Start Loc: Brampton Island (20o 48.03'S, 149o 15.81'E)
Narrative: We raised anchor at 9:18am and motored away from our Brampton anchorage. We motored around Western Point to get clean wind on the south side of the island, before setting sail with two reefs and 100% head sail. The wind was, again, SE at 15-20kts, with seas around 2.2m; so it was another rough day as we beat into wind. We sailed close hauled on a southerly heading until we got to the shallows near the mainland, then tacked and sailed ENE towards Keswick Island so we could clear the eastern most point of the mainland.
I sailed further out than we needed to, to ensure we could sail straight into Mackay without any more tacks. The wind also changed a bit, so when we tacked back south we were almost sailing on a broad reach. That gave us a little extra speed and we made around 7kts over ground.
We sailed into Mackay Outer Harbour at 1:55pm and put the sails away. We then motored to the marina and were secure in our berth by 2:10pm. While Heather and the kids went to check in I gave the boat a good hose down, including washing all the saltwater from the last few days off the sails and ropes.
We will spend two nights in Mackay and restock. This will be our grocery shop to stock us up for Christmas day, so it will include a few special extras. I plan to get a reasonably early start on Wednesday for the 45nm trip to Curlew Island, as we will more than likely have to travel more than 45nm to get there!
End Loc: Mackay (21o 06.84'S, 149o 13.49'E)
Distance run: 28nm (cumulative: 2533nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 09 min (cumulative: 75 hr, 23 min)