CLIENT: General Public Voyage
VOYAGE NUMBER: 20240527
FROM: Airlie Beach To: Townsville
DATE: 27 May 2024
POSITION: Hayman Is
REPORT: White Watch
We awoke in the Coral Sea Marina, Airlie beach. After porridge we farewelled Roger and Nico and took onboard four new passengers for the trip to Townsville, a couple, Jim and Kaye, Clare and Paula.
An excellent trade wind was blowing strong from the south-east and after hoisting the main and fore, both fully reefed, we put up the jib and staysail and roared off on a reach toward the islands at 10 knots. We gybed to come through a narrow gap in the reef south of Hayman Island.
An awesome mainsail drop from white watch saw us swiftly moor off Langford Island, a small island with a long sand spit. Most of the crew and all passengers went ashore in the dinghy and spent a few hours on the island. The report back was that the snorkelling was incredible with lots of fish and coral and a few turtle sightings. Lunch was hamburgers (thank you Louise)
We managed to get the dinghy – with Bart in it, back up on the davits with five on each line. Heave Ho! The skipper gave us a briefing on the next few days sailing as well as a presentation on fishing zones within the Whitsundays because we’ll be going fishing tomorrow.
The most stunning sunset just kept on giving as it went from an incredible orb descending over the horizon, a flame of clouds over head and then a dusk display of reds and blues. We watched all this while enjoying a butter chicken followed by Danish with cream and custard.
White watch are now taking some bearings for the evening, Ben just got woken from an early exhausted sleep to wash up (no exemptions) and we are about to settle in for the night. Good night all, sweet dreams and plenty of snoring.