The Cure for Work

With the SE winds dropping we topped up the water tanks at Nelly Bay at and made the bold move to head for Airlie. The forecast on Monday was "E/NE winds 10/15 knots with afternoon seabreezes 15/20 knots inshore. Seas to1.4 m" Our heading for most of the day was SE so we went for it. It was a reasonable trip to Cape Bowling Green but after seeing that the anchorage there was a bit 'rolly', we left for Cape Upstart at about 1230 hrs expecting to be at Upstart before dusk. 2 hours later, the winds increased to 15/20 knots as forecast but they were more E/SE ! (hey what happened to the N?) We heard an updated forecast on the radio which put the seas at 1.7m, however the sea we were on increased quickly to 2 m. With 3 hours to go the first reef went in, followed half an hour later with another. The seas were now building and there were some sets close to 3 or 4 m high and the strongest wind over the decks I noticed was close to 30 knots. Our Seawind cat surprisingly never slammed into many waves at all on this close hauled leg, although the crests of every wave, and especially those larger ones, were foamed off and sprayed all over us. I manually steered this section so I could bear away a little for the bigger ones, and this made life onboard a little more comfortable for the both of us. Our max speed for the day somewhere here was 11.1 knots with this double reefed combo. I furled the rest on the headsail (even using the windward sheet as a barber-hauler it was not giving much assistance this close hauled and � furled) for the last hour and started one motor so we could make a better angle into the wind and we finally dropped the anchor at Cape Upstart at about 1830 hrs just as the light was fading. We had anchored here on our way north, and I was confident of anchoring here even after dark as I had marked our last anchorage point on the chart plotter, and there were no reefs on the approach to it.
The next morning, the wind had eased off to a comfortable 3 knots from the SW in our tucked away corner, but the forecast was NE so we headed off with another 5 yachts to go to Bona Bay on Gloucester Is.(9nm east of Bowen). This was a much better leg with the 15/20knot E/NE winds making for a fast albeit lumpy sail arriving at 1530hrs.
The next morning, turtle tracks on the adjacent beach showed where a turtle had nested in the early hours, and there were another 5 similar tracks along other parts of Bona Beach. I spent the rest of the day trying to catch some fish, before enjoying sundowners on the beach with the other yacht owners who sailed with us since Maggie Island. We all had similar stories of this trip and they confirmed my observations of 4m seas and 30 knots across the decks. We rested another night at Bona and finished our sail to Airlie by midday on Thursday.
The drying salt had piled up everywhere on deck, so a very thorough fresh water hose off was the first job, even under the targa and shade covers over the cockpit area, the helm stations and the cabin doors and windows.
The crew was most impressive now that she has her 'sea legs', not needing a bucket once during the whole trip, although now we talk about Oct 27th with wide open eyes.
PS. I was also informed over tea that night that all my brownie points I have ever earned in our 34 years of marriage have just been wiped off the slate! Oh well........
We are now finally cruising the Whitsundays in good weather, and today I cleaned the port hull of all the slime attached to it in readiness for the final push for home.(I didn't even get sunburnt like you did Dennis, although I am envious of you having only one hull to clean right at this time!)