EGsail2016: First half of Gabrielle's week

We met our next crew member, Gabrielle, a 4th year medical student and good friend of our neighbours, at mid-day. She has a little sailing experience and expressed a desire to come. So, having just completed her major 4th year exams, it seemed like the perfect way to wind down. After a quick introduction to Essex Girl we went round to the fuel dock, topped up the diesel and then headed out under sail in a light breeze, not quite sure of our final destination for that day. The wind deserted us as we rounded the top of North Molle Island so, as it was quite late, rather than head for Cid Harbour, we turned South and picked up a buoy at Bauer Bay on the northern side of South Molle. According to our pilot guide there is a resort here and one has to pay for the use of their buoys so we tried phoning but got no answer. There were three other boats on buoys and one at anchor. As were neared the bay it became quite obvious that the resort was deserted and that none of the boats on buoys had anyone aboard so we just picked up one of the empty buoys for the night. It's a pretty little bay and the weather was very calm so we had a peaceful night. Next day, after our swim and with very little wind, we mainly motored in lovey sunshine down towards Shaw Island for the night. On the way we stopped for lunch at Seaforth Island where there is a very pretty sandy beach and a small bay. We blew up the dingy and rowed ashore and walked along the beach. Then had a swim from the boat. On arrival at Shaw we swam, had a glorious sunset and a peaceful night. There was still not much wind in the morning and we motored against a 3 knot tide through the passage between Shaw and Lindeman. Eventually as we passed Pentecost Island we were able to unfurl the jib and start sailing. I hardly recognised Pentecost, as it is usually a very obvious land mark. But on that day its tall peak had its own little orographic cloud on top. We sailed on up to Solway passage at the southern end of Whitsunday Island, motored through the passage and, as you come through, the famous Whitehaven beach opens up in front of you. For once all the tides were with us! Gabrielle had never seen Whitehaven before and it lived up to all her expectations. We anchored off and rowed ashore. The beautiful white sand is quite different to anything I have encountered on any beach I have ever been on. We had lunch before hauling up the anchor. A light 7 knot Southerly breeze had come up so we got the spinnaker out and had a peaceful, leisurely sail, gybing a couple of times, past Esk Island to the entrance to Tongue bay. Since our last time here a couple of years ago they have added a lot more buoys so we picked one up. Actually, we picked three up! The first one appeared to be the best one left but then a boat moved from what appeared to be a better one. However a yacht was anchored much too close to the mooring and they were playing loud music so we moved to yet another! There were heaps of turtles around and then we spotted dugongs and we rowed over to get a closer look. Even if one does not get really close, it is still a very magical experience. We had a bad night as the light wind and the tide fought each other for determining the boat's direction and the buoy kept bumping the hull as the boat meandered around. Next morning we put the outboard onto the dingy and went to the beach from where there is the start of the Hill Inlet walk. It was half tide as we walked up to the look out. Once again it more than lived up to Gabrielle's expectation and John and I never tire of the beauty. In the lagoon there were lots of little baby sharks. We think that they may be Tawny sharks. Then back to the boat. A nice breeze had developed and we sailed off the buoy and had a good beat with two long tacks up to the passage between Hook and Whitsunday Islands. It was a lovely sail in 10-15 knots and Gabrielle at the helm, taking to it like a natural. The forecast was for 20-25 knot southerly winds for Saturday so we headed round into Cid Harbour. This is where we are now. Right on schedule at about 5am the wind got up and it is blowing hard. The forecast is for the wind to ease this afternoon so I think that we shall do the short sail round to Macona just for a change of scene and to position us a little nearer to tomorrow's destination, Cateran Bay. We had hoped that we might get ashore to climb Whitsunday peak while here, but the water is very choppy and would be a real test for our little outboard.

This is a bit unfair - we actually took it in turns!