Brampton Island

Sunday 25^th June 2017

It is pretty still this morning as we motor out of Mackay marina at around 10 am, headed for Brampton Island. It is only a little over 20 nm, so should take us around 3.5 hours, hopefully sailing most of the way if the wind comes in as forecast.

Leaving Mackay Harbour behind, Kite Runner just behind us

There was not enough breeze to sail for the first 45 mins but eventually we could carry a code zero and were moving along at around 5 knots in ,10 knots of breeze at around 120-150 degrees apparent.

There is just enough wind to fill the code zero

It is a lovely sunny day, the seas are relatively flat, and the scenery makes it an enjoyable trip.

As we approached Brampton I was becoming increasingly concerned about a groaning noise coming from the rigging up forward, so decided to investigate. It turned out to be the result of the disintegration of one side of the spinnaker halyard block (which holds up the code zero) and the halyard was rubbing away on what was left of the side of the block. Eventually it would have worn through the rope. So in came the sail and I let pressure off the halyard until we could get it down when we anchored. Fortunately we were nearly there.

Brampton Island ahead

There was only one other boat anchored at Brampton when we arrived, a catamaran, but another cat and an American Flagged yacht arrived later in the afternoon. The Americans anchored well out, even further than us.

Once settled we pulled down the code zero and put it back in its bag and stowed below. It won't be going up again until I can get a replacement block. I will ring the chandlery at Airlie Beach and get him to order one for me. Hopefully it will be there on Friday when we hope to go into the marina there.

Brampton is a very pretty anchorage, and the tide really goes out a long way.  To get onto the beach and near the now closed resort, you really need to do it at high tide. It was around halfway through the runout tide when we arrived.

Nice peaceful anchorage with the old resort in the background

We had Wendy and Phil from Kite Runner over for a roast dinner tonight, which was a great night and we will now have a good supply of cold meat for the next few days.

Sunset over the Sir James Smith Group of Islands just North of us