Hiding out at Goldsmith Island

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We had a pretty comfortable night at Brampton Island - it was well sheltered from the wind but we didn’t visit the beach as the weather was poor. Despite the strong wind warning as the prediction bordered on 30 knots we thought we’ld try it out and prepared to leave. As we were doing this the foreign yacht that we had left at Scawfell turned up and dropped anchor along with enthusiastic waving to us. Soon after we were pulling ours up and leaving them again- hopefully they didn’t take it personally.



Naomi got in a bit of a fluster as she sailed us off the anchor in the flukey winds especially as the current pushed us toward the other yacht. We cleared it with plenty of room though and as we escaped the land the wind and waves got bigger and bigger and we were doing a steady 6 knots under a partially furled gib alone. Actually it wasn’t steady, we were wavering (I just noticed this pun) between 4 and 8 knots depending on what part of the wave we were on, or whether it coincided with one of the 35 knots gusts, and with it some big rolls - now was my time to be tense.



We were planning to get to Shaw Island but instead pulled in after only 12 miles at Goldsmith, after a real struggle to furl the gib. I had had enough exhilaration (how do people do this day after day across oceans?) and thought it would serve as a better anchorage as we would likely settle for a few days waiting for calmer weather.



We have had 3 nights alone here in Minnie Hall Bay tucked into the gap in the reef as much as is possible with 60 metres of chain out. There have been some wicked bullets of wind shooting across the bay making the whole boat shake and rattle as it weaves from side to side.



Between the rain showers we have had some nice trips ashore, with a choice of 6 beaches in this bay. Naomi had great luck catching bait fish with the cast net but not so much luck catching anything with them - only one small reef fish. Explored a mangrove creek and caught nothing but tree roots and today we tried anchoring the dinghy near reef with a fresh batch of bait fish but caught nothing.



We listened to the sched for a Whitsunday charter boat company this afternoon. There were only 3 boats on roll call and 2 of those were in marinas!



The winds are dropping to a mere 20 knots tomorrow so will jump north with the dropping tide after midday and make for Cid Harbour and then Airlie Beach marina the next day. Naomi is looking forward to eating fruit again.





Luke

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Sailing the seas
Great photo and adventure.