500 MILES UNDER THE HEADSAIL

5 August 2023

Since hurting my arm at Middle Percy Island I have been sailing with only the yankee headsail and sometimes also the staysail when conditions allow.  My left arm is just not up to the stress of handling the mainsail, but I can manage the headsails on the furlers with one arm. 

With the constant trade winds, sailing with just the headsails has been easy and really not much slower than if I also had the mainsail working.  By sailing this way I have covered almost five hundred miles since departing Middle Percy Island.

My time in the Hinchinbrook Channel turned out to be very relaxing and stress free.  I enjoyed the calm and tranquil anchorages and ended up staying six nights.  The last two days were windy with rain but still very secure.  On leaving Hinchinbrook Channel I sailed thirty plus miles up to Dunk Island.  Overnight at the anchorage the good weather disappeared and the morning brought rain squalls and unpredictable winds.  I weighed anchor early to get out of Dunk and headed north to Mourilyan Harbour.

After a difficult sail with rain squalls and shifting winds I dropped the anchor in Mourilyan Harbour just after midday.  The harbour is sheltered, the swell doesn’t intrude into the harbour past the narrow entrance.  The wind died down in the evening providing a calm overnight anchorage.

The next morning I weighed anchor at first light and was clear of Mourilyan Harbour and well on the way north by sunrise.  The wind picked up gradually to a steady twenty knots and we were flying along with the yankee poled out to starboard and the staysail catching wind to port, the wind so steady that the windvane kept the sails filled perfectly.

By two in the afternoon we had arrived at the anchorage at Fitzroy Island.  The wind was blowing and the swell curling around into the anchorage.  Not game for an uncomfortable anchorage I gave Fitzroy a miss and pressed on towards Cairns, still sailing at good speed with a strong wind.  A couple of hours later the engine went on and we motored up the dredged channel up into Cairns small boat anchorage for the night.

The following day I picked up a pile mooring – need a break before heading north again.  This is for rest and recuperation and to get ashore and visit a doctor to check out my arm which seems to have been getting worse after a slow but gradual improvement in the last couple of weeks.

Well, I made it to the doctor.  He says (and confirms) I have torn a tendon and suffered a rotor cuff injury.  He attributes the apparent worsening condition over the last few days to the fact I ran out of the anti-inflammatory pills I was taking.  I have now got some new pills and although I have only been taking them for a couple of days they are helping to reduce the pain at night and the arm is easier to move.  I am also booked in for an ultrasound scan, but that’s two weeks away. The truth is that I was very concerned that I would be unable to carry on sailing. Now I have seen the doctor I am reassured that I can continue, just need time to recover.

I now intend to hang around Cairns for a couple of weeks more and hope for the weather to improve a bit.  It has rained every day I have been here so far and there seems to be a strong wind warning every day.