Port Douglas

Position: 16 29.14 S 145 27.57
E The wind grew gradually lighter yesterday afternoon. At 1515 I set the code zero and Sylph's speed jumped up from three knots to five. It's a great sail and works well in the right conditions, but even this large light headsail can't make Sylph move when there is no wind so a couple of hours later I had to hand the big red sail and flash up the BRM instead. We arrived off Low Islets at 2030 and unsurprisingly we found the five public moorings already taken and a number of boats at anchor. The limited anchorage area was also taken up with several small tourist punts taking up space on moorings, presumable they are glass bottomed and used for people to snorkel from. Also I found the depths on my chart to be inaccurate, which indicated a shoal patch extending north of the islands but the depth sounder showed ten meters almost up to the shore line. Eventually, after slowly motoring around and scanning the surrounds with a spot light, I found a spot I was happy with and I let go the anchor in six meters of water over a sandy bottom. This morning, after catching up on some much needed sleep, we got under way at 0930 to a light breeze, which I was pleased to find was sufficient to set sail to. We arrived off the entrance to Port Douglas at 1115 where we handed sail, flashed up the BRM, and motored over the shallows into the entrance and alongside a berth at the local marina. My plan is to stay here for about three nights, mainly to store ship, then continue heading south as soon as the weather allows. All is well. |