DOWN BUT NOT OUT

13 July 2023

Happy Bay was a good anchorage and I slept well after the work of the past couple of days.  Not the calm, quiet and still anchorage I had hoped for, they don’t seem to exist here at the moment, but a good place to be and quite secure.

I spent all day in Happy Bay, tidying up and resting my arm as much as possible.  In the evening the wind came back and there was some strange wind against tide stuff going on, not very comfortable and the waves were slapping on the side of the hull.  I decided to move on the next morning. 

My next anchorage was Nava Inlet.  The guidebook said it was calm and tranquil.  Yeah right.  The southerly swell came straight up the inlet and as did the breeze.  It wasn’t bad, the boat nodded to the small waves all day and night, but calm and tranquil it was not.  Anyway, I pottered about on board and made some water with my home made RO machine.  Wonderful to be able to make forty litres of water just using solar power in the morning and have the batteries all topped up again by late afternoon.

In Nava Inlet there are some walks, a freshwater lake for swimming, a waterfall and caves with Aboriginal paintings.  I desperately wanted to get ashore and do stuff, but my arm was not up to launching the dinghy and outboard motor.

I awoke early the next morning to find only a slight improvement in my injured arm.  This is frustrating, I am fed up with looking at the shore and going nowhere.  Resting here isn’t working.  The thought of spending another day on the boat in confinement was depressing.  I can’t rest and unable to get ashore.  As much as I wanted to spend some time in the Whitsundays it isn’t going to happen.  I must admit to feeling a bit woeful.  I gave myself a stern talking to, pulled myself together and am now looking at the positives again.  A new plan was called for.         

I decided to keep moving north and make ground while the wind is steady from the south.  I can stop in Townsville or Magnetic Island to top up my provisions with fresh stuff along the way.  My aim now is to get to the Hinchinbrook Channel area.  I have been told that this is a magical place of mountain views, Mangroves, creeks and crocodiles with calm protected anchorages with good fishing.  Just the sort of place I can chill for a few days.  The plan is to continue sailing north in easy steps using the headsail with the following wind. The route, Gloucester Passage, Cape Edgecombe, Cape Upstart, Cape Bowling Green, Townsville or Magnetic Island.

I departed Nava Inlet in fresh bumpy conditions that saw a fair amount of spray in the cockpit, thank goodness for the dodger.  The wind and seas evened out as we cleared land, we had a nice easy sail up to Gloucester Passage. 

As luck would have it, we arrived at Gloucester Passage at the wrong time, the last of the outgoing tide over the shallows.  It was very shallow, less than a meter below the keel as I edged between the reefs.  Finally, after a butt clenching experience we were through the shallow waters and on track to Cape Edgecumbe where we arrived just after three in the afternoon.  Evening meal this evening was Thai Fish curry with potatoes cooked in the pressure cooker.  Not my best creation but it will sustain life.

The anchorage at Cape Edgecumbe turned out to be surprisingly good, the wind calmed down at night and the rolling was gentle.  I had a decent night’s sleep until five in the morning when the wind returned to sing in the rigging.  Setting off early it was a good sail, thirty-three miles to Shark Bay in the lee of Cape Upstart.  The wind was good again and we passed the impressive Abbot Point coal loading facility mid-morning. 

By one in the afternoon we were anchored in Shark Bay under the lee of Cape Upstart.  The wind was gusting down from the hills but no rolling, I hoped for the wind to die down at dusk as it has on previous nights.

Unfortunately, the wind persisted all night and then the wind against tide thing started again.  I couldn’t sleep, the wind was howling and the boat jiggling and joggling against the tide.  By midnight I could stand it no more.  Time to put to sea and use the wind to advantage, I weighed anchor and fled this horrible place.  By early morning we were passing cape Bowling Green in boisterous conditions.  The shallow sandbanks around the Cape throwing up steep waves even though we were five miles offshore in deeper water as recommended.  The wind picked up for a while at the cape and we sailed with just the staysail, still making good speed.  Once past the Cape normal service returned and we sailed on towards Cape Cleveland in more settled conditions.

From Cape Cleveland I had the option to go to Townsville or Magnetic Island.  I decided on Townsville and to try my luck in getting an anchorage behind the outer marina wall.  I was in luck – sort of.  The anchorage is very shallow and just outside the channel to the marina.  The first spot I tried was just outside the channel but too close for comfort and one of the locals seemed upset that I should anchor so close to him.  Well, it is very tight anchoring in amongst the moored boats.  I tried again and a guy on an anchored catamaran suggested I anchor close to him and move into his spot (with a bit more depth) in the morning when he departed.  That was good, finally I squeezed in, just out of the channel and with less than half a meter under the keel at low water.  My irate neighbour was slightly further away now and happily preening his ruffled feathers.