesting how some threads evolve, and take us on a journey far away from the original subject!

Here’s an interesting read for you Hasbeen:

http://www.crispinhull.com.au/2012/07/28/learning-after-60-the-big-sail/#mor

Thanks for that Luddy, an interesting read.

My first "BIG" bar crossing was also Wide Bay bar. I had crossed some NSW bars, but only when there was little sea running, as they are mostly too shallow for deep yachts.

With Wide Bay you actually start the crossing about 3 miles out to sea, & are crossing it for about a mile & a half. No coast guard to come out to you back then. I had been advised by some trawler men in Mooloolaba to "go with the big one".

Big waves come in sets. 3 or 4 bigger waves, followed by a fair while of smaller ones. The idea was you did not want to be half way across when a set of big ones came through.

My yacht was a great surf boat, often surfing big ocean waves for a mile or so in heavy weather. On this occasion she picked up the first "big one", & rode it all the way into the deep water in the inshore channel. When we passed a trawler which had started their crossing a few minutes before us, they were cheering. They reckoned later that the entire front half of the boat was out of the water on the wave.

A great memory.

People are often very helpful. Once when I arrived at the Swansea bar, the entrance to Lake Macquarie, I had to wait about 3 hours for the tide to make enough.

I was sitting hove too, in a lot of off shore wind, when an elderly gentleman, in a small plywood fishing boat appeared to see if I needed help. He'd been watching me from his house on the hill. When I had taken so long, he'd gone out to his boat, & crossed the bar, to offer his assistance if required. That was 30 years ago, but I still remember his kindness. It's these things that make life worth living.

We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...