Airlie Beach to Magnetic Island 19deg Latitude

    We spent 2 days in Airlie Beach enjoying the conveniences of civilization.  Got stocked up on fresh food and a few small items at the chandlery and then it was time to move on.   After a last trip ashore we left for Hook Island a few miles away in the Whitsundays.  The SE winds were still blowing strongly so had a good sail over.  We picked up a mooring ball in a bay on West side and spent the night here.  There was a lot of wind bullets in this bay as they call them here.  It would be almost calm and then a 30 knot gust of wind would hit the boat for a few seconds healing us over or spinning us around and then die off.  This went on all night, but we were secure on our mooring which was designed for yachts up to 60 feet.
    We listened to the news on radio at dinner time and they said at 610pm you would be able to see the space station and shuttle go buy in sky.  Sure enough at 611pm just before full dark we saw the bright light of  the station like a large star move across the sky and the space shuttle behind it, cool.
In Morning moved to another buoy on North end of Island so Dorothy could try snorkeling.  We tryed several spots for snorkeling but due to all the wind the water was not that clear and the snorkeling was not as good as we have seen in other places.  The last night here the wind was calmer at night and the mooring ball was banging against the side of the boat of and on which ruined our sleep somewhat.
  We left shortly after daylight for the 133 mile run up to Magnetic Island beside Townsville.  It was a tough sail all day as we had strong winds which were interrupted every hour by a large rain squall  that would come up behind  us with lots of extra wind so we would have to rush and reef down before it came and wait for it to past so we lost a lot of time. See above picture of an approaching rain squall. The night sail was a better as the wind was more steady  with just a bit of rain and we had a near full moon through the clouds.  We stayed near the land as we neared Townsville so would be out of the shipping lane and I saw four go by during my night watch.
The final few miles were a pleasant sail right to Magnetic Island.  We motored the last bit into our anchorage and dropped the hook in a beautiful little bay with a small village on the waterfront.   We had a short nap and went ashore to explore and found a small grocery store and several tourist type shops catering to business from close by Townsville.  Later we found a hiking trail at east end of beach that took us up over a hill to another beach.  This is a great anchorage and place to stay a couple of days.
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After Arlie beach we moved to Stonehaven anchorage on W side of Hook Island  and picked up a free mooring buoy not too bouncy. There were a lot of strong wind bullets in hear, but just an anoyance no real problem.  You can anchor if you stay outside the line marked by white buoys.  Our buoy located at  20 05.400    148 54.394.
Next day moved to Buttercup bay on Hook island at N end.  We snorkled where we saw the tour boats take people but were not too impressed. Also dinged over to next bay East to snorkel . Spent night on buoy at 20 04.334    148 55.814. 
   Sailed to Magnetic island 130 miles away.  We anchored in Horseshoe bay for 2 nights, was good anchorage, just very stlightly bouncy.  Can get internet at boat with our Telstra modem in computer and there is a small grocery store, couple small restarants,  and water taps on beach and garbage cans. Anchored in 18ft at  19 06.645S   146 51.574E.