Sam

Sailed off anchor at dawn into a solid northerly on a NW track to Great Keppel, full boat speed into the wind with the cutter rig working nicely. Wind dropped off late morning so pissing about in a boat not designed for light winds on the nose. Arrived Great Keppel Island late afternoon with a few hours motor to make up the heading. Anchorage good but crowded til wind shifted next morning so moved around to north of island for protection. Great spot, as evident by number of boats here. No decent southerly til Thursday, would rather stay here on island but ran out of gas so think will head over to Yeppoon for a night or two and top up everything there rather than Mackay and hopefully island hop all the way to Airlie Beach instead. Must get around to modify the gas locker so can fit 2x bottles in there. Now crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, crystal clear water, tropical fish swimming around boat and thermals, trousers and jumpers now back in the lockers.

Variable winds from none to 20knots all day, dropped off of within a carpark of bulk carriers so to keep some heading got the spinnaker pole working properly this time, although I need to set it up better so it doesn't need to come down with the head sail as tricky getting it off the clew to furl it in 20knots, have since set up some guys to be able to set out the pole then furl in/out the sail without stowing the spinnaker pole til at anchor. Not a great anchorage but a quick rest stopover sheltered from the southerly which picked up again in arvo as didn't make the miles to hit Great Keppel, nice having options to stop along routes now into the coral coast and just flop about when wind drops and wait for it to pick up again rather than needing to start up motor to make harbour to harbour on tides etc.

A good sail, left 4am to catch as much of the southerly as I could and try make it in daylight as a good 60+miles, belted til lunch in 20-25knots on beam, boat handles that itself by luffing up when it's not happy with the gusts then heading back on course to save me the effort of a reef while cook up some egg&bacon. Sea state more enjoyable now that southerlies are off the land and the GBR to the east. Enough wind to knock out the last of the birds nests from the boom that have gathered over the years. Realised I haven't had her sailing as cutter yet, got the staysail out which improved the balance for the wind vane and added up to a knot in lighter conditions, the genoa is really a larger yankee designed to work with a staysail when had them designed. Have a larger light wind genoa but cutter seems more flexible setup. Been sailing on and off with a very nice Nicholson 38, rest are all production and cats so don't pay much attention. Wind dropped around midday as myself and a catamaran jostled for position for a few hours but picked up again to see me the rest of the way and the catamaran take off. Little need for motor other than getting some charge back into batteries after clouds and rain in Bundy. Nice anchorage sheltered from southerly, read a comment about it from someone warning that they got their chain caught around their keel here due to flukey wind and tides 'so be warned', what a stupid problem to have.

Sailing on the southerly from anchor at dawn then motor sailing late afternoon to make up knots as the wind dropped as seems often the case, uneventful but worse ways to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. Still no luck with the fishing rod other than loosing lures despite a school of tuna jumping, never was a fisherman. Reprovisioned and installed the upgrades to the navigation system picked up from post office with a faster processor+ram and a signal converter to talk to the autopilot and some other bits and bobs to improve things. Made some software upgrades also with an improved anchor alarm system, can now view it when onshore also to check where she's at. Sail plan together with the wind forecasts for the next legs of target Mackay as familiarise myself with this next part of the coast, hoping to skip harbours until Mackay but options to head into a couple if need. Wind window for a few days sailing Thurs/Fri by looks of it, hoping to reach Great Keppel. Forced myself to buy some Bundaberg rum while in Bundaberg, still god awful shit but when in Rome..

Finally, a nice anchorage with both the postcard beach and sunset bar looking out over the anchorage. Apart from the $20 pints, could spend a good week here. Waiting until the southerly kicks in for Bundaberg on the weekend, only a short motor out of Frasier Island and into sailing waters again. Again good 10m+ anchoring, going to 13m on tide, so testing out the limits of my anchoring set-up but holding well, even with the southerly kicking in and anchorage getting swell exposed to the south. Keeping an eye out for used chain to add a bit for those few times forced to anchor in deeper water. More upgrade parts waiting in Bundaberg at the post office so not much point to get there til Sunday at the earliest. Out of fresh proteins when arrived so into the canned tuna and chickpeas etc, I've found a new use for ChatGPT and given it my inventory of provisions and it gives pretty good meals such as curries and pastas etc, I just have to do the manual part of cooking - used it before I left to give me a provisioning shopping list based on whatever recipes it thinks are good, the AI sailor..

Starting to move north again as the southerly forecast is on its way by weekend. Slow motor against the tide to hit the main shoals on high tide, crossed no issues with plenty of water below the keel. Deeper water from here on in. Anchored in 10m of water which was all my chain at 5:1 scope, no wind to test it at this depth but held fine.

