Our Swirling Vortex of Christmas Death!

Fake lips and plastic moustaches.
God bless cheap Christmas crackers!

The trip from Curlew to the Duke Islands was great in comparison to some of our recent legs back south. We got an early start on Christmas Eve, raising our anchor a little before 5am. The wind had lots of south in it and the tide was strong enough to help us keep our south-east course. We had decent wind (20-25 knots) and waves (to 3m) for the first couple of hours but then the wind and waves dropped off and we had quite a pleasant sail for the next few hours.

Before the carnage.

We were at the Dukes during spring tides, when there is a big difference between tide heights at high and low tides. On top of this, the tides around Shoalwater Bay are renowned for their insanity and I can't recall noticing springs as much as we did at the Dukes. It took us a few tries to find an anchorage and we ended up in a nice deep bay on the south end of Hunter Island. We spent the afternoon there preparing for Santa's arrival and noticed nothing unusual. Shortly after bedtime however the wind picked up and with it the waves. We were rolling like a crazy rolly thing, and sleep for me at least was impossible, although Shane was fine. It calmed down after an hour or so and I nodded off eventually. After pressie-opening the next day, the rocking kicked in again and we went upstairs to discover that we were in a swirling vortex of Christmas death!! Shane calls it "tidal disturbance" but he is very good at minimising. The vortex was small, only 30m or so across. One side of the bay was an island that at low tide was joined to Hunter Island, but at high tide the water coming over the causeway was quite wild - it was the craziest bit of water in the whole massive bay and we were in it. We paused Christmas lunch prep and relocated (because we can!) to a delightfully turtle-infested bay near the cattle station on the west side of Marble Island. It was calm and lovely and we had a fantastic afternoon that involved lots of eating, drinking, reading, card-playing and snoozing. Santa was very kind to everyone - the kids did particularly well although Santa was perhaps a little mean giving them each a Wii game that they can't use until we're home.

Under spinnaker, me at the helm.

From the Dukes, we continued south and on the way managed to do another all-nighter by accident. The wind swung north and we had a fantastic run to Island Head Creek - so good that we decided to chuck the spinnaker up and keep going to Port Clinton. Shortly before arriving at Port Clinton, Haydee and I evicted Shane and Cam into the dinghy and they took some photos and videos of the boat sailing under spinnaker - something that is hard to get.

Port Clinton is barred and Ex-TC Fina kicked up a wicked 3m south-east swell creating massive breakers over the shallows that meant crossing the bar could have been potentially catastrophic, so we didn't. After another family vote (do we night-sail or anchor overnight and head off again in the morning?), we anchored behind a big rock that mostly-protected us from the swell, had dinner, got ready for a night sail and waited for the incoming tide to turn. We set off again just after 10pm and got to Keppel Bay marina a little after 5.30am.

From here, we have less-than-ideal weather to sail south-east but good weather to sail east and so will head to Herron Island via Great Keppel Island then down to Lady Musgrave via Fitzroy Reef to see some turtles nesting and hatching, we hope!!!

All clear

TC Fina didn't have a very long life. We spent yesterday and today sheltered at Curlew Island, about 45nm SE of Mackay. It has provided us good protection from the SE winds and while we have had a little bit of swell, it has not been too uncomfortable. We have managed to keep ourselves very busy doing absolutely nothing!

The winds are forecast to weaken to 15-20kts tomorrow, so despite them still being SE, we will make the move from here SE to the Duke Islands. We will spend Christmas day on the west side of Hunter Island, and get back on schedule by sailing to Island Head Creek on Boxing Day. The low that was Fina will be well south by Monday and the trough should bring a few days of North-ish winds to help us on our three day run south to Rosslyn Bay. Fingers crosssed ...

Bugger - A Cyclone

We've been watching a low way up north for a few days and have experienced it's effects in the form of 20+ knot south-easterly winds - not good when you want to sail south-east. The low defied early predictions and has come south and strengthened into Tropical Cyclone Fina, sitting 800km northeast of Mackay and heading south-west as at 11.00 this morning. We have decided to stay at Curlew Island for one, possibly two, days rather than continue south primarily because Curlew offers excellent protection from south-easterly winds, seas and swell and our next safe haven is 40 miles away in the direction the wind is coming from.

We will continue to have strong winds but we're outside the BoM's affected areas forecast. I would have preferred that any cyclones held off until we were south of Bundaberg but it seems we may be in for some excitement - and a windy Christmas. Here's hoping it is all a big non-event and Fina eases and heads back out to sea as predicted later today!

Christmas Prep

Can you see our dinky Xmas Tree?

