Sunny Spells and my crew were waiting at Mooloolaba when I arrived. The crew are a nice bunch of people, keen sailors and everyone got along right from the start. The repaired mainsail was in the cockpit (thanks Ullman Sails!) and by 1630 we had left the Mooloolah River and had made sail in a 15 to 20 knot south-easter.
As the light began to fade, the Genoa suddenly started flogging and then slipped down onto the deck and partly into the water! Once we had the sail lashed to the lifelines we realised that the top shackle had come undone and the halyard and top-swivel was still at the masthead. Sarah Belcher, first-mate for this leg, offered to go aloft. We set the mainsail and ran off to keep the boat as upright as possible. George and I winched her up, she attached a thin line to the halyard and was soon back on deck. The yalyard was pulled down, sail was shackled (and the pin tightened properly) and soon we had all the canvas up again.
A long night of broad reaching saw us abeam Sandy Cape early the next morning, and by that afternoon we had done 145nm for the first 24 hours!
The second night was tough…
The wind died, so we motored. It rained, and the squalls were gusty, so we pulled out the genoa, only to find the wind dying to nothing again within minutes.
We were all pretty tired by the time the sun came up. Sarah and I were sitting at the helm and, realizing that Lady Musgrave Island was only two hours motoring away, made an executive decision to divert for a bit of a rest and a night at anchor. As soon as we turned towards our new destination, we were close-hauled, and now there was enough apparent wind to kill the motor – just bliss! Sunny Spells loves sailing to windward and there was just enough wind for a very comfortable sail. Being behind the Reef there was also very little swell.
The anchorage at Lady Musgrave Island was sublime. We anchored in 7 meters of briliant turquoise water and, after a brilliant tidy-up by the crew (even the decks got a scrub!!) we were soon chilling out. The snorkelling was great (a bit scary to go down and see your own anchor…) and George inflated the dinghy so they could paddle to the island and explore.