A flotilla of about a dozen yachts including myself set off in convey early morning to catch the slack tide for the notorious Wide Bay Bar, again I was beaten or overtaken but I'm in no rush, up against catamarans and production boats mostly albeit one fellow like minded cruiser with a similar setup to me. Wide Bay Bar was no issue really, fairly mild conditions, quite a lot of swell and can see how it could be very nasty in the wrong conditions or tide. No breakwalls, follow in virtual AIS markers that the coast guard sets based on the shifting sands. This is where you really don't want to loose power I think to myself as I count my blessings again my motor problems happened before leaving.. That baby gets a once over before any departure since leaving, have a small oil leak from somewhere I need to address but nothing serious. I have a feeling it's the oring on the injector pump but I'm loathed to remove that again anytime soon so just keeping a daily eye on things. Carried onto Gary's Anchorage while the tide was high, 2m plus tides in here and can feel it even when supposedly slack tide. A couple of poor catamarans stuck behind me as I eventually slow to 4knots or less as the tide turns - ah fuck em, this is how the other half travel so you can experience some patience too. Gary's Anchorage for a few days as doesn't look like another southerly for a week to make the next passage up to Bundaberg. Got some boat maintenance done and freed up that spinnaker pole so hoping it's easier to handle next time.

A stiff breeze directly down wind of 20knots or so, having trouble getting the spinnaker pole out safely as getting stuck on it's track to comfortably wing on wing, must lubricate it. So headed off shore on a bit more of an angle to keep both sails flying on same side, and gybed back in later in day. Slow VMG but more exciting sailing at least. Was close to a reef needed (well if thinking of a reef, you need a reef) but while I was clipping in, the wind dropped slightly negating. Wind vane working well, but with it being an auxiliary rudder I really have to trim/balance the sails well or it will head up into the wind overpowering the small auxiliary rudder of the vane. If the boat's over powered need to add a little opposing main helm and lock it off to help it, but a reef would do the same job. MOB! Well, at least for my dan bouy.. bugger me, expensive automatic inflatable one, but I installed it in a bad position and on a gybe the main sheet grabbed it and ripped it off the hand rail. Well that's the end of that as it's in its sealed plastic box it'll be gone to the bottom I thought, then looked back again and it had self inflated and got itself out of the latched plastic box and heading off! I can't leave that out there or someone will think there's a missing person, so a good exercise for a MOB recovery. All went well swinging up into 20+ knots fully canvased and picking it up with sails flapping on first attempt, bear away and keep going with now this massive inflated dan bouy on deck trying to figure out how the fuck do I deflate this.. No idea, tomorrow's problem and stow it down below inflated. Will get a re arming kit on order. Pulled into Rainbow beach around double island point headland in dark, many other yachts on the same leg catching the same southerly been waiting for, most beat me or overtook me but I'm sure I was the most comfortable.. When 2 or more boats are going in the same direction, it's a race, but I suspect some were motor sailing I tell myself..

Some great sailing through the North East Channel, getting full boat speed of 7knots in 12+ knots on a broad reach with the calm waters with the mainland to west and Moreton island to east, must have had a bit of current I guess but not showing much here on the maps and my STW still not working to tell, only have SOG. Was humming along trying to cross bow of a massive container ship in the channel but decided against it out of caution despite both our tracks showing easy clearance on the chartplotter, the captain appreciated that and came out from the bridge to give me a wave and let of the horn as he passed which was so loud at that range scared ths shit out of me.. Green water over the bow from his wake. Made slack tide for the bar crossing in time but rather mild conditions at that stage so not too much bother despite being warned of it by another sailor, although when I said at the time I'd just come from Tweed Heads how does it compare to that, he said oh right don't worry about it then what's a bar crossing to you now.. A sweet anchoring job in a tight spot, really getting a feel for the turning limits of the boat I can have confidence to lay the throttle on and spin into a tight spot, drop the anchor and slam on reverse and get a bite. Got a thumbs up from the neighbour which made the day. not to self - the GPX track file lost half of it, the second half is estimated manually

The forecast southerly is arriving for the jump up to Frasier Island so need to get further north, short jump to Peel Island, half motoring and half sailing - I think I have this wind vane dialled in now, can get it working at 5knots of wind whereas before I needed my autopilot up to at least 10knots. Nice not having the annoying noise of the autopilot motor going back and forth while sailing in light breeze. Peel Island nice anchorage, quite a few boats but plenty of room, good to be in open waters again after Stradbroke Islands.