Island Hop Stop #3 - Thomas Island, Queensland, Australia

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 21 May 2010 04:58
20:32.63S  149:06.37E
 
Another day, another island.  Is this starting to get repetitious?
 
May 13th we sailed another 20ish miles northwest under a completely clear sky and with the wind mostly behind us to Thomas Island.  As the Aussies would say, lovely.
 
Picture 1 - Rocky Thomas Island beach at low tide.  That's John and Sue gazing upon our two boats riding quietly at anchor.  We had the place to ourselves.  Not too bad. 
 
You might wonder why we are always taking beach walks at low tide.  It's not just because it makes for a better picture.  Oh no, there is science and seamanship involved.  With the giant tidal range in this area, there are also strong currents.  We like to time our island hops so we are always riding the tide in the proper direction - with the current.  During this string of island hops, we found that if we left in the morning just after high tide, we could ride the ebb current which runs to the northwest all the way to our next destination.  Then, poof!  We arrive just in time for lunch and go for a dinghy outing to the beach in the afternoon at low tide.  Yup, this is what we think about.  Tides, currents, beach walks and lunch.
 
Anne
 
 
 
 

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