We are now feeling a sense of ‘achievement’!
We are tied up at Hamilton Island, the Whitsunday’s. We made it!
1,704 Nautical miles. Lakes Entrance to Hamilton Island. Departed May 23rd July. Arrived 27th July.
3 years building our Bossa Nova (not to mention the many years of convincing me to take on the building project), 18 months of planning our trip north and here we are. A “moment” … as our dear friend Steve would say!
After we dropped our son Tim off at Yeppoon, we collected our friends Lynn and Greg for our passage north to the Whitsunday’s. As we have mentioned many times, it’s all about the weather. So after a few blowy but sunny days around Great Keppel with Tim, we timed the weather perfectly and set sail.
So we thought!
My first bout of sea sickness! Very messy seas, rain and wind. Not a great first day for our new crew but they handled it well. We rocked and rolled our way to Port Clinton, a calm protected anchorage where we unexpectedly met up with our Paynesville friends on their Barcolana. Over a wine or two (yes, my sea sickness had subsided), we exchanged anchorage info and fishing stories.
We have sailed and motored over the last week or so. Glassy waters and brisk reaching sails through turquoise waters and deep blue seas. We stopped at the very well known Middle Percy Island where we left our Bossa Nova momento (let’s hope we can find it the next time we visit as we couldn’t find On The Prowl’s). Island Head Creek, Digby Island and Scawfell Island were all lovely anchorages. Particularly Scawfell. We arrived in time for a swim in calm clear turquoise waters, surrounded by high scraggy rock and treed lined hills. Beautiful!
No phone reception through these waters. Unfortunately we missed Abbey’s birthday. Sorry Abbey! We did however manage to keep in touch with the Marine Rescue base along this remote stretch of coast, logging on and off when leaving and arriving at our destinations. The service through NSW and Qld waters has been fantastic. When we were unable to log off at Scawfell Island due to the hills interfering with reception, unbeknowns to us the police were informed. All sorted the next day when we logged on again. Great service!
