Day 220: Mackay to the Whitsundays, Australia – 14/08/10

Feeling a little grotty, more to do with my sore throat than last night’s wine (honest) I decline to go food shopping with Heidi when she turns up with her case, and opt instead for cleaning their cabin and bathroom and making up the bed.

The boat still feels clammy.  I don’t think it will dry out properly until it is hot enough to have the air conditioning on.  Then I will have it on full blast and open every cupboard and drawer on the boat to dry them out too.

It’s a beautiful day in Mackay.  Clear blue sky and a really light breeze.  Why couldn’t it have been like this when Johanne and Steve were here?

Casey arrives with his luggage around 10 am and eventually Heidi arrives back with enough food to feed a little army.  She shops like I do – goes with a list and buys three times the things that are on it but look yummy.

Once we are all paid up, we untie the lines and off we go, but what a difference to when we left here with Johanne and Steve.  Then it was all sea mist, cold and damp.  Today it is bright sunshine, and, unbelievably, some wind in the right direction, despite the weather forecast suggesting that we would be motoring all day.

We get the main and the genoa out and sail north towards Cairns.  It’s difficult to tell how much wind we have because the wind speed instruments have suddenly stopped working (another job for the list) but we make an average of 5 knots.

I try not to dwell on the fact that the Suttons are still in Sydney.  How I wish we could have stayed that extra day.

I sleep all afternoon, probably because I am feeling a little under the weather, but don’t feel too guilty as Heidi does the same.  As the sun starts to go down, the wind drops almost completely, and what tiny bit there is blows completely on the nose.  So we motor.  Although I miss the actual sunset, as the sun disappears over the horizon, the sky turns blood red. 

Photo:  Red sky at night

Heidi and I take the first watch.  It is a very narrow stretch of water and there are lots of lights around.  We take it in turns to stick our heads out and look all about but it’s so cold we don’t hang around.  I have my fleece and cashmere shawl on as well as my Ugg slippers.  At midnight we go our separate ways to bed and Mike takes over.

 

Our position is:  20 deg 13 min S, 148 deg 51 min E

Distance so far:  10670 nautical miles