28th June Hunter Island to Curlew Island 32nm

The yachts are not in the picture as we have to anchor a long way out because it is shallow. I woke in the morning and saw a coral head about 5 meters from the yacht. We were very lucky not to hit that during the night. The tide kept us away from it but if the wind came from the other direction it could have been a different story. When we arrived the previous day it was high tide and the tide rises and falls up to 5 meters. In the morning it was low tide. I must remember the location of the coral head for future reference. At first light I did a bit of fishing but the tide was too strong however when it became slack water we caught a nice spangled emperor for lunch. Actually Graham pulled it in.

At 9am it was time to make a move to head to Curlew Island. The tide was on its way in and this was supposed to give us a push north and an easy run for the 32nm required distance. The wind was blowing 10 to 12 knots and it was in the right direction to fly the spinnaker. We launched the spinnaker and it gave us good speed however the tide was taking us sideways back into the coast. By 1pm the wind died and we had to drop the spinnaker and motor sail the rest of the way.

 Billabong sailing with spinnaker - photo courtesy of crew of Boomeroo

Spinnaker poled out.

We learnt something about the tide. Mackay has the biggest range of tides on the East Coast. The saying goes - south of Mackay the tide floods north and ebbs south and north of Mackay the tide floods south and ebbs north. That is not quite true. It happens south of Mackay at the latitude between Hunter Island and Curlew Island.

The tide gave us no forward movement – just pushed us sideways. It was great to get the spinnaker up. I bought it many years ago and have only flown it 6 times. So far that’s $700 a time!!! Certainly has not saved me that much in fuel so would have to rethink my decision to get one again in future if I have my time over again.

We arrived into Curlew Island at 3.30pm and had a swim. There was another Bavaria and a cruising yacht anchored. That made 3 out of 4 yachts Bavaria’s. Goes to show they are well sought after as cruising yachts.

This was to be our last night at sea for a while as we will be going into Mackay tomorrow. This was cause for celebration. Unfortunately it was a bit too much indulgence and I woke feeling a bit worse for wear.