Return to Airlie to sit out the next Strong Southerly

Monday 27^th July 2015

We had a great nights sleep at Palm Bay, dead calm, and after the sun went down the temperature dropped to a cool and comfortable sleeping temperature.

Whilst there was a lot of  condensation in the morning, a light breeze seemed to keep the fog off the water, but there was a heavy haze over the hilltops. It was a bit like sitting in the glacial sounds in the South Island of NZ.  Not surprisingly, the waterway we are moored in is called Long Island Sound.

After a patient wait for the wind to arrive, we finally decide to head out at around 10.30am for a very slow sail back to Airlie, in around 5 knots of breeze behind us, plus about a knot of favourable current. We are in no hurry, as it is low tide at around 1.30 pm, and there will be not enough water in the berths at Airlie to go in until 3 pm or later.

Wilparina leaving Palm Bay

There was plenty of tactical work going on on both boats to try to get the most out of the low and variable breeze. Smithy ended up poling out his headwall whilst we gybed our way home.

Wilparina with poled out headsail 

Mica 

When we eventually got to the Pioneer point we could see a cruise ship had anchored off Airlie Beach, and we had our first whale sighting of the trip, with two (maybe 3) whales performing off the NW side of North Molle Island.

Finally we saw some whales

Cruise ship came into view as we neared the point

I dragged a fishing lure all the way from Long Island with no luck. Nor did fishing with bait in Palm Bay yield anything.

It was too early to go into the marina, so we sailed out around the cruise ship, which turned out to be the Pacific Dawn, and then eventually had a good sail back into Abell Point on a 10 knot breeze and a beam reach.

The Pacific Dawn anchored off Airlie Beach

After complaining about the shallowness of our previous berth on X arm, we have been allocated a berth on E arm for this stay.  The low depth alarm fired up pretty quickly as we entered the berth with 0.4 m under the keel, after about 1.5 hours of incoming tide. The berth is very squeezy, and our neighbour (a Bavaria 42 Cruiser), and ourselves fill it with very little space to spare.

Dinner tonight is a BBQ on Wilparina. More lamb chops very well cooked , with Smithy's secret marinade !