CLIENT: Townsville Sail & Walk
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20230603
FROM: Townsville to Townsville
DATE: 3 June 2023
POSITION: Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Is
REPORT: White Watch
It was a full-on day. We had a small delay in the morning as Qantas had managed to not deliver the bag for one of our watch members. To rousing applause, he finally arrived with his bag. After safety briefings, we cast off about 30 minutes behind schedule and headed out under motor.
We then received instructions on how to raise the sails and then we did it for real. We were thankful for the nice level of breeze and then the skipper advised that we had reached 8 knots. Turning the motor off gave us the true feeling of the joy of sailing. But not for long as we then had to reset the stays so that we could gybe. Have completed that successfully and then reset the headsails for the new tack we then had to lower the sails in preparation for mooring. We were happy to be the first watch for lunch after such a busy morning.
After anchoring in Horseshoe Bay (Magnetic Island) most crew were ferried to shore by Robyn to explore the WW2 gun emplacements and koala spotting on the Forts Walk. Louise the cook prepared rice and butter chicken for the main course with apple pie and custard and cream for dessert.
Our watch had the 1800-2000 roster where our watch leader showed us the finer points of anchor watch including bearings to three objects, nearby boats, chain observation and log compilation.