Start Loc: Island Head Creek (22o 25.29'S, 150o 39.08'E)
Narrative: Yesterday we remained anchored at Island Head Creek as we had some time to kill. We were waiting for the tide to come off springs a bit before going into Shoalwater Bay. We didn’t run the engine at all yesterday, so no hours added to the metre.
We sailed today from Island head Creek into Shoalwater Bay. We had to get the tides right; high tide at Island Head Creek was at 10:05am (3.9m) and I wanted at least a half tide to get out with plenty of water, and high tide just inside Shoalwater Bay (Marquis Island) was at 10:20am (5.7m) and I wanted to get through Strong Tide Passage before high tide. So I got up at 6:00am, had breakfast, made a brew for Heather and me, and woke Heather up. We were under way just after 7:00am. It took us just over an hour to motor the 6nm out of the creek and then we turned north-west for the head of Strong Tide Passage (which runs between the mainland and Townshend Island into Shoalwater Bay). We had a SE wind at about 15kts, so we ran under full head sail at about 4kts, but with about 2kts favourable tide.
It was about 9:20am when we entered the passage, so it was near the end of the flood tide. At the peak of a spring flood tide, this passage can flow at up to 6kts, but we only had about 1.5kts with us. There were isolated showers around, and the leading edge of one got us as we came to the end of the passage, but it was not even really enough to wash all the salt off the sails.
We sailed past Marquis Island and up Canoe Passage where we dropped anchor at about 12:20pm and had lunch. This was our planned anchorage for the night. It was fairly calm but still exposed to the wind, so we decided to move around to Cape Townshend on the north-west corner of Townshend Island. During lunch, a NOTMAR came over the VHF telling us that as of 0001h there was a danger area in place over Strong Tide Passage. I assume the RAAF have some bombing runs planned and we sailed straight through the danger area. The RAAF I know are always late, so they probably won’t start bombing for a couple of days. It was the first we have heard of the NOTMAR over the radio. I assume when we get telephone/internet access again we will get the NOTMAR as they are automatically emailed to us.
We pushed off after lunch, back down Canoe Passage. We then ran wing on wing north-west past the bottom of Leicester Island, doing 5.5kts through the water in 18kts breeze. With the 4kt tidal assistance, we were doing an amazing 9.5kts over ground. We weaved our way through the small islands and rock obstructions up the west coast of Leicester Island, and then motored east into wind for the last 2nm to Cape Townshend. We dropped anchor at 3:40pm. It was a good sailing day – good (albeit variable) conditions, mainly running and broad reach, plenty of sail changes – good fun.
We will stay here for a bit tomorrow morning, and then may move across to Collins Island in the Cannibal Group. Either way, the plan is to spend Tuesday night in Thirsty Sound having got some provisions from the Plum Tree Store, and then head north-east to the Duke Islands on Wednesday morning. It will then be on to the Percy Islands (in particular Middle Percy) before heading for Mackay.
End Loc: Cape Townshend (22o 12.88'S, 150o 28.14'E)
Distance run: 48 nm (cumulative: 585nm)
Engine hours: 2 hr, 48 min (cumulative: 63 hr 26 min)