Next day saw us leave Hamilton Island and motor through Solway Passage (uneventful at slack tide) to Chalkies Beach on Hazlewood Island for a snorkel. We easily picked up a mooring.
We snorkelled to the beach on Hazlewood Island then walked north along the beach for a while as we had been told the best coral was on the northern end. We had a long chat with a honeymoon couple from Canada who had a bareboat charter, then got back in the water. It was a long swim back to Kismet. Not much unbleached coral I'm afraid.
From Hazlewood Island we motored around to Tongue Bay and picked up a mooring for the night. It was a fairly rough night and next morning the huge mooring bouy had somehow made its way round to the back of the boat and was crashing on Kismet's rudders. I used the boat hook to move it back to the front (that sounds simple - it wasn't). My phone app, Anchorwatch, showed we had just made tiny circles all night.
The charter skeds next morning were alive with advice from the charter companies about the wind picking up a lot and finding safe anchorages for that night so we took the hint and decided to head for Nara Inlet.
From Tongue Bay we motored up the east side of Whitsunday Island almost dead into the wind, then through Hook Passage. Our destination was Nara Inlet however I forgot to save the track feature on Navionics so I have reconstructed a track in the picture below.
After getting safely through Hook Passage (easy again) we went to raise sails. It was here that I mucked up. Once the main was up, I went forward to get the Jib ready to hoist and couldn't get enough slack to attach the Jib halyard. (I had detached it to use it for our shade the day before). I think I also realised that the jib sheets need a bit of re-routing and went back to the cockpit to adjust them. Totally forgetting that the halyard shackle wasn't yet attached I gave the halyard a big heave (I tended to raise it quickly when not heading into the wind as it goes up more easily), and up the halyard shackle went - minus jib. I attempted to get it down by standing on the cabin roof using the boat pole but was told to STOP - I was being rocked about a lot and it must have looked precarious holding on to the mast with one hand and the end of a very extended boat pole with the other.
Since Kismet is really difficult to keep correct heading when on a close reach, we couldn't sail. I regretted losing the days sailing due to my mistake. At Nara Inlet, once anchored, I tied a small shackle to the boat hook and was easily able to retrieve the errant halyard shackle.
We had anchored only once before at Homestead Bay where I had used the cheap sand anchor that Kismet came with. This time, since it was overnight we initially anchored with the sand anchor then I broke out my shiny new G7 alloy anchor and spent a few minutes assembling it, adding equally new 8 meters of chain and 8mm nylon rope (now rode). Swapping over anchors was a little challenging but soon we were safely secured with the G7. There was lots of discussion with the crew about just where we were anchoring as there was a lot of rock around us.
Our dinner at Nara Inlet was frozen homemade hamburger patties cooked on the Origo (with lots of salad stuff), between two slices of bread toasted on the Origo using one of those campfire toasters. (After getting home and checking/cleaning everything I am surprised it hasn't rusted - it's only chrome plated mild steel.)
Tammy showing me the frypan while I was setting the Anchorwatch position.
Tammy is toasting bread here. Our 90 x 60cm stowable cockpit table has adjustable height and we has just found the lower setting to be a lot easier to use when using the Origo stove.
Laurel tended to take most of the pictures so isn't in them much.
Next morning, 7th September, after a quiet night, Anchorwatch (phone App) showed we had only wandered a few meters and we prepared to pull up the anchor and get under way to our Port of Airlie berth.
I didn't believe Tammy at first when she pointed out that there was only a meter of water between us and the rocks but the boat pole affirmed that it was true - whoops. Whitsunday tides.
I found with Kismet that we didn't really need to motor to the anchor as the boat is light enough that a firm continuous pull on the anchor rode moves the boat fairly easily. So it was then I found that the rode was wrapped around just about every rock within a 10 meter radius. I got Tammy to come forward with the boat hook and between her pushing the nylon rode around each rock then me pulling Kismet up to the next one, we got her free pretty easily. It took about 5 to 10 minutes.
Once I got to the chain it was easy to recover the anchor. I was quite surprised when it all fitted in the anchor locker.
While carefully threading our way through the rocks out of Nara Inlet, there was a guy near where we anchored standing on the bow of his charter boat with the anchor winch remote control in his hands looking gravely at the water. What we just did getting our rode untangled would be sooo much harder with a 5 tonne boat.
