Overcast SE 15 – 20                   8 nautical miles

Bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast for a change as we had a square table conference on what to do for the day. the weather seemed reasonably calm but the forecast was for 15 – 20 knots picking up in the morning. We decided it would be a nasty slog into a headwind tomorrow to get back down to Port if we went north to the Daintree today. Ah well, we will have pikalets with jam and cream , then sail to Port Douglas instead.

 

We put a reef in the main and headed out into white water and swell.  The trip across to Port Douglas was exhilarating with the wind getting up to 30 knots at times and waves spraying over the bows.

We sat on 10 knots for quite a while ripping along. The screecher that hadn’t furled too well last time( as we were in a hurry to pull in  a fish) suddenly caught the wind in a small pocket which turned into a large flapping noisy problem. Its was all hands on the rolling deck as we lowered the screecher halyard and stuffed the whole lot into the sail locker to be dealt with in quieter moments and refurled

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Dickson inlet, the entrance to Port Douglas at 12:30 and negotiated the very shallow skinny channel up to the marina. we berthed in B 13 and 14 easily as the marina is well protected from the south easterlies. In fact you wouldn’t even know it was blowing outside.

Time to wander up the street, the boys going to the pub and us three girls ( the curly one too) getting a shopping fix. The shops were fantastic all selling very different and reasonably priced clothing and other nick nacks. On the way back Sandra and I stopped at the Irish pub for a drink and enjoyed the viewpoint from our table overlooking the street.

We caught up with the boys and had dinner at the yacht club , just up from the marina

which was very tasty but took an  hour for the meals to arrive as they were very busy.