Two of my favourite activities in Townsville are Boating and Cloud Watching, and on Saturday I got to do both on a family fishing trip.
B.H., Matt and I launched the boat while the sun was just a golden glow on the horizon, and motored slowly out of Ross Creek, through the breakwater and port area.
Outside the breakwater we turned right, away from the shipping channel and into Cleveland Bay. The bay has extensive sea grass beds that attract fish, turtles and the endangered dugong. Anchoring inside the “L” shape formed by Cape Cleveland we set up a burley trail to attract fish, which resulted in me loosing the big one, and B.H. catching the smaller one. (Just checking to see if he is reading).
Bored with the lack of bites, we decided to up-anchor and head into the open ocean outside the Cape. No sooner had we arrived at our own special Whale Spotting location, than a green turtle popped his head up to check us out. He circled the boat keeping a “safe” distance from my camera lens, and surfacing about six times before finally abandoning us. The first whale of the season was seen in the Bay last week, but this time we were out of luck.
Outside “The Cape” where we saw the turtle – no whales this time.
On the return journey B.H. did spot a dugong from his Captain’s chair. Although we have fleetingly sighted many dugong, only once have we seen them up close. A dugong and calf had approached our anchored boat and less than a metre away, they raised their heads out of the water, as if to get a good look at us. An amazing sight.
Castle Hill and Townsville across Cleveland Bay
Re-entering the breakwater we passed many sailing boats, the crews dressed in their boat colours. The red crane stood out against the white of the clouds (see the aboriginal flag). The last photo in the collage is of the soon to be opened Berth 10 – a cruise ship, defence force and commercial shipping facility.
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Love the water – it looked so clear. Something about being out in the ocean is so appealing!
Never realised that they were building a big marine in Townsville – great for the Defence Force to have somewhere nice to dock.
And I wonder what the Aboriginal flag was there for?
Bummer about not seeing any whales!
I don’t know why the flag was there. Hopefully we will see some whales next time we go boating. 🙂
Stunningly gorgeous!! How I love the skies in Queensland – I never tire of them. 🙂
Thanks Krista. I do love our blue skies, but we have so many (shameful I know). So I guess that explains why I am so interested in clouds.:)
Some beautiful cloud images, Jan! We never made it that far north when living in Australia, but did get up to Port Douglas. A lovely area.
Port Douglas is a beautiful spot, we have had several holidays there 🙂