Continuing south

Saturday 7 August, Orpheus Island to Magnetic Island

We decided to go ashore and look for the ruins of an old sheperd's cottage behind the beach and walk to the top of the ridge which has views over the coast to the east.

The walk is marked by a trail of ribbons tied to trees and is fairly easy to follow. It does pass through quite thick grass towards the end that had us worried about encountering more snakes. The view from the top was again worth the effort.


After the walk we headed off in an ESE breeze so we tacked in close to the islands (Fantome and Great Palm) to keep out of the swell as much as possible. This resulted in our first mackeral of the trip which was large enough to keep. We enjoyed it for dinner in Horseshoe Bay after arriving at 7pm after 52nm on the wind. It tasted great!

Sunday 8 August, Magnetic Island to Townsville

We cut short our visit to Magnetic Island as the forecast is for ENE breezes over the next few days which would help our passage south. We headed to the Breakwater marina for a pitstop for fuel, water and supplies. The scene at the fuel jetty was interesting.

Monday 9 August, Townsville to Cape Upstart

We headed off at 0700 for what was to be our longest day of the trip so far - 83nm. The breeze started in the SE before dying and then finally coming in from the ENE. This gave us a nice reach to finish the day anchoring at 9pm. Highlight was sighting 2 whales inside Cape Bowling Green. We had the music blasting as we reached at 8knots in the dark, hoping the whales would keep out of our way!

Tuesday 10 August, Cape Upstart to Bowen

The NE breeze was again light so we motor sailed much of the day to anchor in Queen's Bay, on the northern side of Bowen. A strong SW change was predicted and this anchorage proved to be well protected when the change came through at 11pm. We spent Wednesday here as well. Glorious sunset! Print this post