We slowly sailed south the next day, with perfect conditions. Wind coming over the top of Fraser, no waves and the tides not so noticeable. It was peaceful. We stayed about 1/4 mile or less offshore and ran the shoreline, on a port tack for the whole day. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world, so it was surprising to see so much greenery...interspersed with big hillsides of white sand and of course the continuous beaches. With Fraser being 65 miles long, the plan was to take several days to travel its length, as this was likely the last cruising we would do.

We knew we had a few options of where to stay and as we travelled up to the first two, they didn't look ideal. They were exposed to a stiffer breeze than we'd be comfortable in, as the wind would push us towards shore and if anything went wrong with the anchor, we would have no time to react. We had started out early, to leave ourselves enough time to find the best spot so we carried on to the last option of the day.

Big Woody Island is just that. It might more aptly be named Big Woody Long Skinny Island! By now we had the incoming tide pushing us and we flew past it to the southern end, in no time. One quick turn head to wind and we had the main sail down and quickly dropped the anchor. As SOON as we cut the engine the deafening sound of the Cicadas 100 feet away in the trees was impressive. It's one of the very interesting things about travel. As we are undeniably so close to nature, whatever is happening is immediately on display. Sometimes it's birds, bats, Dolphins, Dugongs....you just never know what it's going to be. But since we have so little to distract us...we notice allot, Dave especially. Every time he is on watch he sees whales, which is extra special because before we left home he had hardly seen any. By the time he got to Fraser he had likely seen close to 100!