I’ve now turned my thoughts to the return passage. I’d love to have Sunny Spells back in Sydney by the end of September. There’s all that summer twilight racing to do, not to mention lazy summer days just pottering around…

From a weather perspective, the probability of favourable winds improve after August, although we are really looking for windows in the prevailing south-easterlies to avoid having to beat to windward for day on end… Gentlemen don’t sail to windward…

Getting from Airlie Beach to Tin Can Bay will once again be the chilled-out, cruising part of the passage. I don’t think one can do anything other than day sail when you’re amongst the Whitsunday Islands, so we’ll be sailing from one (lovely) anchorage to the next, spending the evenings at anchor. I’d also like to stop at different islands to those visited on the way north and, if the weather is nice, explore a bit. Linne Island is a nice short sail from Airlie Beach, so that could be a first stop, and then Pine Peak Island seems to be another easy day sail away.

It would be great to return to Lady Musgrave Island (weather permitting) for some diving, so I might do an overnight 36 hour sail from Pine Peak Island to Lady Musgrave and then anchor there for a night or two. The diving is great at Lady Musgrave, being the most southern part of the Great Barrier Reef, so if the weather is good and it’s sunny, this would be a great spot for the scuba gear.

From Lady Musgrave we might do another overnight sail (about 20 hours) to the marina at Urangan where we can re-provision and, maybe, overnight in the marina. From there we would do the inside passage via the Great Sandy Strait (inside Fraser Island) to get to Tin Can Bay, where one can, apparently, swim with the dolphins.

Once we leave Tin Can Bay at Double Island Point, the hard work will commence. I think an initial 36 hour leg to Southport (routing outside Cape Morton) is probably the best bet.

If I have a full, experienced crew, I might then continue direct to Sydney from Southport, a passage that should be possible in three to five days, depending on the wind. If I’m shorthanded, however, it might have to be 36 hour legs (Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens are all potential overnight stopovers).

My original plan was to bring Sunny Spells back down south to at least Rosslyn Bay (Keppel Bay Marina) before returning to Sydney. Graham Friend had been flagging the Sydney-Southport race on Seaquest (an Adams/Radford 50) for a while, however, and the call to arms came as soon as I was comfortable established in our apartment on Hamilton Island for a five day rest.

Work and other commitments meant I would have to return to Sydney sooner, so on 13 July I single-handed Sunny Spells to Airlie Beach where I had decided to leave her until I could return to sail her back to Sydney.

Graham said he’d never done the passage in less that 3 hours, so I was well pleased with doing it in 2 hours 55 minutes. Running wing-and-wing with a 1.5 knot northerly set on the ebb tide did help! The downwind sail also meant I could comfortably make bacon and eggs on the pushpit barbeque and it turned into a lovely sail. A great way to end this adventure…

After another day of relaxed downwind sailing in the prevailing south-easterly trades, we were escorted into a berth at Hamilton Island Marina early afternoon on 7 July 2008. Our mission was to replenish water, ice and perishables as quickly as possible before sailing to Whitehaven Beach where we intended to anchor for two nights.

Mission accomplished we set sail around 1600 and headed round the northern tip of Hamilton Island and up the Catsey Beach side of Hamilton Island. We were soon close-hauled into the south-easterly, with the crew enjoying the conditions perfectly suited to our boat.

This was the first time the crew had to tack the boat in 10 days of sailing! It was great to sit on the high rail and feel the power in the rig blasting us through the chop, with spray flying everywhere.

With the south-easterly breeze set to persist and strengthen, we elected to anchor off Haslewood Beach, directly opposite Whitehaven Beach. Two boats were already anchored in the best spots, and we found an anchorage in the northern corner.

The bottom shelves very steeply in this anchorage, and it can be hard to find a safe spot to drop the hook while keeping a safe swinging distance from the fringing reef. We anchored just after low tide and, knowing that our water depth would be greater than at anchoring time through the night, I resolved to get up early and review our location. Nonetheless, I spent the first 3 hours watching the bottom on the sounder to make sure we were not swinging too close to the reef. Next morning I was up at dusk, continuing my assessment. I realized soon enough that, with the scope we had paid out the previous night, our swinging circle would soon be bringing us closer to the reef than I liked. The windlass was used to slowly bring us closer to the anchor and away from the reef. One of the boats left early and we soon pulled up anchor and relocated south. Shortly after, the other boat, located in the best spot, also left, and we dropped the hook just atop the shelf in about 7 meters (low tide) and put out 40 meters of rode. This left us swinging comfortably clear of the reef but still provided almost 4:1 scope at high tide.

A little later, almost at high tide, we were treated to the sight of a chartered Beneteau 32 steaming into the anchorage at 5 knots, straight across the fringing reef, to drop anchor inside the reef, about 20 meters from the beach… A potential disaster at low tide was averted when they soon decided on a more prudent course of action (possibly after radio discussion with the charter company) and relocated across the passage to Whitehaven Beach, where about three dozen charter boats were safely anchored.

The day was squally with lots of rain and gusts up to 28 knots. We were appalled when monitoring the weather broadcasts from the charter companies to hear forecasts for 10 to 15 knot winds…

Towards the evening we all had to get out, and I went for a lovely snorkel on the reef. My one regret is that we didn’t really have great diving weather. While it was fun snorkelling, the lack of direct sunlight meant everything was pretty grey and low-contrast, so there was no point donning the Scuba gear. Oh well, there is always the return passage!

On Wednesday morning the crew went for a quick snorkel while I got Sunny Spells ready. We pulled up the anchor at around 0800 and the crew soon had the full main up as we motor-sailed out the passage. A boat coming the other way (looked like a 40ft+ Beneteau) was running downwind with three reefs in the main and just as I was about to make a remark on the weatherliness of modern boats, I checked myself and called for two reefs in the main. As we came out of the passage into open waters the full strength of the south-easter hit us, and we were soon broad-reaching towards Hamilton Island in 25 to 30 knots of breeze with the spray flying. This was the perfect way to end our ten day passage. The crew were working together like they’ve been doing it for years and I realized I was going to be very sad to see them go…