Start Loc: Cairns (16o 55.15'S, 145o 46.87'E)
Narrative: Well, we had a fruitful few days in Cairns. The first thing I did on Wednesday was go and pick up a hire car. With a lot of running around to do and a reasonable amount of rain, it proved to be well worthwhile. We dropped the freezer off at an authorised Waeco repairer. They tested it concluding there did not appear to be anything wrong, and suggested it must be a power supply problem. I later checked all the electrics and found the fuse had blown. I replaced the fuse and everything worked fine, but that does not explain the gradual decline in performance of the freezer. We will see how it goes. We also dropped the main sail off at a sail maker who cut the head off and repaired it for us. He had a general look at the condition of the sail and reckoned it has about two years left in it. He did a great job, quickly, and at a very reasonable price. We would be happy to recommend him. We also took the broken door spring to a few people. We ended up at a spring place who said they could make a new one for us. We were looking at over $100 for a new door handle and mechanism (as the door is so thin), and we couldn't find one that fitted without chiseling bits of the door here and there, so $30 for three new springs (two spares) we again thought was a reasonably priced solution. After a day running around, we treated ourselves to dinner out.
We spent all day Thursday shopping. We knocked over the large majority of our Christmas shopping and finished the day with groceries. The kids were great so while I put all the groceries away, Heather took the kids to the Lagoon for the official turning on of the Cairns Council Christmas tree lights. Apparently it sounds a lot better than it was and the kids came back unimpressed! After dinner, we finished a long day with the whole family sitting around the table in the saloon wrapping presents.
We started Friday morning early with picking up the springs for the door handle. I then dropped Heather and Haydee at the post office where they sent off all our presents, while Cameron and I took some stuff back to the boat and returned the hire car. After we were back at the boat, we had our third science lesson for the trip. This one was touched on states of matter, using the sublimation (solid to gas) of dry ice as a case study. The kids thought the experiments were great, and the class finished with a fizzy cordial drink and home made ice-cream. Heather had a rest in the afternoon while I took the kids to the Lagoon, and then we all put the main sail and boom bag back on when the day had cooled down a bit.
It was a hectic few days, but we achieved a lot.
This morning, we cast off at 10:40am and motored out of the marina and out of Cairns. Once we had deep enough water on the east side of the channel, we turned east and motored into wind. Fortunately, as we passed False Cape, the land stopped affecting the wind as much and it settled as a 10kt SE. We were able to sail close hauled past Cape Grafton, but then had to continue east until we could tack south towards Fitzroy Island. The wind stayed around 10kts and we maintained 5-6kts, sailing close hauled. We were anchored in Welcome Bay just off the resort by 2:20pm. I told the kids they had to tidy their cabins, which Cam did quickly so we went for a snorkel. Haydee was a bit slower, so she got a quick swim before evening routine.
We will do a reasonably long leg tomorrow; about 40nm down to Mourilyan Harbour. The forecast is for E/SE winds at 10-15kts, so hopefully it will be more east than SE, but I suspect it will be a long day. The winds are due to change N/NE on Monday, so it should be easier sailing for a few days while the low trough passes over. There should be another trough close behind, so all going well we will have favourable winds for a week or so.
End Loc: Fitzroy Island (16o 55.78'S, 145o 59.29'E)
Distance run: 20nm (cumulative: 2036nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 30 min (cumulative: 34 hr, 45 min)