Start Loc: Rosslyn Bay (23o 09.75'S, 150o 47.26'E)
Narrative: We borrowed the marina's courtesy car yesterday to do the groceries. This is the only marina we have come across that have such a car. The next closest is Mackay who have a car you can rent. A courtesy car makes it very easy to get the groceries done.
We also changed our plan slightly in that we decided today we would head for Great Keppel Island and see how the weather was looking for the next few days, rather than try to sail the 32nm to Cape Capricorn, straight into wind. That decided, we were in no great rush to leave and it was just before 10:00am that we moved from our berth around to the fuel wharf to fill up.
Refuelled: 81.48L @ 153.0c/L = $124.66
Economy since 16 Dec: 81.48L for 30 hr 39 min = 2.66L/hr
Economy overall: 603.04L for 298 hr 01 min = 2.02L/hr
As expected, this was our least economical period so far and took our economy ofr the trip over 2L per hour. The trip from Mackay to Curlew Island chewed a lot of fuel beating into wind and waves.
We left the fuel wharf at 10:21am and motored out of the marina. The bearing to Cape Capricorn was 120 degrees magnetic, and that is exactly where the wind was blowing from, so we were glad we decided to head to Great Keppel. The wind was 15-20kts and we sailed close hauled with a reef in the main and the head sail at 110%. It was an uneventful trip and we anchored on the north side of Great Keppel Island at 12:47pm.
After lunch we had a relaxing afternoon where we all lazed around and read. Cameron and I took the dinghy ashore for a bit and played on the beach, and Cam took the dinghy for a spin when we got back, but that was as active as we got. It was very pleasant.
We checked the latest forecasts again this evening and it is not looking good. The plan was to head out to Heron Island (55nm from Great Keppel) and then travel SE through the Capricorn and Bunker groups of islands, including Lady Musgrave. Unfortunately, the forecast for the next few days is SE winds at 20-30kts. It will be hard to get there in the first instance and probably not real comfortable in the second.
Lady Musgrave is the island/lagoon that we really want to visit, so we have decided we will sail south from here (which we should be able to do in SE winds) to the north west corner of Curtis Island tomorrow, pass through The Narrows between Curtis Island and the mainland on Saturday, then on to Pancake Creek, and from there we will sail E to Lady Musgrave Island. We will basically stay inshore during the strong winds and hopefully they will settle down a bit over the few days.
End Loc: Great Keppel Island (23o 09.81'S, 150o 57.30'E)
Distance run: 12nm (cumulative: 2745nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 18 min (cumulative: 103 hr, 52 min)