I really enjoyed our sail from Ellison Reef down to Townsville. It was one of those rare sails, where the wind was just the right windiness, the swell was nearly negligible and the sun was shining the whole time. OK, so the wind was a little further forward than we would have liked, but it was a beautiful sail. I know I am harping on about it, but do you know how many days of perfect sailing you get when you are going round the world. I'm sure the vast majority of world cruisers would agree with me that it's difficult to get perfect weather conditions. Too strong or motoring seems to sum up our sailing experiences. Look back over the blog and I am sure "a beautiful day's sail" doesn't come up as much as no wind, read as "but at least we got some important jobs done" (always the positive spin!) or too much wind, read as "bumpety bumpety bump" or "Pegasus was really galloping today" as opposed to "terrible swell, strong winds leave us all throwing up and wishing we were on land."

We arrived in Townsville after a little detour, when I noticed no entry symbols all over the chart where our intended route was. A call to Townsville coastguard confirmed, yes, the military would be using that area today for low flying shooting practice, so I'm quite glad we radioed them! A couple of hours detour but we still made it by sunset, being advised by another boat at anchor to put out all the chain we've got and expect to drag. Great! Another Cairns re-run. 100 metres of chain in 1.5m of water did seem a little excessive, but we have got out 40m. And with the anchor watch set on our computer (thanks Pete for showing us introducing us to that 2 years in to our trip!!) we haven't dragged overnight. I just have to remember to clear the anchor watch now before we leave as it gets quite noisy when we sail out of it and I haven't worked out how to clear it without crashing the programme! We'll be here a couple of days and then moving on towards the Whitsundays and Brisbane. 200Nms down 600 or so to go!!