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GPS: 23 54.079S 152 24.381E

We woke to a breezy morning. After breakfast we went to explore the island. Had a nice walk around, saw several noddie birds.

We also came across some campers, a dad and two sons that had come all this way in their tinnie to camp for a week who had packed all their gear including gas cartridges but had forgot the gas cooker. The dad asked if we would happen to have one on board. We weren’t sure as we have thinned out a lot of stuff on Imagine but after exploring the island some more we came back to Imagine and Andrew found we did still have it onboard (a bit of rust on it but it should work ok).

We had come back via some of the reef but by that time wind had picked up again so we decided to leave the snorkeling today. The dad and his sons were coming out fishing and stopped to see if we had found the cooker, which we happily passed across in exchange for a fishing lure (they wanted to give us something). Later in the afternoon after they’d been fishing they came back and gave us a couple of fish which Andrew filleted and Robyn cooked up for tea tonight. Yum!

Andrew went up the mast to fix the light at the top that was working intermittently. Unfortunately the lovely neighbours despite seeing him there decided it would be a lot of fun to take their speedboat and a jet ski past at high speed creating much wake! After seeing Andrew having so much fun, Robyn decided she’d go up the mast too! I do have to put in the blog today that Karl and Andrew worked really hard on cleaning the boat ….. read that as they spent a small amount of time cleaning the windows and Robyn and I are still hearing about it !!! 

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GPS: 23 54.079S 152 24.381ERun: 250.3nm (453km)

Sailed overnight with variable wind to the point we had to bring the sails in and motor. Fred (auto helm) decided he’d had enough so packed it in early this morning. Whilst we could still steer manually, Andrew quickly did a temp fix and has done a more permanent fix today when he had some light.

This morning we had blue sky and a bit of cloud, wind was quite light still so although we sailed some we also motored some. We arrived at the entrance to Lady Musgrave early this morning, it is a very narrow entrance only about 100 feet wide (about 30 metres) and a squall passed through at the same time which made things even more interesting! Andrew went up the mast to guide us in and Robyn and Karl were also lookouts, letting Andrew know what they saw so he could feed instructions back to Sue on the helm.

Having navigated the narrow entrance, we then had to weave our way through the numerous bommies within the atoll. We found our way to a patch where we could anchor for the night. Andrew, Karl and Robyn took a dip in the clear aqua water and we all relaxed for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will go exploring the small island and do a bit of snorkelling. 

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On Thursday Robyn and Karl joined us and we left Brisbane for Moreton Island where we overnighted. Quite rolly! Met up briefly with Eileen (cousin), Mark, Helen and Albie. Eileen and Mark recently purchased a cat (Black Diamond) but have been unable to pick it up and sail it back to Weipa due to the covid19 travel restrictions. They are now sailing up from the Gold Coast and we hope to catch up with with them along the way.

Yesterday we set off early and headed up the coast. Weather was overcast and we ran into several squalls. As we were coming out of one of the squalls we were very surprised by a couple of large humpback whales as they breached either side of the boat. Sue almost shit herself because they were so close, but it was an amazing sight and we are all just happy that they came up either side of Imagine and not underneath! Shortly after that when the hearts had all settled down we were delighted by a small pod of dolphins frolicking around the bow of the boat.

On and off squalls all night gave us a wind range from 4 knots to 29 knots so we were constantly changing sails and 2am we gave up and motored for about 3 hours. Daybreak had brought catches of blue skies and no more squalls so far, though winds are still variable. Currently sailing along at average of 6 knots.

Another overnight sail tonight then hopefully to somewhere sheltered to anchor tomorrow.