Day 3 Cape Upstart to Magnetic Island

Today has been a very long day.  We awoke early this morning with Rhapsody rocking and rolling and a very strong wind blowing.  We came outside whilst still dark to find that the wind had increased significantly in the early hours and had changed direction so was now blowing into the bay.  We pulled up our anchor and headed out at 7.00am to find we had 26 knots of wind behind us, so decided to start our journey with just the headsail.  We had between 21-30 knots and a rolling sea which we were surfing.  It started out really well and we were averaging 7 knots of speed.  We then changed sails to the Screecher and our speed increased.  For the first 5 hours of sailing up to Cape Bowling Green the journey was quite exhilarating although the wind was quite cold.  The decision was made that it was not going to be safe to stop overnight at Cape Bowling Green and to carry on to Magnetic Island which was another 35 nautical miles on top of what we had already done.  As we changed direction slightly the wind and seas were now coming more side on and we were no longer surfing waves but taking them side on, so the rest of the journey was not particularly fun.  We were very happy to see Magnetic Island and the last 10 nautical miles seemed to take forever but by 4.30pm we were anchored in a lovely calm anchorage and now have two days of R&R to explore the island before heading around to Nelly Bay Marina on Friday.

Tonight all the participants on the Coral Coast Rally met on the beach at Horseshoe Bay for a few drinks and a barbecue.  All the crews discussed what an interesting day it had been and how much sail was used and who turned on engines and what speed each boat managed.  Everyone agreed it had been a long and interesting day. I am pretty sure everyone will sleep well tonight.

Not many photos today, time and energy was spent making sure we stayed upright and hanging on.