Start Loc: Lady Elliot Island (24o 06.62'S, 152o 42.56'E)
Narrative: The water and coral surrounding Lady Elliot Island was beautiful. The water was spectacularly clear and the visibility was amazing. The snorkelling and scuba diving is clearly a big plus to Lady Elliot. As far as the anchorage goes, we have had much better. The island's fringing reef is not large and hence a swell rolls around the island. We were regularly beam on to the swell which made things a little uncomfortable at times. We also had to anchor in 15-18m of water, which means a lot of chain. The QLD government has established the standard reef protection buoys and you can't anchor inside them; no problems with that. What made it difficult was the 'private' mooring buoys the resort has established outside the reef protection buoys. They are absolutely not for public use, but nor were they used by the resort while we were there. These moorings are spread through the best spot to anchor, so we ended up dropping anchor where it suited us and and our swing room meant they couldn't have used two of their four moorings even if they wanted to. We were the only boat there and the resort personnel were surly towards us. To be fair, I am talking specifically of the dive and snorkelling boat operators. Throughout Friday and Saturday they were gradually passing closer and closer to us as they drove past, until they were unnecessarily passing within 10m of us and causing further rocking. The signs on the island also tell boaties they have landed on a private resort island, not to touch a thing and to report to reception. We were clearly unwelcome and it appeared the boat operators had been instructed to ensure we felt that way. It was very disappointing.
Anyway, we spent Saturday snorkelling, we went for a walk around the island and rested in the afternoon. We had decided we would leave by 10:00pm and sail through the night to Urangan. I had a snooze before dinner while the kids prepared the jack stays, harnesses and straps. We read after dinner and then got under way.
We raised the anchor at 9:40pm on Saturday night and motored down the west side of the island. The winds were initially E at 10-15kts. We set sail with two reefs in the main and 110% head sail. I wanted a course made good of 162 degrees magnetic. We were early in a flood tide so to maintain the course over ground we initially steered 155 degrees on the compass, but it gradually became 145 degrees as the tide got stronger. The wind strengthened to 20kts and our close reach had us making 6.5-7.5kts over ground.
The kids went to bed and Heather got some rest as well. Before midnight the wind had swung to NE and was steady on 20kts, so we were sailing on a beam reach making 6.5kts. After a couple of hours the wind dropped off to around 8kts, still NE-ish, and we were sailing on a close to beam reach. Our speed over ground was as low as 3.5kts for a period, but was generally 5-6kts.
I woke Heather up at 3:00am and she took over. During her watch the winds dropped a little more and speed dropped off. At about 5:30am we started motor sailing to assist the meagre winds.
The sun rose a little after 5:00am and I took over again at around 6:00am. Both the kids piked on doing a watch this time. The wind changed to NNE and sat in the 5-10kts range. Apparent wind was even less and I continued to motor sail with full canvas. When the wind reached N I put the head sail away and motor sailed with just the main. The wind remained low and the motor remained our main means of propulsion. We eventually dropped the main and motored into marina at 10:20am, and we were berthed by 10:27am.
It was a good night sail, and we averaged just under 6kts over ground. After washing all the salt off the boat, we had breakfast at a local cafe and rested.
End Loc: Urangan (25o 17.63'S, 152o 54.71'E)
Distance run: 75nm (cumulative: 2977nm)
Engine hours: 6 hr, 00 min (cumulative: 126 hr, 32 min)