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).