East Double Bay

[Kyle]We released our mooring at Tongue Bay on Whitsunday Island just after sunrise and silently sailed away to the north. Within a few minutes, tour boats started coming around the headland from the other direction, all motoring into wind and chop. We recognized some of them from the day before when they had left. These boats take in a lot in their fourteen-hour day tours. Their crews must be exhausted. Maybe they nap while the guests are baking on the beach.

Not beholden to the same itineraries, we were enjoying a nice, leisurely, downwind sail. I couldn’t help but notice that all of the sailing tours who passed us going the other way were motoring with just enough sail up for effect. These were therefore motorboats flying a flogging sail who were required to give way to an actual sailboat being propelled by only sail. These were big tours with boats by professional Captains, who know the rule. None of them actually did this and we had to swerve out of the way each time. Maryanne conjectured that maybe they were assuming we were also under power, like they were, but half of the time, we were still the vessel to their starboard, which still makes us the stand-on vessel. The other half, we were passing head-on, which would require both of us to alter coarse to the right. We were the only ones to do this, while the tour boats plowed right through. I know you’re tired from all of the fifteen-hour days, buddy, but turn ten right, will ya?

Double Bay is ringed by pretty mountains, but has little in the way of other diversions, like trails or internet, so we thought it would be a good chance to get caught up on a few less interesting jobs (the bay to the south does have internet, but we were happy to do without). {Maryanne: Ashore is Drylander National Park, so we probably could find stuff to explore if we tried hard enough.}.

The first surprise one of these came when our windlass acted like it really didn’t want to do its job. It was sluggish and reluctant, and then started smoking (very bad). We had had the wiring replaced professionally during our recent haul out.

I decided I needed to take part of the first morning to troubleshoot and resolve the problem. After dismantling the boat to get access, and after replacing the controller box (we had a spare), we discovered the problem was a badly corroded section of ground wire buried well within a long length of conduit. After looking at it, it was a wonder any current had made it through. (It turned out the recent repair had replaced a different section of wiring - the assumed problem, rather than the section with the actual problem).

By the time I had removed the offending length of wire, spliced it back together and sealed it all up, the morning was long gone. By the time the tools were put away and the boat was returned to normal, it was time to start thinking about dinner. Well, I guess it’s one of those “one thing” days…

We were relieved to finally found the electrical problem with the windlass (and avoid a fire aboard)