We left Gold Coast City Marina and after a quiet night in Little Sand Hills arrived to Mooloolaba the following day. I had plans to fly to Melbourne and then Sydney while our good friend Eduardo joined Oscar to keep sailing north. The idea was for them to get to Mackay where I would fly back with my cousin. She was visiting from Argentina to stay a couple of weeks with us.
The tricky part of the trip was to time correctly the crossing of Wide Bay Bar with calm weather, right tide and day light. With that in mind they left Mooloolaba at first light. Conditions were good when they arrived at the bar entrance and crossed without incidents behind 2 other sailboats one hour before sunset. They just made it to Pelican Bay with the last light to anchor for the night.
They left the following morning with favorable current and tide on the Great Sandy Strait and kept going overnight with the idea to get as far as possible ahead of strong winds. When they were close to Great Keppel islands the wind and seas were already uncomfortable and Oscar decided to enter Rosslyn Bay Marina in Yeppoon. The weather was not showing any improvement for the following days and Eduardo had to go back to his work commitments.
This is not a bad area to get stuck and we adjusted our plans. After my cousin Ana arrived in Sydney we flew to Rockhampton where Oscar was waiting for us to board Zenitude.
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| With Ana Maria in Zenitude |
In the 2 weeks we had to get to Townsville we stopped in many nice places for our guest to enjoy. We were really lucky with the weather as we travel thru the Percy Islands and the Whitsundays. There was even time to spend a couple of days in Magnetic Island and do some of the walking tracks with magnificent views. A couple of days before her departure date we arrived at Breakwater Marina in Townsville.
We plan to stay around this area for quite a while as we prepare to receive our next friend in September.
G.