After getting safely through Hook Passage (easy again) we went to raise sails. It was here that I mucked up. Once the main was up, I went forward to get the Jib ready to hoist and couldn't get enough slack to attach the Jib halyard. (I had detached it to use it for our shade the day before). I think I also realised that the jib sheets need a bit of re-routing and went back to the cockpit to adjust them. Totally forgetting that the halyard shackle wasn't yet attached I gave the halyard a big heave (I tended to raise it quickly when not heading into the wind as it goes up more easily), and up the halyard shackle went - minus jib. I attempted to get it down by standing on the cabin roof using the boat pole but was told to STOP - I was being rocked about a lot and it must have looked precarious holding on to the mast with one hand and the end of a very extended boat pole with the other.
Since Kismet is really difficult to keep correct heading when on a close reach, we couldn't sail. I regretted losing the days sailing due to my mistake. At Nara Inlet, once anchored, I tied a small shackle to the boat hook and was easily able to retrieve the errant halyard shackle.
We had anchored only once before at Homestead Bay where I had used the cheap sand anchor that Kismet came with. This time, since it was overnight we initially anchored with the sand anchor then I broke out my shiny new G7 alloy anchor and spent a few minutes assembling it, adding equally new 8 meters of chain and 8mm nylon rope (now rode). Swapping over anchors was a little challenging but soon we were safely secured with the G7. There was lots of discussion with the crew about just where we were anchoring as there was a lot of rock around us.
Our dinner at Nara Inlet was frozen homemade hamburger patties cooked on the Origo (with lots of salad stuff), between two slices of bread toasted on the Origo using one of those campfire toasters. (After getting home and checking/cleaning everything I am surprised it hasn't rusted - it's only chrome plated mild steel.)
Tammy showing me the frypan while I was setting the Anchorwatch position.
Tammy is toasting bread here. Our 90 x 60cm stowable cockpit table has adjustable height and we has just found the lower setting to be a lot easier to use when using the Origo stove.
Laurel tended to take most of the pictures so isn't in them much.
Next morning, 7th September, after a quiet night, Anchorwatch (phone App) showed we had only wandered a few meters and we prepared to pull up the anchor and get under way to our Port of Airlie berth.
I didn't believe Tammy at first when she pointed out that there was only a meter of water between us and the rocks but the boat pole affirmed that it was true - whoops. Whitsunday tides.
I found with Kismet that we didn't really need to motor to the anchor as the boat is light enough that a firm continuous pull on the anchor rode moves the boat fairly easily. So it was then I found that the rode was wrapped around just about every rock within a 10 meter radius. I got Tammy to come forward with the boat hook and between her pushing the nylon rode around each rock then me pulling Kismet up to the next one, we got her free pretty easily. It took about 5 to 10 minutes.
Once I got to the chain it was easy to recover the anchor. I was quite surprised when it all fitted in the anchor locker.
While carefully threading our way through the rocks out of Nara Inlet, there was a guy near where we anchored standing on the bow of his charter boat with the anchor winch remote control in his hands looking gravely at the water. What we just did getting our rode untangled would be sooo much harder with a 5 tonne boat.
Leaving Nara Inlet.
Once clear of Nara we hoisted sails and had a great sail to Port of Airlie.
It wasn't so great dropping sails at Airlie though. By the time we neared shallow water the wind was up and the waves were over a meter with whitecaps. There were some white knuckles but we were fine if a little uncomfortable (Laurel says we weren't fine). We motored into Port of Airlie where we had been given the same berth that we started from.
After checking the weather forecasts for the next few days, we decided to retrieve next morning.
So next morning the 8th of September at around 08:00 (high tide) we motored the 300 meters to the Port of Airlie boat ramp.
Trouble. As we rounded the corner to the boat ramp there were two 30 meter Cruise Whitsundays power catamarans, one rotating on the spot and the other sounding "I am going astern". We were pretty stuck on which way to go so I swerved into one of the commercial berths only to be waved off from a dockhand pointing at yet another large Commercial Sailing Catamaran.
We managed to avoid to much confrontation then saw that there was a largish power boat launching on the jetty side (the side I had to dock) of the ramp.
