Wind 10 – 15 knts SE  sunny with 60% chance of rain  82 nm

The morning was overcast and threatening rain as we departed Cairns for the last time. We are heading south to rendezvous in the Whitsundays with Dave ( Johns mate) and his daughter Laura. Departing at 6:00 we headed out and up the shipping channel then turned east towards Fitzroy island with both motors at 1600 revs and the main and jib up. As the wind was from the south east we made good time averaging 7 knts.  Some squalls came our way but didn’t dampen our spirits only the boat.

At Fitzroy Is we turned south so the wind and waves were almost on the nose, we were getting down to 3.9 knots at times, far to slow to get anywhere.  We tacked towards New Zealand, or so it felt like we going there, then tacked  back to Australia then out again.The further south we traveled  the sea conditions improved with the wind swinging slightly round to the east.

We finally arrived at Dunk at 8 pm  and dropped the anchor off the beach in beautiful calm water. It had been a long day beating against the wind and waves with the last leg in the dark but we finally made it. Irish stew for dinner as we were too lazy to cook a fish meal.