We awoke to a sunny morning with around 10 knot SE breeze. Time to leave Mackay and head off to the Whitsundays. Our destination is Goldsmith Island, a sail of around 30 nm so no need to for an early start. Cooinda needed fuel, so they headed off to the fuel wharf about 8.45am and we headed out around 20 mins later, and waited in the outer harbour until they had everything sorted.
We left the harbour at around 9.30am, and after getting out into clear water, raised the mainsail and headed for Goldsmith. We had a steady 10-12 knot SE breeze and we sailed nearly all of the way, with a few gybes, as like always, the wind was mostly directly behind us.
We had our anchor down by 3 pm, dinghies in the water and went ashore to explore the island. Another yacht ( Black & Tan from Melbourne) which left the Mackay marina around the same time as us, also anchored in the same bay. They also went ashore and we had a good chat on the beach and they joined us for drinks on Cooinda later.
They even had a public toilet
We spent an hour or so having a look around on the shore before returning to our boats, and then later meeting up for drinks on Cooinda.
Finding an ideal spot for the dinghy at low tide was a challenge
By the time we got back to the boat a bit of swell was developing and the prospect of a good nights sleep diminished. As it turned out, it only got worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment