Whitsunday sailing adventure - Day 3

Just before midnight we came away from the south east beach on Seaforth Island, turned into the breeze and hoisted the main sail. We motor sailed past the silent Lindeman Island resort and the Picaninny Point light into Whitsunday Passage. Unfurling the headsail on a starboard tack we had to head towards Genesta Bay near Cape Conway until we could tack away with the change of the tide to take us north. 

We ended up making a few tacks to keep us away from Long Shoal, plus we were looking at which option to take to get to our destination of Airlie Beach. Option 1: wait for the tide change and go through The Narrows between Long Island and the mainland. Option 2: cross the passage and head for Hamilton Island. Option 2 had a better angle to sea so on the tide change we finally enjoyed a fantastic flat water sail on a long port tack with a 12-15 knot north westerly wind. Bringing us up into the lee of Hamilton Island we reached a maximum of 8 knots under a partly cloudy, full moon sky. Can’t get any better than that.

We were amongst familiar landmarks now, however, as we went to enter the Dent Passage, with me steering, I didn’t judge the tidal pull and so took the turn too late. We blew the tack and unfortunately the head sail ripped on the mast. The tide was so strong it was taking us away from our intended route at a rate of 7 knots, so the motor was fired up to get us back on course. A lesson learnt on my part – situational awareness. The bright lights of Hamilton Island gave us a sense of coming home but it was rather eerie as we were the only ones moving about in the early hours of the morning. In the calm waters of Dent Passage we had enough time to consume a much needed (tepid) coffee, banana, small tin of tomato tuna and a couple of peanut butter rice cakes before we tackled the wind and waves again.

Still going with the tide it was a long starboard tack towards Shute Harbour followed by a sloppy motor sail up Molle Channel with a wind against tide swell. Another spectacular sunrise was evolving as we passed Daydream Island, and as we rounded Pioneer Point into Pioneer Bay the sun rose with intensity. We were on the home stretch now, donning sunscreen, hat and sunglasses and feeling grateful that the sailing conditions were much more ideal at night, and that we made the journey safely.

Pioneer Bay

We arrived at the entrance of Whitsunday Sailing Club just on low tide, so had to wait for about 20 minutes (thank goodness we are such a shallow draught) to pull alongside the jetty. The groundsman greeted us with a cheery hello, and realising we were pretty tired assisted us with lines and allowed us to leave the boat there until the tide was high enough to pull us out of the water later in the day. Friends arrived with the car, helped us pack up and dropped us home for some well needed and much deserved rest. What an adventure: approximately 70 nautical miles over a 48 hour period with about 17 hours on water.