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…