Cid Harbor (Whitsundays)

[Kyle]In the morning, Maryanne was still hankering for that walk, so we took Begonia over to Cid Harbour (Sawmill Bay) so she could hike the Whitsunday Peak trail. I had another day on board to make sure our laundry stayed dry. A few lingering computer issues took up enough of her time that she only ended up selecting the shorter walk to the next beach along (Dugong Beach).

I was feeling better and was pretty sure I would be up for walking pretty soon, so I gave myself the easy task while she was gone of installing our big new beach wheels on the Pudgy in preparation for our next excursion.

Everything was going great until I dropped one of the new wheels in the drink. Thankfully it floated, but it fell just out of arm's reach. By the time I got to it with a boat hook, it was still just out of reach. Damn! Now I have to launch the dinghy. I lost more time because our new oarlocks weren't installed, so I had to dig out tools to do that. By the time I was in the water. The wheel was no longer in sight, but I had a general idea which way it had drifted.

The good news is that the new oars work great. They are a little bit longer than our old ones and have more oomph. After stroke #6, I was happy to note that neither oarlock seemed to be in danger of imminent destruction. That was a new record.

The bad news was that the new axle, even without the actual beach wheels installed, was creating a LOT of drag. Rowing by myself, which is normally quite zippy, felt like I had Maryanne, a floor full of groceries and jugs of fuel and water along for the ride.

I found our wheel, then returned to Begonia to install it and its mate. Then I rowed to the beach, mostly because I didn't quite trust the new oar locks yet and I wanted to give them a good test. It took AGES to get to there. By the time I made it back to Begonia, I realized two things: First was that my back was just fine again. The second was that our beach wheel experiment was a failure, except for very limited circumstances. The drag is just too great and I worry that we wouldn't be able to fight any current at all with any kind of load. It's back to the old, low-profile little wheel at the back of the keel.

Kyle wasn't up to a walk ashore (so I went solo). I love the washer-shape shell debris on the beaches here (perfect for necklaces and bracelets)
We both enjoyed another stunning sunset