He was in the water and off the jetty in short time and again, we avoided each other while ducking the shuttle boats.
The wind was off the dock at what I thought to be about 20 knots so I had talked through how we were going t dock with daughter Tammy. She was up the front with a mooring line ready to tie off the bow. We came in at about a 30 degree angle to the dock with just enough power to overcome the wind and I turned off at the last second and reversed a little to stop the boat. Tammy calmly stepped ashore and a wrapped couple of turns around the dock cleat.
Then it went belly up.
I was supposed to leave it in reverse and turn the motor as if doing a turn to port. Instead I placed it back in forward and turned to starboard. With no wind that would have been fine, it would have pushed the stern in, but as it was the boat quickly came around to almost 90 degrees to the dock. Tammy was yelling "REVERSE" - and I did. At that point the stern started moving to the dock and we were OK again. A bit more power and we moved parallel to the dock and tied off. But I had banged the port bow and made a golfball size dent about 1cm deep - even though the jetty had a rubber strip - it was obviously hard rubber. My bow fender almost saved it but not quite.
After that we retrieved OK - with me mightily annoyed that we had discussed docking and I had mucked it up.
As we prepared Kismet for road travel and Tammy got her gear out ready to catch a 09:50 shuttle to Hamilton Island, the wind just kept getting stronger. We parked Kismet and car next to the boat ramp and walked Tammy up to the Transit lounge.
Daughter Tammy aboard the Cruise Whitsundays shuttle pointing to Kismet next to the boat ramp waiting to get her outboard flushed - and a preliminary wash down for boat and trailer.
Next post - preparation for the road and the trip home...
Once clear of Nara we hoisted sails and had a great sail to Port of Airlie.
It wasn't so great dropping sails at Airlie though. By the time we neared shallow water the wind was up and the waves were over a meter with whitecaps. There were some white knuckles but we were fine if a little uncomfortable (Laurel says we weren't fine). We motored into Port of Airlie where we had been given the same berth that we started from.
After checking the weather forecasts for the next few days, we decided to retrieve next morning.
So next morning the 8th of September at around 08:00 (high tide) we motored the 300 meters to the Port of Airlie boat ramp.
Trouble. As we rounded the corner to the boat ramp there were two 30 meter Cruise Whitsundays power catamarans, one rotating on the spot and the other sounding "I am going astern". We were pretty stuck on which way to go so I swerved into one of the commercial berths only to be waved off from a dockhand pointing at yet another large Commercial Sailing Catamaran.
We managed to avoid to much confrontation then saw that there was a largish power boat launching on the jetty side (the side I had to dock) of the ramp.
He was in the water and off the jetty in short time and again, we avoided each other while ducking the shuttle boats.
The wind was off the dock at what I thought to be about 20 knots so I had talked through how we were going t dock with daughter Tammy. She was up the front with a mooring line ready to tie off the bow. We came in at about a 30 degree angle to the dock with just enough power to overcome the wind and I turned off at the last second and reversed a little to stop the boat. Tammy calmly stepped ashore and a wrapped couple of turns around the dock cleat.
Then it went belly up.
I was supposed to leave it in reverse and turn the motor as if doing a turn to port. Instead I placed it back in forward and turned to starboard. With no wind that would have been fine, it would have pushed the stern in, but as it was the boat quickly came around to almost 90 degrees to the dock. Tammy was yelling "REVERSE" - and I did. At that point the stern started moving to the dock and we were OK again. A bit more power and we moved parallel to the dock and tied off. But I had banged the port bow and made a golfball size dent about 1cm deep - even though the jetty had a rubber strip - it was obviously hard rubber. My bow fender almost saved it but not quite.
After that we retrieved OK - with me mightily annoyed that we had discussed docking and I had mucked it up.
As we prepared Kismet for road travel and Tammy got her gear out ready to catch a 09:50 shuttle to Hamilton Island, the wind just kept getting stronger. We parked Kismet and car next to the boat ramp and walked Tammy up to the Transit lounge.
Daughter Tammy aboard the Cruise Whitsundays shuttle pointing to Kismet next to the boat ramp waiting to get her outboard flushed - and a preliminary wash down for boat and trailer.
Next post - preparation for the road and the trip home...
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