Start Loc: Rosslyn Bay Marina, Yeppoon (23o 09.67’ S, 150o 47.13’ E)
Narrative: We were in no great rush to get away today. That said, we left an hour after I would have liked. Low tide was at 9:15am and I was keen to be gone by 9:00am to make the most of the incoming tide pushing us north. It took a bit to get everyone going and I did promise bacon and eggs for breakfast, so it 9:56am by the time we pulled out of the berth and headed out of the harbour.
Wild Oats XI was still anchored outside so we went and had a look. (She took line honours and three hours off the race record, but was 20 minutes or so over the 24 hour mark.) I sat just in front of her and hoisted the main – I daresay the only time I will see her from the front while sailing is when she is at anchor!
The wind was pretty light at about 5kts from the E pushing us at a measly 2.5kts, so I replaced the head sail with the spinnaker. The extra sail area gave us an extra knot, but after we were overtaken by a small yacht that was assisted by its motor, I relented, put the spinnaker away and we motor sailed to keep the miles ticking over. After a few hours the true wind speed had picked up to almost 10kts. With an apparent direction from ENE, I was able to give the motor a rest and sail on a beam reach at an acceptable 5kts.
We sailed between Cape Manifold and the unnamed rock just off it, and I was amazed at the tidal disturbance in the area. As we sailed through the gap we had 3kts tidal assistance. Heather could see an obvious line on the water and checked the chart to ensure there weren’t rocks ahead and we had plenty of water. I assured her it was just two currents meeting, but was still amazed myself as we passed through. As we cleared Cape Manifold we dropped to 0.8kt tidal assistance.
We sailed into Freshwater Bay and dropped anchor at 3:50pm. It then took us about 45 minutes to get the anchor to bite and set a stern anchor to hold us bow on to the swell. It was worth the effort and we had had a calm anchorage for the night.
The plan for tomorrow is to head to Port Clinton.
End Loc: Freshwater Bay (22o 38.88’ S, 150o 47.30’ E)
Distance run: 34nm (cumulative: 488nm)
Engine hours: 5 hr, 12 min (cumulative: 52 hr, 14 min)