Pointing North - Bona Bay, Gloucester Island, Queensland, Australia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 25 May 2010 21:47
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20:02.555S 148:26.565E
Or west, as the case may be. Sometimes we
have to go west to go north and that's what we did on May 24. Hey, look at
that - May 24. That was yesterday for us (today for you). This means
the blog has finally caught up with us. Sneaky little bugger.
Ok. We are done with the Whitsundays and have
decided it's time to move on. We have 1,400 miles to go to get to Darwin
and we would like to get there by June 26, which is when our Darwin marina
reservation begins. This means we have one month to sail 1,400
miles. At a speed of 6 knots, we need to sail 45 miles (~7
hours) a day for 30 days. We can do as many as 190 miles in a
day when sailing around the clock on an ocean passage, but
coastal day sailing is slow. At best we can cram 70 miles into a day
sail, and even then only if the wind is cooperative.
Hmmm....time is getting tight. The Sail Indonesia rally doesn't
leave Darwin until the end of July, but we are required to be in Darwin
several weeks in advance of the rally departure date. Plus, we would
like to have a little extra time in Darwin to do some land travel.
Everything we've heard and read says Darwin and its surrounding area
is one of the highlights of Australia so we'd hate to miss it.
So - north ho! It's a good thing that the
guide books say there isn't much to see in the Gulf of Carpentaria (the
large gulf just west of Cape York on the northeastern tip of Australia) because
this means we'll sail at least part of that last stretch to Darwin
all at once in a one or two-overnighter. That will help us make up
some time and allow us to take a day or two off between here and there to
see the sights.
In the meantime, we will spend a total
of two nights anchored here next to Gloucester Island, which is
technically another drowned mountain national park island on
the very fringe of the Whitsunday Island group. I guess this
could be called Island Hop Stop #7, but we are so close to the mainland we
can almost swim to it, and we are so focused on getting to our next big
milestone (the city of Cairns, pronounced "Cans") that it just doesn't seem like an Island Hop Stop kind of
place. Especially for Don since he spent the better part of two days
working on our fresh water pump, which
is still misbehaving. This is not an unusual occurrence.
Our fresh water pump has suffered on and off over the years and Don has yet to
fully diagnose its malady. Never fear, Don the marvelous maintenance man
will sort it out one way or the other.
Storyteller has re-joined us here after exchanging
one set of guests (Ron and Robin) for another (Annette and Tony of New Zealand
'bach' fame) at the airport on one of the Whitsunday resort islands. We
will both leave tomorrow for points north. This time we'll actually go
north instead of west to get north.
Picture 1 - An afternoon walk on Gloucester
Island's Bona Bay Beach. The white dot in the center is
Don.
Anne
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