From Great Keppel to Mackay - Arriving at the Whitsundays' southern gateway

After much consideration on how to do the 167 miles from GKI to Mackay (route, weather and Soccer World Cup considerations), we decided that this time we'll miss the beautiful stops along the way and instead we'll do a 28 hours non-stop sail. On Thursday 26 June we left at sunrise and with the wind at 10 to 15 knots dead in the back for most of the trip we motor-sailed to keep good speed, with following seas the trip was quite comfortable.

We arrived at Mackay Outer Harbour next day at around noon, after dribbling 3 of the dozens of cargo ship moving around in this busy area. Our AIS is not behaving properly with the new navigation system as it looses the GPS connection to transmit our position, but at least it behaves properly in showing all info about the other ships. It was good enough but we need to work on that.

We are now in Mackay Marina that is very big and modern and quite reasonable priced. With strong winds forecast for next week plus the need of stock up on provisions before heading to the islands we are planning to stay here until Friday. There are also a couple of national parks we'd like to visit, It seems that Mackay is booming and there is a lot to do and see around here.

      

Mackay Marina