David & Rosie arrived in Airlie Beach Friday evening and we were soon off to dinner with Paul, Helen, Harry and Cathy from Carpe Diem. It was a fun dinner and everyone was excited in anticipation of our next major voyage. In the morning, we were going to start our 9 day, 460 nautical mile cruise north from Airlie Beach to Lizard Island.
The first leg of the voyage from Airlie Beach to Upstart Bay was going to be a long, 11 hour day. We didn’t want to arrive late and set the anchor in the dark, so we decided to leave just before dawn at 6:00am. We quietly slipped out of Abell Point Marina and made our way north as the dawn sky began to get lighter. We enjoyed light winds and flat seas.
During the day we had an opportunity to fly our spinnaker. The wind increased to 15-20 knots and we were comfortably doing 8-10 knots. It was a sensational downhill run for a couple of hours.
The coastline was dramatic with imposing headlands and mountains further inland. Cape Upstart was a beautiful, rocky point. In the photo below you can see Carpe Diem passing the headland.
We found a good anchorage in Upstart Bay. We watched the sun set while having drinks and nibbles, a relaxing end to a wonderful day’s cruise.
We have another long day of sailing to get to Magnetic Island tomorrow, so after chicken pies for dinner we had an early night and set the alarm to be underway by 6:00am.
Debonnaire 