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AIRLIE ANTICS...continued |
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“Is the berth free now?” we ask.
“Yes, but check in time is 12 noon. If you come in earlier you will have to pay the alongside rate for the extra two hours.”
“But we’re booking for a week!”
“Doesn’t matter. You still have to pay the alongside rate.”
“How much is that?”
“We charge a half-day so it will be $42.50.” What!!??
“But we’ve booked for a week, the rate is lower. So why are you charging us half the full daily rate? Anyway, it’s only two hours, not 12.”
“Doesn’t matter sir. That’s the rules.” We paid, through gritted teeth. Subsequently we heard that several Meridian properties, including Abel Point Marina, had gone into liquidation (although they were still trading). Every cruising yachtie we spoke to about this said the same thing – “No sympathy from us, they’ve got what they deserved”.
Airlie Beach itself was having a bad hair week as well. One of the things we were looking forward to at Airlie was eating out, following good memories from our 2006 cruise. This time, every cappuccino was cold. One was almost unrecognizable as coffee, it was strangely sweet and tasted awful. Another was so ankle deep in Milo dusting that it disguised the fact there was probably no coffee in it, only dishwater.
In self defence we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at Capers, an up-market hotel on the foreshore in a lovely setting, again because of a wonderful experience in 2006. Well, it was not a good morning. Both breakfasts were stone cold and the coffee not much warmer.
Afterwards, we went to the butcher to collect the cryovac meat we’d ordered two days previously, to find it wasn’t done and the machine was out of order but was “being fixed as we speak”. We retired to a café to wait. Bad move. We couldn’t face more cold coffee, so ordered fruit smoothies. “Sorry mate, the machine is broken down.” So more yucky cappuccino we had. Meanwhile, at least the meat was done. It proved to be sensational quality, and so was the nearby fish & chips, straight off the trawlers. At least we had two wins.
Walking back to the marina at low tide we were astounded to see that some of the berths were so silted up that the mud mounds rose higher than the surrounding floating walkways. Business done, time to get the flock out of here (as one shepherd said to the other). |
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MAGNETIC ISLAND |
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7 – 11 AUGUST. On leaving Airlie Beach we sailed to Bona Bay on Gloucester Island, one of our favourite places. It was lucky that we like it a lot as we were stuck there for a week due to strong winds. |
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Right: Bona Bay, Gloucester Island. Being stuck here for a week due to strong winds is no hardship |