Start Loc: Townsville (19o 15.16'S, 146o 49.43'E)
Narrative: We did the grocery shopping on Saturday morning, rested during the heat of the day, and took the kids to the water park at the Strand late in the afternoon. The fans were running all night overnight to keep the air circulating. It was stinking hot again on Sunday morning, so after doing some preparation to depart we went to the Tobruk Pool and we all cooled off. Once back at the boat, we had lunch and did our final preparation to depart.
We dropped the mooring lines at 1:52pm and motored out of the marina. We sailed NE across Cleveland Bay, close hauled into 15kt N winds. With two reefs in the main and the head sail reduced to 100%, we made around 6.5kts over ground. We sailed around Cape Cleveland, passed between Four Foot Rock and Salamander Reef, and settled on an easterly course towards Cape Bowling Green.
The winds remained N during this leg, but gradually weakened to around 10kts. Seas were about 1.8m off our port quarter, giving us enough roll to make the leg slightly uncomfortable. We sailed on a beam reach making 6.5-7kts over ground. The sun set at 6:42pm, and the light on Cape Bowling Green soon became visible. We stayed well clear of the sandbanks around the cape.
By 8:20pm we were clear of Cape Bowling Green and altered course 30 degrees to starboard to 120 degrees magnetic. The wind chose this time to swing to the NW, so we were virtually on a run. It was too close for the head sail, so we sailed under full main. The winds were still about 10kts but now that we were running, our speed over ground dropped to around 5kts. The wind would pick up to around 12kts and we would sail, then drop to around 5kts and we would motor. Our course saw us pass Cape Upstart almost 20nm to its north.
I handed over to Heather at about 1:30am and got a few hours shut eye. During this time both the kids did a half hour stint on watch, albeit with Heather still in the cockpit. At around 4:25am, the GPS decided it was time to wake up and wanted to know where it was, so it just started working again!
I took over again at 4:30am as we passed Abbott Point, plotted a fix on the paper chart, and altered course slightly to 130 degrees magnetic. The wind was now W at 10-15kts, so I set the sails and we made about 5.5kts over ground.
By 7:00am the winds were SW at 12kts with 1.2m seas, and we sailed on a beam reach making about 6.5kts over ground. The winds died to less than 5kts by 7:30am, so the sails went away and we motored the last short stint down to Gloucester Passage. We came into Breakfast Bay on the south end of Gloucester Island at around 8:10am, but it took a couple of attempts to get the anchor set so we were not happily anchored until 8:23am.
Throughout the passage we only saw one other yacht, a catamaran, which we surprisingly overtook and left behind on the leg from Cape Cleveland to Cape Bowling Green. As the sun set we were overtaken by a tug heading the same way as us and it was a couple of hours before his stern light disappeared over the horizon. Other than that it was all big ships. We saw a few in the shipping lane on the horizon to our north, had one pass about three miles north of us, and a small cruise ship overtook us about five miles to our north (we heard her leaving Townsville on the VHF, bound for Hamilton Island, so we knew to keep an eye out for her).
It was a long night, but we made some good miles. We are resting today and tonight at Breakfast Bay, and a final weather check will determine whether or not we head to Bait Reef tomorrow. If not, we will head to somewhere in the Whitsundays.
End Loc: Breakfast Bay, Gloucester Island (20o 03.19'S, 148o 27.67'E)
Distance run: 123nm (cumulative: 2371nm)
Engine hours: 8 hr, 17 min (cumulative: 64 hr, 02 min)