After filling up our water and fuel, we left the marina for Whitehaven Beach. The weather forecasts are predicting winds in the 20-25knot range and seas of 2m for the next couple of days.
We headed out of the marina, north to the end of Hamilton Island and then East through the rough Fitzalan Passage Past Fitzalan Island (which is a small tiny island) in the strait between Whitsunday Island and Hamilton Island. It was a choppy trip to Whitehaven and the wind was in the 20's.
We anchored off Whitehaven beach for the last time. We had difficulty, first so far in the voyage, getting the engine on the tender to start. It stopped half way to the beach (which was only 150m away from the boat), however it was by now quite windy and there was a slight current. Daddy was rowing to the beach when the plastic rowlock for the owe snapped. Luckly we were then able to get the engine to start. We then managed to anchor in the shallows.
We enjoyed our play on the beach. Nicholas had brought his nurf ball to throw, and Daddy, Mummy and Nicholas all joined in while Jasmine built a sand castle. Nicholas then helped Jasmine with the sand castle while Daddy swum and Mummy relaxed.
We couldn't stay long however as we needed to get south to Goldsmith Island by the night. We loaded up the boat, and after some trouble, got the engine started and back to the Yacht.
We upped anchor with no trouble and left Whitehaven beach for the narrow and rough passage between Whitsunday Island and Haslewood Island (to the East). There were strong tidal currents passing through. On the way north on the way to Whitehaven Beach there was little tidal flow, on this occasion the tide provided us with a boost south through the passage. We watched another yacht heading north past us struggling slowly against the current.
Once we left the relative shelter provided by Haslewood Island and Whitsunday Island we hit winds in the high 20's that then grew during the afternoon into the 30's. Waves were once again from two directions, South East (wind) and East. We headed south on our 26nm path towards the Lindeman Group to pass through the gap between Lindeman Island and Shaw Island (Shaw would provide some shelter for a small part of the trip as we headed along its Western edge) on our way to Goldsmith.
It was again rough and everyone was feeling sick as we approach Lindeman Island, although once behind Shaw Island, as predicted it was extremely pleasant, protected and extremely pretty. Unfortunately we had not had the time to explore Shaw Island, but it is definitely something to consider if there was the opportunity again.
We rounded the southern tip of Shaw for the 12nm direct trip to the Western side of Goldsmith into rough seas, 30 knot winds with gusts into the high 30's. The seas were now over 2m, the tide had turned and we were making slow going at only 5 knots. It was slow going and uncomfortable.
We arrived as darkness fell at the back of Goldsmith Island after a 5hour journey from Whitehaven Beach.
A quick shower, dinner and bed.
The latest forecasts from the bureau are for even worse conditions tomorrow and for them to deteriate even further in the following days.
The plan had been to spend one day at Goldsmith, however we will leave tomorrow morning as soon as we can. We can't risk being caught and missing the flights back to Sydney.