Start Loc: Brammo Bay, Dunk Island (17o 56.03'S, 146o 08.20'E)
Narrative: I had another heavy something snap my fishing line this morning. Whatever it was took a prawn I had on my light rod (12lb line) and ran. It went out one side of the boat and then switched back before heading around the bow. Before I was able to get up there it snapped me off on the anchor chain. We have certainly lost more than we have caught!
We left Dunk Island at 10:12am in a good E wind at 10-15kts. Our northerly course had us on generally a beam reach, and with one reef in the main and head sail furled to 110% we made 5-6kts through the water and 6-7kts over ground. Seas were about a metre and it was very pleasant sailing.
At 12:50pm we anchored between Kent and Jessie Islands (North Barnard Islands). We had lunch and then while the kids sorted out their swimming gear I jumped in and gave the boat a scrub around the waterline to clean off some of the muck that has accumulated over the last six weeks or so. I scrubbed the rudder and prop clean not long ago and plan to do the rest of the hull and the keel, probably in four goes, over the next couple of weeks.
We were anchored in 4m of beautiful clear water (26 degrees water temp), and I could easily see the anchor chain was not wrapped around any rocks. When the kids joined me we swam to Jessie Island and had a quick look at the beach and a cave we saw, before heading back to the boat.
This is a day anchorage only, or dead calm weather, so it was too rough to stay the night. We raised the anchor 3:00pm and headed for Mourilyan Harbour. The wind had changed to SE and dropped to less than 10kts. We tried just head sail but the apparent wind strength was too low, so we motored up to Mourilyan, anchoring at 4:10pm. It is a no frills anchorage being mainly a commercial harbour (sugar loading facilities), but it is calm.
End Loc: Mourilyan Harbour (17o 36.18'S, 146o 07.36'E)
Distance run: 23nm (cumulative: 1543nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 28 min (cumulative: 189 hr 54 min)