Cyclone Larry hit the Northern Queensland coast as my ninth week on the island opened, reaching the highest catagory of five as it came inland. Two island resorts north of us - Dunk and Bedarra - which are owned by the same company as Heron were hit full on by the cyclone and had to be evacuated. They're still closed at the moment and won't re-open until June. We were lucky to be out of the main path of the storm and only had higher seas and wind speeds.
We had a new kitchen steward arrive on the Monday, then another on Wednesday. It wasn't the most ideal time to turn up though, with the list of things that were broken in the kitchen quickly mounting. At one point we didn't have any hot water or hoses that worked; things that we use just about all the time!
Thursday marked the completion of two months on Heron Island and also played host to a bit of a scare. A second cyclone, Wati, was out to sea and could have turned to hit us, but ended up travelling south east and missing Australia. It undoubtedly caused a bit of excitement though and something to discuss at breaks, even if it didn't end up being a serious threat.
I had Friday and Saturday off, so went fishing on the former and then didn't do much on the latter. Saturday is our busiest day, so it's quite unusual to get it off, so I had time to go to the staff BBQ for more than 30 mins and just enjoy the evening.
