Wind SE  5 – 10 knts

John’s turn to be unwell, I must have passed it on.

Beautiful calm morning off the tip of South Stradbroke, tide was going down so I waited until the tide was quite low and took Morgan ashore. It was our inaugural solo trip in the dinghy with the new motor, very successful except I couldn’t tilt the motor until I remembered it had to be in forward gear. John was still laid up so it was just Morgs and I. We played ball on the pristine sandy beach then hurried back to O’vive for an important teleconference call with Lukas and the investors at 11:00. John wasn’t feeling well but hung in there as it was of great consequence .

Two hours later we had finished and with the captain on the improvement (physically) we pulled anchor and headed up Canaipa Passage. Once again we had no wind and motored up the channel over some very shallow spots. The channel is bordered by high sand cliffs on the eastern side and mangroves on the western until you get to Russell Island  which is more open and dotted with houses and anchored boats.

At the northern tip of Russel we passed under the powerlines connecting to Straddie, they are listed in the book as 20m in height, our mast is 21.52. I was very nervous but it appears the 20m is the middle of the span and we went under the eastern side about 40 mts off the bank where there is much more height. In the end we cleared them easy in 2.3 m of water although it was still worrying as the tide was almost high.

Dropped anchor about 1km north of the powerlines amidst two other boats as John still wasn’t well. It took several tries for the anchor to set as it kept turning round onto its back. Eventually it bit, the swivel may need some lubrication or it had something jammed in it.

Dinner wasn’t much as John didn’t feel like any, just pork medallion, chat potato, dutch carrots and cabbage. Off to sleep with a very calm night.