As we were packing our house into boxes all those months ago, I came across the Christmas decorations and briefly pondered grabbing some to bring with us. I had more urgent things to think about at the time so they all got packed in boxes in Brisbane. Nonetheless, we've managed to convert the boat into a floating Christmas bauble with tinsel, balloons, a Christmas tree (secured in its place with blue tack) and lights, e-advent calendars (thanks Nanna and Grandad!!) and more kiddy Christmas craft than you could poke a stick at (thank you Aunty Karyn!!). All our Christmas Shopping, both pressies and food, is done - this is possibly the most organised I've ever been, mainly because proximity to shops means we had to be - and I for one am looking forward to pavlovas for dessert on Christmas day!

We plan on being back in the beautiful Duke Islands on Christmas and hope our mobile broadband antenna will let us skype with family and friends.

In any event, merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for 2012 from all of us!! Take care and we hope to catch up with everyone soon.

The Whitsundays Once Again

Cam's 3,000th fish

Magnetic Island and Townsville were great, Maggie in particular. We made it ashore for beers at sunset once again and the kids took their already excellent water skiing skills to the next level by practicing steering and jumping the boat's wake. They were both amazing and have the water skiing bug big time.

Moogie 'helminating' at 3.30am

After our fairly horrible time in Bowen on the way up, Shane came up with a cunning plan to by-pass it on the way back down - a 120nm or 215km trek from Townsville, past Bowen, to the northern Whitsundays. We left Townsville at 2pm last Sunday after a bludgey morning of bacon, eggs and swimming and, after sailing all afternoon and all night, dropped our anchor at Gloucester Island at 8.30am the next morning. It was a long long night that included an electrical storm, decent seas at an angle to our course that made sleeping difficult for everyone except Cam, and up-and-down winds that had us raising and lowering sails more often than you'd like at night. But we made it and Shane and I were both super-impressed with the kids who each pulled a night shift on the helm - Cam got 3.00 to 3.30am and H got 3.30 to 4.00am. I was up on deck with them, although not particularly conscious after being awake for 24 hours, but they were both fantastic and remarkably happy to be there. Cam kept thinking I was there to answer interesting questions about coal loaders, big ships and other random-ness. H was accompanied by Moogie, her toy sheep, who she attached to the helm in order to let her steer (or helminate as we have taken to calling it). I should also point out that Shane left me upstairs on the helm during the storm while he sat downstairs nice and dry texting like Gossip Girl, God bless him!

Upside-down H. She can't not touch!

After resting up at Gloucester Island, we headed east back out to Bait Reef once again. Bait Reef has become a favourite and we had it almost to ourselves again. Half a dozen Giant Trevally, some massive Wrasse, turtles and a manta ray kept Shane and the kids company as they snorkelled the Stepping Stones and Manta Ray Drop-off.

We're now back in the Whitsundays and I have to admit that I've remembered why it isn't my favourite sailing destination. The wind gusts and lulls are insane, the bare boats (sadly, we're here during school holidays again) are scary and the commercial operators are rude. We've also had to modify our initial plans to re-visit Border Island and Whitehaven as strong south-easterlies have been forecast for the next few days. We'll seek secure anchorages as we head back towards Mackay via the Smith group and St Bees and Keswick Islands, which I'm really keen to see in nice weather as we had low cloud last time we were there. We expect we'll be somewhere around Keppel Bay - Lady Musgrave Island for Christmas and we're still on track to be back home around mid-January.

Lizard to Townsville

Sadly there is such a thing as too much fish when you don't have a freezer. We had five feeds of mackerel in a row which, while very tasty, can get a little OTT after a while.

Getting ready to anchor at Bowden Island

We're now back at Magnetic Island off Townsville after almost continuous day-sailing from Lizard Island. We did spend time in Port Douglas where we went crocodile hunting, unsuccessfully unfortunately, and Cairns where we took care of Christmas shopping and some maintenance tasks.

From Cairns we made the 90nm (160km) trek to Bowden Island via Fitzroy Island and Mourilyan Harbour. Shane's Bowden Island log uses delightful euphemisms like "Last night was not the best one we have had" and "it wasn't a fun night." We actually endured ridiculous amounts of rain and hideous side-to-side rolling overnight - Bowden Island was the worst overnight anchorage so far, including Thomas Island (see 5 Sep post). I got up, and poor Shane followed, at 11pm or so and we pondered moving but decided not to as nothing nearby offered guaranteed shelter in the weather we were having. I think it was 3am-ish that I nodded off although it was far from a restful night.

Back to Zoe Bay

From Bowden we moved to Hinchinbrook's Zoe Bay where we trekked once again to the waterfall for a swim. There was a lot of rain in the area in the few days before we got there so the creek and waterfall had a lot of water in them but it was still absolutely beautiful. If the bay itself was a calmer anchorage it would definitely be in my Top 10. Similarly, Little Pioneer Bay on Orpheus Island would also be in my Top 10 if the beach was better as it was a fantastic anchorage both times we've been there.

Overall we've done a lot of miles in the last week or so heading south. The weather has been mostly on our side with a few notable exceptions requiring us to make use of the engine - and diesel - more than we might like but we're on track to be back in Brisbane by mid-January as planned. Noooooo............!!!!!!