After a well-earned break at Townsville, it was time to continue our voyage south back to Airlie Beach. We had 2 long days ahead of us and the forecast for fresh 20 knot headwinds meant it was going to be a bumpy ride. Once again we wanted to arrive at our destination before sunset, so we departed the Townsville marina just before 5:00am. We set sail soon after and made good speed through the darkness with Townsville in our wake.
Here is the same scene with some light so you can see Catherine at the helm.
Once we left the shelter of the bay, we found ourselves in 15-20 knot headwinds and 1.5-2.5 metre waves. There was no sunrise to greet us, just a dull, cloudy dawn. It was a bumpy, wet ride. Some of the bigger waves broke over the bow and washed over the boat, sending water pouring into the cockpit and out the transom. It was inevitable that leaks would be revealed and it became wet inside as well as outside the boat.
Hard to believe but we actually enjoyed the challenge of the tougher conditions. It was also our best day for spotting sea life: 1 turtle, 2 dolphins and 3 whales. We rushed on deck when Dan yelled “Whales!” We missed seeing one whale breaching just 50 metres away but were fortunate to get a close-up view of a whale that came up for air next to the boat only 10 metres away. Its tail gracefully arched into the air as it dived alongside us. It was spectacular.
We made good progress and reached our overnight destination by 4:30pm. Upstart Bay was well protected from the wind and waves so we had a calm evening at anchor. Dan and Gig had a quick swim. We enjoyed drinks and nibbles watching a beautiful sunset. Dinner soon followed and then early to bed because, once more, we were going to weigh anchor before dawn.
We still had headwinds for our final day but by 5:00am the wind and waves had moderated. The weather continued to improve throughout the day and by lunchtime we had terrific cruising conditions. It was still going to be a long 12 hour day so we had to optimise the wind shifts to maximise our speed to windward. We had been doing this for several days now as our southbound journey was always into the wind. Our on-board analysts, Dan and Gigi, applied trigonometry and wave propagation theory to work out whether we should keep heading off-shore, tack in-shore or motor directly into the wind. The brains trust did an excellent job and we arrived at Airlie Beach ahead of schedule. Yay, go maths!
We celebrated the homecoming from our Lizard Island voyage with Carpe Diem at a nice restaurant in Airlie Beach. We had lots of laughs reminiscing about our adventure. Some of the highlights we recalled included:
- the joy of sailing, particularly on warm, sunny days knowing that it was a cold winter back in Melbourne;
- hiking to Cook’s Lookout on Lizard Island, retracing his steps of 247 years ago;
- snorkeling at Lizard Island, seeing not just many colourful tropical fish but also scary reef sharks;
- seeing several whales, some of which appeared on cue with Catherine’s “wailing” calls;
- the quintessential tropical beauty of Blue Lagoon on Lizard Island;
- the camaraderie of sailing in tandem;
- arriving at beautiful tropical islands like Orpheus and Dunk and exploring the reefs and beaches; and
- marvelling at awesome sunrises (Lizard Island) and sunsets (Upstart Bay).
Thanks Dan and Gigi for being a part of our southbound voyage from Lizard Island. We couldn’t have done it without you! Enjoy the next stage of your holiday on Hamilton and South Molle Islands. We look forward to having you back on board in a couple of weeks.
Debonnaire 