Start Loc: Pancake Creek (24o 01.97'S, 151o 14.62'E)
Narrative: We got our reasonably early start this morning, raising the anchor at 7:06am and motoring out of the creek. The wind was SE at around 10kts but I was expecting stronger once it was not affected by the land, so we set 110% head sail and one reef in the main and set a course to take us between Middle and Outer Rocks off Bustard Head. Just after clearing the rocks the wind was over 15kts. We furled the head sail to 100% and put the second reef in the main, and the wind was soon at 20kts.
With the wind from around 160 degrees and our heading of 080 degrees, we sailed nicely on a close reach. For the first couple of hours we made 7-7.5kts over ground. The wind slowly swung and finally settled on around 120 degrees, so we were close hauled but still sailing in the direction we wanted. We remained close hauled for the rest of the trip. The wind strength varied between 10kts and 20kts, so our speed over ground varied between 3.5kts and 6.5kts. We averaged just under 6kts for the trip. The seas were around 2.5m on top of a 1.5m swell, so it was a bit rough.
Due to our change of plans we are probably short a couple of dinners. We have plenty of packet and tinned food to pull several meals together, but I decided I would try to catch a fish. We haven't towed a lure for a while due to the rough conditions we have had. Being a sail boat and not a fishing boat, it can be difficult to land any fish we may catch. Despite Heather's protests I put two lures out the back. We had a strike and hook up on our cheap but successful lure on the 60lb line. With one hand on the helm I used the other to slow the reel down as it ran out, but it snapped pretty quickly. I didn't get the chance to luff up and we were sailing at 6kts through the water, so there was a lot of strain on the line. Fortunately it snapped down near the trace so while I lost the fish and lure, I kept most of the line. A couple of hours later we had a hook up on the other lure on the 40lb line. This time we managed to luff up and bleed boat speed. I got a fair amount of line back on the reel and Heather and the kids were starting to furl the head sail when the fish swam under the boat and snapped the line on the keel. With two fish and two lures gone, me wondering what got away, and Heather doing her best not to say, "I told you it was stupid idea!", we sailed on to Lady Musgrave. Overall though it was a great sail, and the fishing was worth a shot.
We had just about lost sight of the highest peaks of the mainland and were 8nm from Lady Musgrave, when we could start to make out the island on the horizon; but only when we were on the crest of a wave. At 4nm we started to be able to see the beach. Once we came in on the north side of the island we were protected from the waves but still had the wind, so we sailed very comfortably along the northern face of the island and coral to the entrance to the lagoon. We dropped sail at 2:15pm and motored through the entrance into the lagoon. The entrance is deep; we had over 8m of water with 2.5m of tide. Heather and Cameron were at the bow on lookout as we motored towards the island to anchor. They saw a small coral bommie, then realised it was a large Green Turtle as it swam away. We put a marker buoy and recovery rope on the anchor just in case, and were anchored by 2:55pm.
Cameron and I went ashore for a look around and spoke to Jim from Queensland Turtle Research. He said it was a slow season, but we decided that with high tide at 5:04am tomorrow we would get up early to see if we would be lucky enough to see some turtles nesting.
End Loc: Lady Musgrave Island (23o 54.22'S, 152o 24.04'E)
Distance run: 41nm (cumulative: 2878nm)
Engine hours: 1 hr, 24 min (cumulative: 114 hr, 46 min)