May 19, 2011
We suddenly found ourselves with no means of posting the blog after leaving Rossyln Bay – so nearly a week has passed since we wrote about the crocodiles. After leaving Rossyln Bay we sailed to two other anchorages in quick succession – both of them about 8 hour sails. We wanted to continue to make progress up the coast, but still tie up in a comfortable anchorage to sleep at night. (The bays were called Pearl Bay and Middle Island of the Percy Isles for the record) . We ended up doing quite a bit of motoring as the winds were light and the weather was fine – really beautiful, but not that good for sailing. We started seeing very high winds and seas coming up in the forecast so we made our way to Scawfell Island which is a fairly big island with huge hills that surround a very large and supposedly comfortable and well protected bay. We ended up spending a very long 5 nights at Scawfell. After we arrived the wind and seas both picked up and there were “wind warnings†out over the marine radio. The hills protected us from the high seas, but the winds seemed to accelerate as they came over the hills and into the bay, and between the high winds and huge tides, the boat was very uncomfortable for a lot of the time–rolling and bobbing around almost as bad as being at sea. The wind was whistling and screaming through the rigging constantly and it really started to get on our nerves. There ended up being 7 boats in the anchorage and no-one left their boats at all (except for one evening). We felt a bit trapped, not able to go to land and walk on the pretty beach or even visit with anyone else except by radio. Oh well, today the winds finally let up a bit and we finally left (as did all the other boats) and we had the most beautiful sail up to our next anchorage. Great wind and we sailed through the long beautiful islands of the Whitsunday’s where both winds and currents were going our way which gave us an incredibly smooth and fast ride. We felt like we were just skimming the surface of the water – just gliding over the seas – and yet going at 9 knots of speed – pretty much as fast as we ever go. . Just wish we had left Scawfell a few days earlier and sailed here. How much scrabble can you play?
L.
We suddenly found ourselves with no means of posting the blog after leaving Rossyln Bay – so nearly a week has passed since we wrote about the crocodiles. After leaving Rossyln Bay we sailed to two other anchorages in quick succession – both of them about 8 hour sails. We wanted to continue to make progress up the coast, but still tie up in a comfortable anchorage to sleep at night. (The bays were called Pearl Bay and Middle Island of the Percy Isles for the record) . We ended up doing quite a bit of motoring as the winds were light and the weather was fine – really beautiful, but not that good for sailing. We started seeing very high winds and seas coming up in the forecast so we made our way to Scawfell Island which is a fairly big island with huge hills that surround a very large and supposedly comfortable and well protected bay. We ended up spending a very long 5 nights at Scawfell. After we arrived the wind and seas both picked up and there were “wind warnings†out over the marine radio. The hills protected us from the high seas, but the winds seemed to accelerate as they came over the hills and into the bay, and between the high winds and huge tides, the boat was very uncomfortable for a lot of the time–rolling and bobbing around almost as bad as being at sea. The wind was whistling and screaming through the rigging constantly and it really started to get on our nerves. There ended up being 7 boats in the anchorage and no-one left their boats at all (except for one evening). We felt a bit trapped, not able to go to land and walk on the pretty beach or even visit with anyone else except by radio. Oh well, today the winds finally let up a bit and we finally left (as did all the other boats) and we had the most beautiful sail up to our next anchorage. Great wind and we sailed through the long beautiful islands of the Whitsunday’s where both winds and currents were going our way which gave us an incredibly smooth and fast ride. We felt like we were just skimming the surface of the water – just gliding over the seas – and yet going at 9 knots of speed – pretty much as fast as we ever go. . Just wish we had left Scawfell a few days earlier and sailed here. How much scrabble can you play?
L.
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