Start Loc: Maureen's Cove, Hook Island (20o 04.09'S, 148o 56.23'E)
Narrative: We decided that with forecast SE winds of up to 25kts that Daydream Island and Whitehaven Beach would both be too exposed and make for rather uncomfortable nights. The forecast for tomorrow is for wind up to 30kts, and then 20-25kts again on Saturday. So we decided that we would cross Daydream and Whitehaven off our "do again" list and head for the known good shelter of Cid Harbour tonight followed by Hamilton Island Marina tomorrow night, and then continue south through the southern Whitsundays to Mackay.
We raised the anchor at 9:58am and motored out of Maureen's Cove. As we left the cove a charter boat rounded the corner and headed for the mooring we had just dropped. Minutes later a commercial dive boat raced past us into the cove and got to the mooring just before the charter boat. It's a public mooring and was bloody rude of the dive boat.
We had just the main sail up knowing the wind would be all over the shop as we passed between Hook and Hayman Islands, and we motored to assist. One of the things we had learned was that the wind tended to be very flukey down the west side of Hook Island so we headed a coupe of miles off the island, but it wasn't much better. We brought the head sail out as well and finally cleared Hook Island, which gave us reasonably clean winds SE at around 15kts. We sailed south close hauled, tacked around Cid Island, then dropped sail and motored into the Harbour. We dropped anchor in the south of Sawmill Bay at 1:30pm.
After a late lunch we had a restful afternoon. The kids swam while Heather and I read. It was very relaxing.
End Loc: Sawmill Bay, Cid Harbour (20o 15.90'S, 148o 56.49'E)
Distance run: 19nm (cumulative: 2446nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 21 min (cumulative: 70 hr, 35 min)