Where Buoy Meets Gull - Whitsunday Adventure - Day 4

Friday’s adventures

Ow, ow, ow!  I guess one find’s out how REALLY out of shape one is when just steering a boat makes one ache all over!  Sigh.  Well, to my credit, it’s not EASY when you’re steering into the wind.   My other owie was when I went up top to stop the main halyard from clanging.  As I walked along the side of the coach house, I stubbed my toe hard on the block, and when I put my hand out to brace myself, my hand went right through the open cockpit window and scraped me all up!  Oh sob.  But I’m a tough old bird, so I’m not limping badly. 

I tell you, one thing we are not used to are the CROWDS of boats about!  After sailing in Fiji, Vanuatu, etc., we’re used to only a couple of boats one place at the same time, unless you’re at a dock.  But even when we were in Apia Harbour in Samoa, there were maybe 20 boats, and THAT was in the middle of tourist season during a FESTIVAL!  So when we bopped into Sid’s Harbour and found 45 boats there, it was quite unusual for us.  We did our best to not “park” too close to the others, but there’s only so much ocean, ya know.

Chris at the helm

So on Friday, we sailed down wind to Shoalhaven Bay, and two more whales on the way (or maybe they were the same ones.)  I’ve actually never been as close to a wild whale as I was today.   They didn’t do anything spectacular, though, so they didn’t take very nice photos.  Steering downwind is MUCH easier, so it wasn’t so hard on my weak muscles.  (Perhaps I should say my non-existent muscles).  We hit a patch of weird wind coming around the point.  Of course, Chris tells me over and over again that points are always the most dangerous.  This boat is not as stiff as Two By Sea, so she heels a lot more, and at one point we almost had our rails in the water, so we quickly dropped the mainsail and furled the jib.  The gusts were up to 25 knots, so that part was just a little bit hairy.  Once we dropped the sails, however, we were just using the motor, so the gusts didn’t bother us as much.  We had a funky little seagull hitch a ride on our dinghy for a mile or two.  He just let us do the work while he sat and watched us pull him along behind.  We’ve picked up a mooring here.  I don’t think we’re supposed to be here overnight, but we’re not moving, so hah!  Chris went in to do some snorkeling, but it was just a tad too cool for me.  The sun is lovely and warm, but the wind has quite a chill to it.  He said the coral was quite nice, and he saw some big coral trout.  For him, big means good!  He doesn’t care if the fish are colorful if they are tiny – they have to be big to make it a “good” spot! 

The gusts that we had while sailing continued through the night.  They are called “bullets” of wind and they were quite disturbing to our sleep – roaring through the coffin with noise and wind.  I had the strangest dreams – I guess because the bullets kept waking me up and interrupting my fantasies.  Once I dreamed that Whitsunday Rent-a-yacht was actually testing our vigilance by stealing stuff on deck and waiting to see if we noticed!  I woke up.  When I went back to sleep, I dreamed that same kind of thing AGAIN, and so the next time I woke up, I actually got out of bed and went up on deck to check.  But…it was all a dream. (haha)  Then I dreamed that I was playing poker and there were four jacks showing on the board, and I had one in my hand!   I woke up.   When I went back to sleep, I dreamed that we were looking for the famous treasure of an Irish hunchback dwarf.  I woke up.  When I went back to sleep, I dreamed that I WAS the Irish hunchback dwarf!  I woke up.  I finally built myself a little head tent out of pillows so the bullets wouldn’t wake me anymore. Chris was surprised when he woke up that he was using just one pillow and I had FOUR!