It's getting cold - must be time to head North

Saturday, 2 June 2012 - Raby Bay to Mooloolaba

Our planned departure was put back a day due to a big swell and a few unfinished jobs. We left at 0930 in a light Southerly with my Mum and Josh there to wave us off again.  

The spinnaker went up early and all was looking rosy. We dropped the kite when the breeze went East and rain squalls came through.

The excitement really began in the Spitfire Channel however when Warren called me over and calmly asked me to get the spinnaker halyard as the leeward side stay had come undone.

For those readers who are not sailors, this is a fairly serious occurrence and often results in the mast falling down. Not something you want to happen on Day 1 of a 6 month cruise (or any day for that matter). Warren was holding all the bits (the turnbuckle had been saved by the HF radio aerial which was zip tied to it) and managed to get it back together in the 2m seas. Just to make it interesting a ship was also coming out the channel behind us.

We left the spinnaker halyard in place while we tried to work out what had happened. It seems the lock nuts were not tight and the flogging of the sidestay in the sloppy seas had caused it to undo.

We anchored on Mooloolaba for the night after 61 nm and reflected on what might have been. My first thought was if we were going to be the first Seawind to lose a mast!

Forecast was not good for Sunday so we decided to stay in Mooloolaba - recheck the rig and fix a few other small problems.

Monday, 4 June 2012 - Wide Bay Bar

A moderate SW breeze gave us a good run up and across the Bar in good conditions. We sighted our first whale just south of Double Island Point.









We anchored in Garry's with 20 other yachts and watched the partial eclipse of the moon.










Tuesday, 5 June 2012 - Fraser Island to Burnett River
We thought the SW - W forecast would be good for the leg to Bundaberg. We were wrong. The W wind and ebb tide created steep seas that killed any momentum we developed. We put in 2 reefs off Big Woody Island as the breeze got up over 20 knots however quickly went back to one to try to punch through the seas. We eventually tacked in towards Burrum Heads to get out of the seas. Late in the day the breeze went SW and we finally anchored in the Burnett River about 2030 after 81nm mostly to windward. That meets our Louisiades rally requirement of 50nm to windward!

Wednesday, 6 June 2012 - Burnett River to Pancake Creek
Up before dawn again for a very pleasant sail - close reaching most of the way with a spinnaker run from Round Hill to Clews Point. The weather has been very unpredictable with strong winds predicted due to a low off the coast. Great, we finally get to sleep in tomorrow.

Thursday, 7 June 2012 - Pancake Creek to Cape Capricorn

We awoke to an updated forecast of 15 - 20 knot SE winds so decided to keep going North while the going was good. A spinnaker run all the way to Cape Capricorn where we anchored next to the Seawind 1160 Nimrod. Sundowners with Georgia and David where we were entertained with video clips David has put together of their travels. http://vimeo.com/23120681 

My footage is still waiting for me to acquire the necessary editing skills. I'll add that to learning Joomla (for making web pages) and juggling (for entertaining the kids of the Louisiades and filling in time on long passages). So far, I have discovered it is hard to juggle while the boat is moving around. I figure if I can juggle on the boat then it should be a cinch on stable ground. Watch out for the video!


Friday, 8 June 2012 - Cape Capricorn to Great Keppel Island

An easy 24 nm to Second Beach on Great Keppel Island. Sundowners with Nimrod and Maurice and Karen from Folie a Deux (the Chamberlain 14 at right). Forecast is for strong winds so we may be exploring GKI for the next few days.

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