SV-Kittani

After a couple of relaxing days in the Keppels, it was time to hit the high seas and head north in convoy with Tintin. The next stop was Port Clinton were we stayed for 2 nights, a wide expanse of waterways and good holding. Fairly strong winds kept us swinging a bit on our anchor, of for a sound nights sleep.

 

Tintin anchored in Port Clinton - a huge expanse of water.

From there we headed to the Percy Islands stopping off overnight at South Percy for another 'swell' evening. Is there nowhere to have a still nights sleep? Off bright and breezy the next morning to Digby Island.

 It was a gentle motor all the way with no wind to be had. How can it from gale force to nothing so quickly. Getting in there at lunch time, it was BLT's for lunch then ashore for a swim and walk along the beach. What a lovely spot with just our 2 boats the only ones there.

With strong winds yet again the next morning, it was up with the sails and north to Scawfell Island. 25knt winds gave us a great sail up there but that was just the start of the winds. They increased throughout the evening to 30knts and were coming through the bay in which we were anchored in bullets. Very little sleep that night, very rolly again but we are almost  getting used to that. Off early the following morning with no abating of the winds, it was a shorter but just as fast sail north anchoring in the shelter of Thomas Island for the evening. We had stayed there on a previous trip and had fond memories of the island, with turtles popping up around us and were keen to get back there again. It was just as lovely but not as calm as we had had previously. The winds were now constant 24/7 so it was just for the evening as we were keen to push through to Airlie Beach.
Thomas Island is the start of the Whitsundays so we headed off in the morning passing all the resorts - Daydream, Long Island, South Molle .
Coasting up through Whitsunday passage with strong current going with us, we made good time into Airlie Beach, though rain squalls were intermittent with sunshine, it was a real mix of weather.

 

Aaah Queensland..."perfect one day...Bucketing the next"

 We anchored in the bay amongst the moorings and decided to have dinner ashore at the yacht club. How good it felt to get 'dressed up' for a night on the town.
Back to civilisation with supermarkets, laundromats and cafes. A lovely day spent getting washing up to date, basic provisions bought and sharing a real latte - loved every minute of it. The afternoon was lazing around the public pool, swimming and reading books. Nice to have our feet on terra firma again. Tomorrow we will go into the marina to refuel and top up water tanks, last of the provisioning and then it's off again wherever the wind takes us.