John and I have decided to sail up to Airlie Beach and book into the marina for a couple of nights as the forecast is for strong easterlies to 25 knts then rain on Tuesday. We figured we may as well get some office work done, replace the belts on the motors have internet service and go out for a meal.

The other two cats have gone to Gulnare Inlet north of Hamilton to hide from the weather. Most likely they will catch crabs.

Nyeki disappearing up Dent Passage

The sail across to the Whitsunday Passage from Shaw island was fast, with only the jib up we averaged 7.5 knts getting up to 9 and more.

Sailing through Unsafe passge between South and North Molle was a little hairy as we had 27knts of wind which was trying to push us towards the shallow coral covered ground. I guess that’s why is called Unsafe Passage.

Coming out Unsafe Passage , Daydream Island ahead.

We arrived outside the marina entrance at 1.30 and called them up on CH 9 for our berth, we were booked into N 19 which had another boat in the same pen on the next pontoon.

Getting into the berth aft first was tricky with the strong winds threatening to blow us sideways. On the second attempt a gust blew us across and close to the boat on the next pontoon where we unfortunately made contact with his tender. His tender was tied at the back off his boat at right angles to his big boat with its large motors up and tilted outwards. We connected with the propellers sticking out and gouged marks and holes along the side of Ovive. With the wind pushing us onto him we were continuing to damage the starboard hull as John tried to pull us out, so I climbed off and stood on his motors and pushed us off enough for John to manoeuvrer Ovive out of the pen.

Photo taken a couple of days later when both us and the weather had calmed down.

In all this commotion the people on board hadnt come out to look until we were almost off. They didn’t even bother to lend a hand. We were fairly shaken and annoyed and let the marina know that the berth was not wide enough for us to get into in strong winds. They put us on the superyacht berth until they could find somewhere else for us to tie up.

After tying behind a massive yacht  we lowered the dinghy and inspected the damage, we would have to get it fixed as soon as possible so we wouldn’t get water in the core foam.

The marina office gave us an incident form to fill in and one nights free stay which I thought was good of them. We booked in for another three nights at $226 per night. Fees have gone up a lot since 2015 however we did get the Shaggers 10 % discount which brought the rate down slightly. For those who don’t know what a Shagger is , we belong to the Shag Island Cruising Yacht club which we joined in 2007.

Some beers, Kahlua and pizza at  Sorrentos at the northern end of the marina eased the thoughts of the afternoon nasty.

Not Ovives fuel bill, thank goodness, someone on our finger though.