Although it had not been a very calm night at Sudbury Cay, on Tuesday morning (3rd August) Randall and I still did our daily Tai Chi warm-up exercises and routine on the deck. Some of the balancing poses either require holding onto something or are cut a bit short when the boat is bouncing around, but it still seems worth going through the motions. After all, much of the point of doing it is to try to improve our balance. This particular morning we had some unusual spectators as a pair of dwarf spinner dolphins swam around Tregoning. They stayed until our “performance” was over and clearly looked at us several times. What a happy way to start the day!

We were relieved to have no difficulty in pulling up the anchor as this confirmed that we were anchored over sand and had not caught our chain on any coral or rocks. Leaving Sudbury Reef about 7:30 am, we motored northwest about 10 nm to get to Fitzroy Island. We could not use the jib because the wind was coming from our port side and we had again suspended the dinghy on Tregoning’s starboard bow. This was a mistake.

Unlike the previous day, we now had the wind on the side rather than behind us, and at about 13 knots it made waves that occasionally rolled Tregoning enough to dip the bottom of dinghy into the water. The rolls were never hard enough to move the dinghy very far and all was well in the end, but I found it very nerve-wracking, fearing that it might become worse and really throw the dinghy around. Lynne had recently asked us what type of condition was not suitable for carrying the dinghy this way...this was it!

I was much relieved when got into the lee of Little Fitzroy and then Fitzroy Islands. We had been concerned that Welcome Bay might be rolly with the easterly swell and southeasterly wind, but it proved to be marvelously calm compared to the previous night. Perhaps as a consequence of these comfortable conditions, there were quite a few boats in the Bay. We tried to get a vacant public mooring so that if Curried Oats arrived and were unable to use their anchor windlass, we could give them the mooring. However, of the only two moorings that were available, one was exposed to wind and waves on the far west side of the bay, and the other was for smaller boats. So, we returned to the east side of the bay to anchor in the same place as last year. Symphony II anchored nearby but while Mischief was looking for a suitable spot between us, a motorboat that was leaving offered them their public mooring!



Fitzroy Island seen from Tregoning’s anchorage in Welcome Bay

We checked with Curried Oats to find that Anita and Mike were on their way and with their engine running could use their windlass, so anchoring was not an issue for them. Given that news, the rest of us went ashore for lunch at Foxy’s Bar, which is part of the Fitzroy Island Resort. This was followed by a leisurely stroll into the rainforest along the Secret Garden trail, listening for birds but not seeing many. After munching on ice-creams, and as we were preparing to return to our boats, we ran into Mike who was going to the resort’s general store. He was frustrated with their electrical problems but hoped that a full examination of their batteries and the power distribution system, while in the Marlin Marina, would allow him to find the solution. As the saying goes, “Cruising – fixing your boat in exotic places”.

I debated about snorkeling on the reefy bits off the beach as many other visitors to the Island were doing, but instead I looked at Tregoning’s hull which I had not inspected since she had her new coat of bottom paint in March. I was glad to find the paint in very good condition. I cleaned a little encrustation off the Propspeed on the propeller and made sure the through-hulls for the galley and bathroom sinks were clear. There was a thin layer of brown slime on the aft half of the hull but nothing solid was growing except on the copper plate for the Single-Side-Band radio, which I scraped briefly. We then removed the outboard and lifted the dinghy onto the deck. I was not going to repeat the morning’s anxious passage and it looked as though we might be able to sail rather than motor the following day.

We left Fitzroy Island at 6:30 am and sailed most of the way (about 16 nm) even though our progress was quite slow at times in the lee of Cape Grafton. The other three boats started later but motor-sailed at a faster, steadier rate so that they all arrived long before us. They were all keen to get into their berths at the Marlin Marina before the afternoon winds increased. We arrived in the Trinity Inlet, across from the marina entrance, just before noon and were lucky to find a good anchoring spot just south of where we had anchored last year. It was well outside the shipping channel and clear of all the other moored and anchored vessels.

A bit later, Alice and Sol, friends of Anita and Mike on SV Tramp II, came by to say hello and see if they could fit into the area also, as they had been in our spot before going out to Fitzroy Island. We thought they could squeeze in but they were not comfortable with the tight space and eventually anchored quite a bit north of us. It was a shame that they no longer had the prime position but it was a lesson that there are not many good spots near the entrance. With a mixture of moored and anchored boats, motor vessels and sailing boats, monohulls and catamarans, every vessel swings differently in the changing tides and winds. Boats that look far apart under one set of conditions can swing in opposite directions, and suddenly be too close for comfort. We concluded that we should only leave this anchorage when we really needed to and accept we might have to anchor much further away when we returned. But now we are here, it is time to catch-up with online projects and, after a couple of days when the winds should decrease again, we will go ashore for shopping, etc.