Start Loc: Cid Harbour, Whitsunday Island (20o 15.89'S, 148o 56.51'E)
Narrative: We left Cid Harbour well after all the charter boats at 10:25am. We unfurled full head sail and sailed most of the 2.5nm around to the west side of Cid Island, and dropped anchor in Homestead Bay just after 11:00am. We took the dinghy ashore and had a quick look around, before Haydee and I left Cameron and Heather on the beach while we went fishing just off Hill Rock. I caught a scarlet-breasted maori wrasse but it was too small so it went back, and a small (baby) cod of some sort. Haydee caught a rock, but I caught two of them as well. Heather and Cameron told us over the UHF that they were bored and hungry, so we picked them up and had lunch back at the boat.
We left Homestead Bay at 2:25pm and headed for Hook Passage. The forecast winds were E/SE at 10-15kts, but we were sailing close hauled into ENE winds closer to 20kts. The ebb tide in our favour gave us 2kts on top of the 5kts we were making through the water, so we made good time. Given the winds were largely E and sometimes a bit north, we were having second thoughts on Cateran Bay as an overnight anchorage as it can get a good swell in E winds. 1.5nm past the passage we counted eight boats in Cateran Bay and another moving in, so it was fairly crowded too. That was the clincher and we opted to turn back and head for Macona Inlet on the southern side of Hook Island. There were three boats at anchor as we came in and joined them just after 5:00pm.
We will see how the weather is tomorrow, but my plan is to head through Hook Passage, past Border Island, and do some fishing around Deloraine Island. I then plan to move back to Border Island to overnight in Cateran Bay.
End Loc: Macona Inlet, Hook Island (20o 09.37'S, 148o 55.87'E)
Distance run: 17nm (cumulative: 1111nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 24 min (cumulative: 141 hr 00 min)