Start Loc: Gladstone Marina (23o 49.96'S, 151o 44.46'E)
Narrative: We spent yesterday relaxing; we read, caught up on some sleep and played in the park. The marina office was open so we were able to fix up our bill and get a key to the facilities. We then went for a walk to get some bread and milk, but all the shops were closed. Even three service stations were closed!
We wanted to get an early start today for two reasons; the winds were forecast to be weaker early, and I wanted to get a few hours assistance from the outgoing tide to help us get out of the Gladstone pilotage area. To that end, I filled the water tanks and did as much as I could last night. I then got up at 4:00am this morning, had a bowl of cereal, did some final boat preparation, made a couple of brews and woke up Heather. We cast off at 4:55am, motored out of the marina and notified Gladstone Harbour Control of our intentions.
The wind was around 10kts and the seas were reasonably flat, so it was quite comfortable. We put out full head sail and sailed the last couple of miles past the loading docks to the main channel. When we reached the channel I altered course to starboard slightly, we raised full main sail, and sailed close hauled on a heading of 120 degrees magnetic, paralleling the channel. The wind was still 10kts from 160 degrees.
After a few miles, once we were past Facing Island, the wind had increased to around 15kts and moved slightly more east, so we put two reefs in the main but kept full head sail. As we approached Jenny Lind Bank it had increased again to around 20kts and swung slightly more east again, so we furled the head sail to 100%. A few miles past Jenny Lind Banks we informed Gladstone Harbour that we were leaving the pilotage area.
As the wind picked up, so did the waves. Throughout the sail the wind continued to gradually swing east. By the time we were due to tack south to sail in towards Clews Point the wind was blowing 20kts from 120 degrees and we were close hauled on 080 degrees. Our GPS track on the plotter had a nice steady curve on it! We were just over 5nm off Clews Point when we tacked south, and we dropped sail just under one mile out. We were approaching the Clews Point leads and the first starboard lateral mark at 11:30am.
We had 1.4m of tide as we entered the channel into Pancake Creek and the least depth we had on the sounder was 3.4m, so we had plenty of water on an flood tide. We had three unsuccessful attempts at anchoring off the beach but were hampered by wind and tide working against each other. We figure that when we reversed to bed the anchor in we were just pulling it sideways so it couldn't grip. We moved further upstream and away from the beach closer to the sandbank and tried there. Our fourth attempt was successful so after 25 minutes and four failed attempts, we were finally anchored at 12:20pm.
We all relaxed again this afternoon, reading and snoozing. We were thinking of staying here tomorrow and seeing if we could get a tour of the Bustard Head Lighthouse (the caretaker was not around last time we were here), but this afternoon's forecast said SE winds at 15-20kts tomorrow and changing E/SE for Wednesday and Thursday. A SE wind will allow us to easily sail to Lady Musgrave Island, whereas if we wait and it becomes too easterly we will have problems. The end result is we will head off reasonably early tomorrow and sail to Lady Musgrave, with the plan being to be anchored inside the coral lagoon by 3:00pm.
End Loc: Pancake Creek (24o 01.97'S, 151o 14.62'E)
Distance run: 37nm (cumulative: 2837nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 54 min (cumulative: 113 hr, 22 min)