To Dunk Island
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 17 Jun 2016 22:57
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To Dunk
Island
 We got up at six to a very wet, grey
day with heavy clouds and quite a lot of rain.
Setting off at six thirty, rain now pounding and visibility pretty poor. An hour
later, Wishful Thinking a few miles ahead, radioed to say they were in
a squall with winds up to forty knots, they were clearly in the middle of it, we
were luckier with winds to thirty knots. Soon the hammering rain stopped and we
were left with the still very heavy, very grey clouds. Everything around us
looked monochrome, whatever happened to the nice weather.......
 An hour or so later and we could see
the low lying clouds begin to lift a
bit.
 By 11:30 things even took on a little colour.
 It was still raining
very hard in patches out at sea.
 A lone chum
looking very small out on the horizon.
 Midday yet more
rain, poor Bear, every time he took the conservatory down – up it went
again.
 Hurrah, a patch of
blue sky.
 Going by the charmingly named Family Islands.
 Finally, Dunk
Island with WT just in sight by the mast of Beez. Yep, more
rain.
 Round the corner into a massive anchorage of gently sloping sand.
 Ashore to our left, the deserted
resort. We could see the damage quite clearly, sad as
the owner had to repair cyclone damage after 2006.
  The resort
has been left empty since it was badly damaged in Cyclone Yasi in February 2011.
This powerful cyclone hailed from Fiji and reached wind speeds of 177 miles per
hour. The narrow eye, just missed Townsville and Cairns but directly hit Mission
Beach, just four miles north of here on the mainland. The building on the right looks well cared for.
 Day visitors come out in
small numbers to sit on the beach, tree roots showing
since the cyclone.
 Dozens of boats in Hinchinbrook Marina were piled on top of each other in
tidal surges of seven metres and damage caused insurance claims of $655,000,000.
This was the biggest cyclone to hit Queensland since records began, the lowest
pressure on the barometer was 929 mbar. The costliest cyclone in Australian
history with a total cost of US$ 3.6 billion......
  Beez
is happily settled between Wishful Thinking
on her right and the wonderfully named Iron
Mongrel to her left.
 Todays
journey from Orpheus Island to Brammo Bay, Dunk Island was 47.6 nautical
miles. Pleased to say the rain stopped. Just after beating Bear at backgammon,
yeeha, his IPad bleeped. Michael was coming to pick us up as Gin was preparing
Spanish mackerel they had caught with the most incredible special fried rice
followed by a fun game of Taboo. A brilliant end to our very wet day.
ALL IN ALL A WET DAY,
SMASHING EVENING
WONDERFUL SAIL, GREAT
EVENING |