looking for Mary

So west to Maryborough.....

It was a pleasant sail over to River Heads where the Mary and Susan Rivers join. Since the floods some markers have not been replaced, so negotiating shallow spots is a bit tricky. We manoeuvred into the Mary River safely and were escorted up river by dolphins for about 1nm. It was about 19nm up river to Maryborough, so we all settled in for some country sightseeing.

Around Beaver Rocks there was an abundance of uncharted orange buoys, some with white poly buoys attached, so we presumed they were crab pots. Nope port markers! A quick u-turn saw us follow the markers in a wide semi-circle to deep water.

River Heads where the barges to Fraser island berth.

The closer we got to Maryborough the more evident was the flood damage. Manatee was anchored off the sailing club and we all attempted to get ashore to stretch our legs. As the jetty had been washed away we needed to tie to shore and managed to step into knee deep mud.

After a stroll around the grassy grounds of the sailing club, Jacki and Pearl were returned to Manatee for a bath while the rest of the pack went for a walk to town.

We were keen to explore the town, as in the late 90's on a flying adventure to an airshow west of Gladstone, we were forced to remain in Maryborough for a few days due to bad weather (boating and aviation have a lot in common!). We both loved the town and had decided it was a possible country retirement area, so would we still feel the same?

There are walking tracks along the river that have been beautifully landscaped and filled with sculptures and the botanic gardens are gorgeous. Maryborough is also the birthplace of PL Travers, the author of Mary Poppins and the town makes the most of this fame with statues of Mary and stories about PL set into brass on buildings like her old home. Buildings around town(Customs House, School of Arts etc) have been beautifully restored and street cafes abound.

While in town AK set to in an attempt to get lost cards replaced and we needed to get an exhaust elbow manufactured(where exhaust gases and water mix to be expelled through the hull. It had been leaking and our epoxy fix hadn't succeeded). Kindly cruisers we met offered to drive us around and gave engineering recommendations.. The town is an old sea port so there were plenty of options. We headed off to Olds Engineering which had an amazing workshop of historical value and after much humming and arring Mr Old sent us off to the house of a mate of his fathers who was a tinkerer. Ron was in his 80's and in the middle of his morning porridge, but after examining our old elbow, instructed us to meet him at Barry White's engineering shop, which just happened to be next to the marina. Between them they made us a new elbow which Barry then offered to help us fit. With a few minor adjustments we had a new elbow. Kind men and a great service.

We met a great group of people in the quaint Maryborough slipway who were doing up a huge ferro yacht which they were hoping to launch by Christmas. The boat was going to be their home for their missionary work in PNG. Unbeknownst to us they had been taking photos of Manatee as she had the wheelhouse of their dreams. Surprisingly their yacht had a very similar layout to Manatee, just on a larger scale to house five adults. The fit out they were completing was beautiful, fantastic joinery and very stylish.

We also met a couple who had just completed building their catamaran and were planning to head for the Philippines. SV Sea Dragon was fantastic, the first junk rigged cat we have seen. Over sundowners we were told stories of the floods which sounded traumatic. The marina had still not been totally repaired and most berths didn't have power and water.

The river was yucky, lots of debris floating around with the odd 44gallon drum floating past us.

On our last day in town we bought our fresh fruit and veg from the markets which were held in the main street, AK filled up on second hand books at the sale in the town hall and managed to talk Marg into a trip to the airport for a look around and a coffee. Marg joked that that was too much spoiling for 1 day.

The airport was sad and deserted, a far departure from the memory of a bustling and vibrant enterprise.....and there was no longer a terminal to buy a coffee.

So we left Maryborough, having found the town delightful, but agreeing that we don't like many rivers.

Heading down river, navigation again proved difficult as the orange buoys had been blown around in the strong winds, some almost on shore. With fingers crossed we managed to get through without grounding and anchored in the Susan River to wait for favourable weather to go whale watching. It was a beautiful anchorage and we were teased by turtles who would swim around the boat.

Sunset over Susan

After a couple of days we headed back out to the Sandy Straits, passing what looked like a pod/group/family of dugongs. How exciting!