Start Loc: Abel Point Marina, Airlie Beach (20o 15.85'S, 148o 42.72'E)
Narrative: After spending way too much money between bits and pieces at the chandlery and a new battery (120A deep cycle marine battery - read three times the cost of a good car battery), as well as arranging to spend more money when we go back in ten days (the rigger has ordered parts to fix the foil on the head sail furling system), not to mention the cost of groceries, we had to leave the marina so we couldn't spend anymore!
We departed the marina at 10:15am and sailed WNW past Pioneer Rocks and then on around the top of North Molle Island. We had a northerly wind at about 12kts which gave us a bit over 6kts boat speed on a close reach. Once clear of North Molle we ran down Whitsunday Passage to the bottom of Whitsunday Island, from where we saw whales breaching in the distance.
Weather wise, the low trough is moving offshore and a high is following it through, so the N/NW winds will swing SW overnight and then SE by tomorrow afternoon. We should then have several days of SE winds accompanied by glorious weather as the high moves over us. To that end, we planned to use the northerly winds today to run south down Whitsunday Passage and then use the SE trade winds to do an anti-clockwise circuit of Whitsunday Island. We decided to anchor tonight in Gulnare Inlet as it provides good shelter as the winds swing around and change direction overnight. Low tide was at 2:30pm but we needed a bit of tide to get into Gulnare Inlet, so we took up a mooring off Henning Island and went ashore to kill some time while waiting for the tide to come in a bit after the low.
Come 4:00pm we decided we had enough water and started making our way up the inlet. The sounder was showed 1.4m for a bit at one stage, but we were still moving and I couldn't feel the boat touching the bottom. I think the depth was more like 1.7m and bulb on the keel was stirring up the mud/sand bottom causing a false reading. Regardless, we made it to the deep water hole and anchored in 3m of water. High tide tomorrow morning is just after 9:00am so we will have plenty of water to get out.
End Loc: Gulnare Inlet, Whitsunday Island (20o 17.59'S, 148o 57.35'E)
Distance run: 18nm (cumulative: 867nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 42 min (cumulative: 96 hr 17 min)