Onward to the Whitsundays

[Kyle]We decided that our next stop after Arch Cliffs (Fraser Island) would be Shaw Island in the Whitsunday Group (a 350nm passage to the north). We had a few reasons for this. Firstly, we had lost a lot of cruising time in the yard. Secondly we explored much of the intervening area the year before, so we didn't feel so much like we were missing out on that. Lastly, since we were now entering the edge of the trade wind zone, it would be a lot easier to get there than to get back. This would allow us the maximum time to wait out any weather windows for going back south.

Since Arch Cliffs is a very well spaced out anchorage with no tricky exit, I decided I wanted to leave without bringing the engines into the equation. Thus, we switched our usual roles. Maryanne took the helm and managed the sails while I manned the windlass as manual lever-pumper. Without the requirement to baby the engines by warming them up slowly, the sails filled and we were immediately zooming away from the beach. Since it was around the time that I usually go off watch when we are on multi-day passages and since Maryanne was already comfortably seated on our fancy new helm seat, I left her to it for the next few hours.

By the time she woke me, we were almost completely across Hervey Bay. My day-watch was not so productive. The wind died, as forecast, and I kept having to tell myself to be patient, it will return soon. I clocked eight miles to Maryanne's twenty-nine.

After I had been off watch for an hour or so, the wind finally showed up. I roused briefly to help Maryanne deploy the spinnaker and then went back to bed to sleep through the next forty miles. It went that way for the next two days with bright, cloudless days and nights that were fifty percent bright moonlight and fifty percent brilliant stars. Our ETA was now predicted to be in darkness, so we brought the spinnaker down and bagged it in exchange for a much more sedate run behind the full jib.

By my next night watch, I gradually reduced sail from the full jib to nothing at all. We were still going too fast to arrive in daylight, so I turned Begonia broadside to stop us completely. That worked perfectly, but makes for some boring watch keeping.

A mixed sail: Spinnaker to waterspouts, and we were entertained by the stars (not photographed), the sunsets and the dolphins - bliss

In a fit of industry to help keep myself awake, I decided to move our spinnaker bag from its temporary home under our cockpit table to its usual spot in our forward starboard berth. As I was making the last heave, I felt a very distinct and painful pop. That instantly transformed me from a relatively fit and healthy person to an almost complete invalid. I managed to make it through my watch, but when Maryanne saw the way I was crouching over the wheel, she immediately knew anything physical was going to be her job for the next few days.

She was a much better sport about it than I was. I felt terribly guilty and useless as I watched her do all of what were normally jobs that I do specifically to take the load off her.

We were kind of lucky on our first day at Shaw Island because it was uncharacteristically cold and drizzly. We had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on this passage, but we did not feel like we were in the tropics. That made it that much easier to have an easy, indoor day where my main task was to try to find a comfortable position while Maryanne did the rest.

When the weather did finally improve, I encouraged her to explore the island on her own while I stayed behind trying to resist the urge to do something that I thought was helpful, but was really going to screw up my back. I even had to miss out on a reunion with one of the other boats that had also written an article for the Go West magazine. We hadn't seen each other since arriving in Australia. Maryanne got to do that one on her own as well.

Exploring ashore at Shaw Island