Sunny Winds 15 – 20 – 25 SE                                     20 nautical miles

Another early start to try and miss the strong winds so we headed out of Gloucester passage at 5 for the short hop to Airlie Beach. The wind was already blowing through the passage as we passed sleepy yachts bobbing at anchor so it didn’t bode well for what was ahead.  Coming out of the passage the wind was right on the nose forcing us to hug the coast and motor round the edge of  Shoal bay. We managed to have a bowl of porridge as it was relatively tucked in behind George Point. We passed between Saddleback Island and George Point then out into  the wind again. There was no point in pulling the sails as we were directly into the wind and waves.

Once again we bashed our way south, down to Woodwark Bay , the last bay before  Pioneer Bay the home port of Airlie. Round the point of Woodwark the wind had pushed the waves up into a very uncomfortable steep choppy sea.  Once we turned towards Abell Point Marina we were able to unfurl the jib and sail.

We were almost at the marina and it was only 9.30 so we booked the fuel wharf for 10 and were very grateful to the marina them for letting us into our berth  early. Normally checkin is at 12:00 as outgoing boats depart at 11.

We berthed in R3 and 4 the last finger before the shore. Last time we were here it was mostly mud especially at low tide. The dredge has done a great job since then as we had 2 metres on water under us as we maneuvered into our berth.

We have a week before Dave and Laura arrive and a lot of paperwork to do in between.

We also need to :

Replace the boom vang  on the foot of the mainsail

Replace the bridal

Replace the oil in the port saildrive

Recalibrate the wind instrument

Replace rivets on the gooseneck

John cooked us Spanish mackeral with a ginger, garlic, honey sauce which he made up and  was absolutely delicious

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